Day 10: Pose and Keypoint Extraction

Goal

Understand pose/keypoint extraction in plain English.

Learn

• Pose extraction turns each frame into coordinates for named body parts. These named dots are keypoints.
• For sign language, useful keypoint groups often include shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, fingers, face, eyes, mouth, nose, and sometimes torso or feet.
• Tools such as DWPose, OpenPose, MediaPipe, and other estimators can produce keypoints, but each has its own strengths and failure modes.

Example

• A frame may store left shoulder, left elbow, left wrist, and 21 left-hand points. A hand point might include x, y, and confidence.
• If confidence drops during fast motion, the pose preview may show fingers jumping or disappearing.

Practice

1. On a sample image, mark shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingertips, eyes, nose, and mouth.
2. Write which points are most important for ASL clarity in that frame.

Checkpoint

Quality note