Instant Sign Language Recognition by WAR Strategy Algorithm Based Tuned Machine Learning

Abstract Sign language serves as the primary means of communication utilized by individuals with hearing and speech disabilities. However, the comprehension of sign language by those without disabilities poses a significant challenge, resulting in a notable disparity in communication across society. Despite the utilization of numerous effective Machine learning techniques, there remains a minor compromise between accuracy rate and computing time when it comes to sign language recognition. A novel sign language recognition system is presented in this paper with an exceptionally accurate and expeditious, which is developed upon the recently devised metaheuristic WAR Strategy optimization algorithm. Following the preprocessing, both of spatial and temporal features has been extracted using the Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Gray-level cooccurrence matrix (GLCM) methods. Afterward, the WAR Strategy optimization algorithm has been adopted in two procedures, first in optimizing the extracted set of features, and second to fine-tune the hyperparameters of six standard machine learning models in order to achieve precise and efficient sign language recognition. The proposed system was assessed on sign language datasets of different languages (American, Arabic, and Malaysian) containing numerous variations. The proposed system attained a recognition accuracy ranging from 93.11% to 100% by employing multiple optimized machine learning classifiers and training time of 0.038–10.48 s. As demonstrated by the experimental outcomes, the proposed system is exceptionally efficient regarding time, complexity, generalization, and accuracy.