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Finance: Global Financial Crisis, its aftermath and policy response
Published on Fri, 2018-10-26 18:34
The aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) which began in 2008 is still with us. The widespread macroeconomic downturn which followed the GFC's outbreak has been contained and growth of GDP has been restored, though not at rates which have repaired earlier losses.
The post-crisis reform agenda is still being put in place but without a consensus as to the relative importance of different causes for the GFC and thus as to the importance of the different reforms required.
The seriousness of the crisis in the autumn of 2008 had several manifestations. Global credit markets were no longer functioning. GDP in the United States was falling at an annual rate of nearly 7 per cent. The S&P index of US stock prices had fallen by 40 per cent.
The Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, in testimony to the US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, stated, "as a scholar of the Great Depression, I honestly believe that September and October of 2008 was the worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression. If you look at the firms that came under pressure ... out of 13 of the most important financial institutions in the United States, 12 were at risk of failure within a period of a week or two." [Russo TA and AJ Katzel (2011), The 2018 Financial Crisis and Its Aftermath: Addressing the Next Debt Challenge, Washington DC., Group of Thirty: 1911: 11].
The effects of the GFC were also experienced in Advanced Economies (AEs) other than the US. Following a recession in the GFC's immediate aftermath and weakly positive economic growth in 2010-2011 the Eurozone experienced six consecutive quarters of negative growth until the second quarter of 2013, and in the first quarter of 2016 GDP was still below the 2008 level in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Cyprus [Akyuz Y (2017), Playing with Fire: Deepened Financial Integration and Changing Vulnerabilities of the Global South, Oxford, Oxford University Press: 23-26].
The macroeconomic slowdown was accompanied by widespread weakness and failures amongst European banks. Emerging and Developing Economies (EDEs) were affected in more various ways. The downturn in AEs was not immediately associated with the corresponding movements in EDEs.
But the latter group of countries was eventually affected by unfavourable movements in commodity prices and capital inflows. Of a group of major EDEs only India achieved a growth of GDP in the period 2008-2017 higher than in 1998-2007 [Chandrasekhar CP and J. Ghosh (2018), "Did developing countries really recover from the Global Crisis?", Business Line, 16 July 2018 (available at www.networkideas.org/featured-articles/2018/07)].
The initial international policy response to the GFC came from the G20 in November 2008. The Washington Declaration stated that the G20 leaders had reached a common understanding of the root causes of the global crisis; had reviewed initiatives which countries could launch in a coordinated way; had agreed on principles for financial market reform; had created an action plan to implement those principles; and reaffirmed a commitment to free markets.
Important parts of the new agenda were assigned to the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a body containing all member countries of the G20 as well as representatives of major financial and regulatory institutions.
The FSB's responsibilities were to include providing early warnings of macroeconomic and financial risks and reshaping regulatory regimes. In January 2010, the FSB published a Framework for Strengthening Adherence to International Standards.
Here it stated that FSB member jurisdictions had undertaken the following commitments: (1) to undergo an assessment under the IMF-World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Program every five years; (2) to disclose the extent of their adherence to international standards; and (3) to submit themselves to periodic peer reviews.
As will be described in more detail in a moment, the FSB has since launched and coordinated initiatives regarding best practices and harmonization of financial regulation. The agenda of the FSB has to a significant extent shaped the policy response to the GFC regarding financial regulation and governance.
Banks' financial positions and Basel Capital Accord
Observers were in agreement that the major features of the GFC in the banks of the principal AEs were excessive leverage and inadequate provisions of liquidity.
Leverage is a measure of financial institutions' exposure to risks in relation to protective layers of capital. The exposure consists not only of straightforward instruments like loans but also of derivatives and several financial services.
Liquidity refers to the ability of financial institutions to meet financial obligations as they fall due. Satisfactory liquidity denotes sufficient cash for this purpose from different sources.
Excessive leverage leaves financial institutions vulnerable to weakening of profitability and to zero levels of capital in the face of widespread defaulting.
These two processes call into question their capacity to attract deposits and commercial funding, and thus also their liquidity positions.
Thus unsurprisingly, a central role in the international agenda of financial reform is played by standards for banks for reduced leverage and improved liquidity management together with strengthened regulation and infrastructure for their operations.
The most important standards for this purpose are contained in the successive versions of the Basel Capital Accord, which has gone by the official titles of Basel I, Basel II and Basel III. These are parallelled by corresponding directives and regulations of the European Union.
The Basel capital framework is designed to control banking risks through requirements for capital levels and liquidity management combined with improved internal risk controls.
There are four key categories of risk in the Basel capital framework: credit risk resulting from the failure of borrowers or other parties to meet payments due to the bank; market risk due to losses arising from changes in market prices; liquidity risk due to bank's inability to meet financial obligations promptly; and operational risk due to losses resulting from failures of banks' internal systems and procedures or to external causes such as legal rulings, government actions, natural disasters, or criminal activity.
A bank's capital serves as a buffer against unidentified or unexpected losses.
Capital consists of equity and other financial instruments with the property of being available to support the bank in times of crisis through reducing the probability of insolvency.
The Basel capital framework initially addressed primarily credit risk. However, owing to developments in the financial markets and in banking operations, there was an extension of its scope from 1996 onwards - firstly to market or trading risk and then to operational and liquidity risk.
The initial versions of the capital framework had two principal objectives. One was microprudential, namely to help to ensure the strength and soundness of individual banks - and thus only indirectly of the banking systems of which they are a part.
The other was to help to equalise cross-border competition between banks (provide "a level playing field") by eliminating competitive advantages due to differences among countries in their regimes for capital adequacy.
Since the initiation of Basel III, the objectives of the capital framework now incorporate a macroprudential dimension.
This reflects more explicit acknowledgement than previously amongst regulators and other policymakers that many of the risks to banks targeted by regulation in crisis situations can spill over into risks affecting several institutions and thus threaten the essential functions of the financial system such as payments, lending and deposit-taking.
The 1988 edition of the Basel capital framework, Basel I, was originally designed for internationally active banks in the countries of the G10 (a group of AEs originally formed to assure that members would have access to IMF resources adequate to meet their needs for market intervention following liberalisation of controls over capital movements).
However, by the second half of the 1990s it had become a global standard and had been incorporated into the prudential regimes of more than 100 countries.
This was a source of problems in both the design and implementation of the framework since the rules apply, inter alia, to cross-border banks with constituent entities in several jurisdictions often subject to regulatory systems reflecting the different histories and different levels of financial sophistication of the countries involved.
Basel I became the subject of increasingly widespread dissatisfaction owing to its crude calibration of credit risks and to the growing importance of practices such as securitization as well as of new financial instruments such as derivatives and securitised assets, for which its rules were not well adapted.
Thus, a decision was taken to initiate what proved to be the much lengthier than anticipated process of drafting successor agreements. The first of the series of successors, Basel II, became available in 2004 [Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) (2006), International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards: A Revised Framework, Basel, Bank for International Settlements].
Basel II consisted of three Pillars in a framework which has been retained in Basel III. Under Pillar 1, minimum regulatory capital requirements for credit risk are calculated according to two alternative approaches, the Standardised (based on externally determined indicators) and the Internal Ratings-Based (based to varying degrees on banks' own rating systems).
Pillars 2 and 3 of Basel II were concerned with supervisory review of capital adequacy and with the achievement of discipline in banks' risk management through disclosure to investors.
Partly on the basis of Quantitative Impact Studies of Basel II on banks' financial position, regulators in different countries became concerned that levels of capital under Basel II were not going to be sufficient. This concern was accentuated by the stress on banks evident since the outbreak of the GFC.
The initial resulting revision of Basel II, dubbed Basel II.5, concerned the rules for the market risk of exposures in the trading book. Since revision of the rules for the trading book is not yet completed, I shall not cover these rules here.
Agreement on major changes to the Basel II rules for the banking book followed in September 2010 (with a revised version in June 2011) [BCBS (2011), A Global Regulatory Framework for More Resilient Banks and Banking Systems; Basel, Bank for International Settlements, June].
The revised rules, now called Basel III, incorporate much of Basel II. But they have also been extended and changed.
* Basel III contains more stringent rules for the categories of financial instrument which are eligible for inclusion in different categories of minimum required regulatory capital.
* The capital is to include a conservation buffer. This consists of equity and is intended to absorb losses during periods of economic and financial stress.
* National authorities may also impose a countercyclical capital buffer as a way of countering rapid credit growth. This can be relaxed during periods of stress. The countercyclical buffer is intended to achieve the macroprudential goal of protecting the banking sector from periods of excess credit growth which can trigger economy-wide financial crises.
* For global systemically important banks (GSIBs), there is an additional capital charge in the range of 1 to 3.5 per cent. The capital surcharge for GSIBs also is to serve the objective of macroprudential stability.
* Moreover, GSIBs are to be subject to additional rules on absorption capacity, another extension of the capital framework designed to cover macroprudential risks. These rules specify Total Loss Absorption Capacity (TLAC) in the form of 16-20 per cent of a bank's risk-weighted assets. TLAC will consist of instruments meeting certain conditions as to their capacity for absorbing losses. The instruments will include some - but not all - of those which count towards Basel III capital minima. The rules are designed to facilitate the resolution of GSIBs during the process following insolvency, minimising the resulting costs to governments and to taxpayers.
* The correlation parameter in the formula for risk-weighted assets in the estimates of exposures to credit risk is now to be multiplied by the factor 1.25 (Asset Value Correlation/AVC multiplier) for selected large regulated financial institutions and for all unregulated financial institutions whose main business is in certain specified activities.
* As already mentioned, Basel III now includes rules for the management of banks' liquidity risk. It also includes overall restrictions on the leverage of banks' balance sheets in the form of limits on the ratio of common equity Tier 1 capital to the accounting measure of their exposures. There is a supplement to the leverage ratio for GSIBs. The leverage ratio is intended to be a non-risk based backstop measure, the need for which was indicated by banks' build-up of excessive leverage while still showing strong risk-based capital ratios.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the body responsible for developing the capital standards, announced at the end of 2017 that Basel III was now complete.
However, this is questionable. The final capital standards for market risk have not yet been issued. There are indications that the standards for banks' exposures to sovereign risk (still not subject to minimum risk weights in the Internal Ratings Approach) are still being re-thought and may yet be the subject of further revisions.
And regulators are apparently still debating whether to include Pillar 1 capital standards for interest-rate risk in the banking book.
Revisions of the standards for the credit risk of securitised assets issued in July 2016 were not incorporated in the text of Basel III of December 2017, though this may be a drafting rather than a substantive matter.
Securitized assets are pools of financial assets, which are individually illiquid but after aggregation become marketable securities.
Securitized assets, particularly pools consisting of packaged mortgages, have often been of questionable quality. They played an important role in the illiquidity and insolvency of major parts of the banking sectors in the United States and Europe during the GFC.
The revisions to the framework for such assets published in July 2016 were designed to eliminate shortcomings highlighted by the GFC as follows: they seek to reduce mechanistic reliance on often misleading external credit ratings; they increase risk weights for highly-rated risk exposures and reduce risk weights for low-rated senior securitisation exposures; and more generally, they are designed to enhance the framework's risk sensitivity [BCBS (2016), Basel III document, Revisions to the Securitisation Framework, Basel, Bank for International Settlements, July].
The Basel Capital Accord has been the subject of much criticism even by those who believe that strengthened capital standards are an essential part of the post-GFC reform agenda.
On the one hand, the banking lobby would like to limit the stringency of the new standards, arguing that they have an unfavourable effect on banks' capacity to finance higher economic growth (an argument lacking proof).
On the other hand, several experts, including some US regulators, think that the prescribed increases in capital are insufficient.
Other measures of the reform agenda
The reform agenda is not of course limited to banks' capital and their liquidity management. For example, the FSB vets progress on the convergence of accounting standards in accordance with the G20 objective of the eventual achievement of a single set of high-quality accounting standards.
The FSB is responsible for oversight of reform of Over-The-Counter (OTC) derivatives markets (in other words, those not exchange-traded), which includes estimates of the extent to which such derivatives are being centrally cleared and reported to trade repositories.
It provides support for the introduction of the global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) system, a standardized system to identify institutions across the globe.
It has developed oversight and reporting on shadow banks, financial institutions which hold assets of a total amount similar to those of the rest of the financial sector and which have many features of, as well as interactions with, banks but are not inside the normal regulatory perimeter.
It has organised a review to enable less regulatory reliance on the ratings of credit rating agencies. And it has undertaken the development of a resolution regime for insolvent global systemically important financial institutions.
But many would argue that a major weakness of the FSB's coverage so far is the absence from it of macroeconomic policies concerning subjects such as controls over capital movements and foreign-exchange markets despite the inclusion in its mandate of the monitoring of macroeconomic risks.
Criticisms and shortcomings of international regulatory agenda
Generally, the view has been expressed that the international regulatory agenda has given excessive emphasis to reforming the traditional prudential framework for banks and to strengthening the infrastructure within which financial transactions are carried out to the exclusion of other issues with an important bearing on financial stability.
Financial crises are usually linked to both domestic macroeconomic developments and to shocks due to cross-border capital movements.
The severity of such crises is also likely to reflect breakdowns of internal risk management in the banking sector.
Thus, policies dealing with external financing are an integral part of governments' armouries of financial policies. And the size, structure and complexity of financial institutions, which can reduce the effectiveness of internal controls - perhaps especially in the case of large banks -, also belong to any comprehensive agenda of regulatory reform. This is true of banks in AEs and EDEs.
The vulnerability of banks and other financial institutions to cross-border financial shocks means that the regulatory agenda cannot be considered in abstraction from policies concerning the exchange rate and the management of foreign reserves and from controls over capital transactions.
The first two subjects are in fact part of the agenda for the prevention and controlling of financial crises, though not necessarily with proper acknowledgement of their limitations and of the links of cross-border finance to the stability of a country's banks and other financial institutions.
Capital controls have now been accepted by orthodox policymakers as a legitimate policy for maintaining financial stability but only on a market-friendly and temporary basis.
The alternative view concerning such controls is that in a world characterised by high degrees of integration of domestic and global capital markets, where large capital movements are increasingly normal, there are strong arguments in favour of active long-term management of a country's capital account and abandonment of liberalisation as the eventual objective of policy.
This view has many supporters - including the writer - but lacks official endorsement.
There have been steps in European countries towards structural reforms of the banking sector, in particular in the form of separation of banks' retail from their other activities. But these have met resistance from the banking lobby and have so far been limited.
Concentration and firm size in the banking sector would not be likely to command consensus among member countries as legitimate subjects for policy guidance in the FSB. This seems unlikely to change. Indeed, mergers of weak with stronger institutions, and thus bigger institutions and greater concentration in the banking sector, have actually been part of the policy response in some AEs to the GFC.
Another important observation is that the focus of the reform agenda is not truly global. As explained above, the agenda was drawn up by the FSB in response to a mandate from the G20. Thus, it is not surprising that the perspective of its standards is frequently that of AEs and EDEs with relatively advanced financial sectors.
This has meant little attention, for example, to countries' supervisory capacity, limitations of which can pose serious problems with regard to implementation of international banking standards.
Moreover, since about 2013, reports of the work of the BCBS indicate that much of it has concerned highly technical issues affecting the rules for measuring credit and market risks for banks in the principal AEs.
Under market risks, for example, supervisory approval for use of a bank's models for measurement now applies at the micro-institutional level of each of a bank's trading desks rather than at a bank-wide level.
As is acknowledged by the BCBS (Coen, 2018**), there appear to have been voices even within the regulatory community which have questioned whether the rules adequately balance simplicity, comparability and risk sensitivity.
[** Coen W (2018), "The market risk framework: 25 years in the making", Keynote speech at the ISDA Annual General Meeting by the Secretary-General of the BCBS, April.]
Compatibility of the reform agenda with GATS rules
Major parts of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) which bear on financial regulation are Article VII (recognition of standards), Article XII (restrictions to safeguard the balance of payments), Articles XVI and XVII (specific commitments as to market access and national treatment), and the Annex on Financial Services, paragraph 2(a) (accommodation of prudential measures including those in possible conflict with other provisions of the GATS).
The most important of these articles from the point of the reform agenda and related actions taken by countries in the aftermath of the GFC are probably paragraph 2(a) of the Annex on Financial Services (often referred to as the "prudential carve-out") and Article XII.
In financial crises, these two provisions may need to be read in conjunction with each other.
The practical scope of the prudential carve-out's permission for "measures for prudential reasons... or to ensure the integrity and stability of the financial system" is qualified since such measures also "shall not be used as a means of avoiding the Member's commitments or obligations under the Agreement".
The apparent ambiguity has led many critics to argue that there should be redrafting to achieve greater clarity. But this has not been granted.
The acceptance of restrictions to safeguard the balance of payments is designed for periods of severe balance- of-payments stress and is subject to various conditions such as not exceeding those necessary to deal with the balance-of-payments stress and being temporary.
Some flexibility is introduced by the phrase "Members may give priority to the supply of services which are more essential to their economic or development programmes". But the scope of this flexibility is not clear.
The combination of Article XII and the prudential carve-out would probably serve to justify the imposition of capital controls in a crisis combining balance-of-payments stress and the risk of widespread insolvencies among banks.
But the problem with the approach of Article XII is that, probably partly because it was negotiated before experience of recent major incidents of financial instability beginning with the Asian crisis in 1997, it accommodates only temporary capital controls and not longer-term ones which the governments involved might believe to be required, let alone the use of management of the capital account as a more permanent measure for the prevention and control of financial crises which, as mentioned above, has been advocated by some critics of current approaches.
Since work began on the post-GFC repair of the regulatory regime for financial institutions and markets, new challenges for international financial regulation have arisen. Some are the result of technological innovations capable of radically altering financial transactions.
Others concern the response of the financial sector to environmental problems.
These are of interest not only in themselves but also for what they indicate concerning the adaptability to changing conditions of international rules and standards for trade in financial services.
Banking and other financial operations have in recent years been radically affected by opportunities provided by advances in computer technology.
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) (often treated as a synonym of blockchain technology, though the latter is in fact simply one type of DLT) is an example that has recently been much discussed in the news [Mills D et al. (2016), "Distributed ledger technology in payments, clearing, and settlement", Washington DC, Federal Reserve Board].
DLT has many actual and potential applications, including for the transmission of messages and for payments, clearing and settlement (PCS). Under the latter heading, there is already widespread recognition of DLT's utility in trade finance owing to the reduction in the number of intermediaries required and thus in costs associated with traditional trade finance transactions [BIS (2018), Annual Economic Report, Basel, Bank for International Settlements, June: 106].
DLT for these purposes does not seem to require alterations in the framework of financial regulation or in the coverage of GATS rules. In countries' schedules of GATS commitments, for example, the role of DLT would presumably be included explicitly under PCS or under some other denomination for the same activities.
There is no reason to expect that regulation of these activities would pose a special issue under the heading of National Treatment.
The environment may prove to be a source of more open-ended problems for both management and regulation in the financial sector. Awareness of these problems is increasing among financial institutions and investors.
For example, a survey of banks conducted by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in 2016 found the following: 75 per cent tracked developments and market demands/expectations related to sustainable trade and sustainable trade finance; 65 per cent were implementing (or considering implementing) more stringent environmental and social criteria in respect of trade finance transactions; and 55 per cent had rejected trade finance transactions due to internal or external environmental policies [ICC (2016), Rethinking Trade and Finance, ICC Banking Commission].
The ICC has identified three areas where banks can - and presumably should - take action: bank-client engagement which involves integrating considerations of sustainability risk into due-diligence processes and other aspects of the relationship; into risk screening of trade finance from a sustainability point of view; and into pricing practices by banks which reward better sustainability.
Much of the FSB's work in this area has involved promotion among non-financial as well as financial companies of fuller disclosures concerning their practices with relation to climate-related issues.
Government environmental policy involving financial firms has not yet had major implications for the regulatory regimes under which the firms operate, including GATS rules.
However, this may change in the not-too-distant future if forecasts concerning the drastic effects of climate change prove to be reasonably accurate. These effects may trigger political and social innovation which include a retreat from liberalisation of international trade in banking services. Article XIV of the GATS accommodates measures "necessary to protect human, animal, or plant life or health".
The Decision on Trade in Services and the Environment adopted by the Trade Negotiations Committee in December 1993 endorses Article XIV and mandates the Committee on Trade and Environment "to examine and report, with recommendations, if any, on the relationship between services trade and the environment including the issue of sustainable development".
This is impeccable as far as it goes but may need to be extended and strengthened when some of the environmental threats forecast actually materialise.
By Andrew Cornford, Geneva. Andrew Cornford, with the Observatoire de la Finance in Geneva, contributed this comment based on his remarks at a panel session at the WTO Public Forum last week.]
Source: SUNS - South North Development Monitor, SUNS #8772 Friday 12 October 2018.
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Battle escalates over Obama rule for contraception coverage at Catholic institutions
By Dan Gilgoff and Lesa Jansen, CNN
(CNN) - The battle over a new White House policy compelling Catholic institutions to cover contraception in health insurance plans continues to escalate, with Republican presidential candidates denouncing the rule, liberal groups spotlighting Catholic support for contraception, and the Obama administration vowing to confront religious concerns head on.
"The president's interest is in making sure that … all women here have access to the same preventive care services," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday.
"He is also concerned about and understands the religious concerns that have been raised," Carney said, stressing that the White House would work to see if "the implementation of the policy can be done in a way that allays some of those concerns."
Earlier Tuesday, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, David Axelrod, signaled that the president might be open to compromise on the issue.
"We certainly don't want to abridge anyone's religious freedoms," Axelrod said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," "so we're going to look for a way to move forward that both provides women with the preventative care that they need and respects the prerogatives of religious institutions."
But the dispute - spurred by a late January announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services that all employers, including Catholic hospitals and schools, will be required to offer free access to FDA-approved contraceptives like the birth control pill and Plan B (the so-called morning-after pill) through health insurance plans - shows no signs of dying down.
"Implementing the policy as is and allaying the concerns are mutually exclusive," Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Tuesday. "If they want to allay concerns, they need to change the policy. Nothing less will do."
Churches are exempt from the policy, which goes into effect August 1, and religious institutions that oppose contraception have been given a yearlong extension to comply.
The Roman Catholic Church, which opposes the use of contraception, continued Tuesday to signal that it is intent on resisting the new policy.
"The bishops aren't going to stop until this is fixed, and that means pursuing every legal means available to them to fix it," Picarello said.
The flap was thrust further into the national political spotlight on Tuesday, as Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum attacked the new rule in his victory speech on a night that he swept primaries and caucuses in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.
The administration had told American Catholics that "you have a right to health care, but you will have the health care that we tell you you have to give your people, whether it's against the teachings of your church or not," Santorum said in his Missouri speech.
"I never thought, as a first-generation American, whose parents and grandparents loved freedom and came here because they didn't want the government telling them what to believe and how to believe … that we'd have a president of the United States who would roll over that and impose his secular values on the people of this country."
His GOP rival Mitt Romney has continually denounced the Health and Human Services rule in recent weeks.
Speaking in Loveland, Colorado, on Tuesday, Romney said the rule was "in violation of the religious conscience of (Catholic) organizations."
"This kind of assault on religion will end if I am president of the United States," he said.
A survey released Tuesday by the Public Religion Research Institute found that Catholics are divided over whether religious colleges and hospitals should have to provide employees with health insurance that covers birth control at no cost. Forty-five percent of Catholic voters support such a requirement, while 52% oppose it.
"Given how closely divided Catholic voters are over the requirement that religiously affiliated hospitals and colleges provide employees with health care plans that cover contraception," said Daniel Cox, research director at the Public Religion Research Institute, "it seems unlikely that this issue will galvanize Catholics nationally and seriously undermine Obama's electoral prospects with this important religious constituency."
Planned Parenthood also released a survey on the rule Tuesday; it found that 53% of Catholics think that women employed by Catholic hospitals and universities should have the same rights to contraceptive coverage as other women.
"The message to Democrats is that this is something all women deserve to have and that religion just shouldn't be an issue with it," said Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling, which conducted the survey for Planned Parenthood.
Over the past two weekends, the American Catholic hierarchy has distributed letters harshly condemning the Health and Human Services policy to be read at parishes nationwide during Mass.
"We cannot – we will not – comply with this unjust law," Kansas City, Kansas, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann wrote in a letter to parishes last weekend. "Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help rebuild America's cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God-given rights."
The rule has also drawn the ire of some influential evangelicals. "I'm not a Catholic but I stand in 100% solidarity with my brothers & sisters to practice their belief against govt pressure," influential California-based pastor Rick Warren said in a tweet Tuesday night.
"I'd go to jail rather than cave in to a govement mandate that violates what God commands us to do," Warren tweeted in a separate message. "Would you?"
- CNN's Brianna Keilar contributed to this report.
Dan Gilgoff - CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor
Filed under: Catholic Church • Politics
Next entry »White House offers an olive branch to Catholic voters?
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Valerie Terzi
I read these comments and wonder if the average person even understands the true concern with this mandate. Everyone has an opinion about birth control, but the issue isn't really about birth control as much as it is about the government trying to strip away our religious freedom. It wouldn't matter what the mandate was about, the fact is that for the first time in American history, the government is forcing religions to go against it's own faith. Try to think in those terms, then you'll see why so many Democrats like myself will never vote for a politician that thinks nothing of stepping on religious freedom.
Melodramatic, much?
Carol123456
No that is not it. If an organization hires people from the general public, then it isn't right that they should be denied basic healthcare measures. This is discrimination against women. Period.
notfromtheisland
You are 100% correct. This is really about the over-reach of the govt into our lives. But that is the CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN! Obama said he wanted to fundamentally transformed the country. I guess we now know exactly what that means.
Nobody is attacking beliefs at all. They are asking that if you hire from the secular public and serve the secular public that you offer health insurance covering legal health options. If you don't believe in it then don't utilize those benefits. No change of belief needed to put fair and equal health coverage in place.
Christianity Sux
Government is not going against religious freedom. It's the religious groups intruding into commercial activities. Why is a religious organization running a school or a hospital. Those are commercial activities and if a religious organization is doing those things, they should be expected to follow the laws applicable to those businesses
I agree with you. Regardless of what the topic is, everyone should be concerned at the level of intrusion this administration is demonstrating.
For those of you who claim this ruling isn't making the church act against it's faith and the church shouldn't hire secular individuals, how many lawsuits do you think would be initiated if the church didn't hire someone because they weren't Catholic? Also, this ruling is making the church fund that which is against it's faith and values. Imagine the uproar if an atheist organization was forced to fund a Bible study......
bspurloc
religious freedom? so what u r saying is ALL employees of the christian taliban church are ONLY christian taliban? or r u saying if they employee a jew that the christian taliban beliefs are forced onto that employee?
just take the usual stance on such things... IF the employee opts to buy contraceptives declare them a heretic hang and burn them like good ole times
Next thing you know, they will claim paying taxes violates their religious freedom.
Wrong again. What did you think of the 28 states that already implented this mandate at the state level years ago. Aren't they government too?
@Valerie Terzi-
No, they don't understand it. I am sure they just see it as the church complaining and then more attacks on the church for how dare they complain and Obama is awesome,
Yes I do understand precisely what it is about.
I think that an organization that believes women are not fit to be priests, and that any man who sleeps with a woman is fit to be a priest, is NOT an organization that should be dictating health plans for women!
Hurray for Obama!
Nobody is dictating any health plans to anyone, get off your rocker you liberal hippie feminist.
when 47% of your devout followers say u r wrong then u have a problem..... just tar and feather those 47% they will fall inline eh mate
nothing new here
Hey RCC, MY taxes should not go to supporting your religious organization.
Better yet, how about you guys paying some taxes for once?
What of your taxes go to Catholic organizations?
Is the RCC going to sue everybody in the United States that refuses to become Catholic?
urafkntool
LOL wow.. got a lot of sensitive people here, likely doing as much wrong as they can, and feeling subconscious guilt because someone's pointing it out.. don't hate the messenger. Hate yourselves for having lives that suck.
Go tell that to the RCC.
They want to hide their child-molesters and be above the laws of this land.
Tht's funny, because according to everyone else in the world, they turned "their" child molesters in a long time ago.
That's adorable! Tell us more. You're so faux-jaded and judgmental! I love your assumptions! It's so great to run into a true paragon of morals such as yourself. I hope I'm half as awesome as you someday. Are you in your 60's? Are you a shut in?
bat46man
I'm guessing the Cathlic Church is OK with their PRIEST FONDLING LITTLE BOYS, but GOD forbid them to offer FREE Birth Control to their NON Catoholic Employees.... What a bunch of stupid asswholes!!!!!!!
Nice deflection. It still doesn't negate the fact that the RCC has religious beliefs and is being FORCED by the government to go against them. If you aren't outrage, you're not awake.
Nice deflection. It still doesn't negate the fact that the RCC has religious beliefs and is being FORCED by the government to go against them. If you aren't outraged, you're not awake.
You do realize more pedophilia happens within the family or close friends of the family as opposed to the church, right.
So, the RCC wants to spend $$$$ to sue the government?
Doesn't the RCC have any morals?
They would rather spend this $$$$ on attorneys and court costs, instead of helping the poor and marginalized.
I had lost a lot of respect for the RCC when the pedophilia accusations came into the open. But now the RCC wants to sue everybody that doesn't adhere to their religious beliefs.
Do you believe in the separation of church and state?
If yes, then your comment is null and void.
The Catholic Church is the most charitable organization in the ENTIRE world. Has been for over 2000 years. Get your facts straight.
frank burnsf
The Church leaders are lying through their teeth - but what else do church leaders do? They want to limit health insurance in ways that conform to their beliefs, even though their worker's beliefs could be different. Catholic workers don't need to use that insurance for contraception if they don't want to. The bishops, with their delicate consciences are in the same boat as if they paid cash to their workers, and the workers used that cash to buy contraception. In other words, if they can give cash, and the worker decides, they can give unlimited insurance, and the worker decides. This is all about the bishops (a bunch of celibate old men - "celibate" if you don't count involvements with altar boys) trying to force other people's health decisions, and then blowing the thing way out of proportion. Shame on them.
dj98
OK! No contraception in health insurance plans, No tax breaks! Make your choice!
You didn't go far enough 1. No fed. money to hospitals ran by churches. 2. No medicare, or madicad money allowed to be used in these hospitals anyone on federal health would go to a differant hospital. Tje church wants to control womens bodies, but refuse to control priests.
BReal
AMEN!! I am tired of people trying to have it both ways!!
I Love Jesus; I hate religion!
@jack johnson–
Ok then if you are in an accident or you need a hospital, do not go to a Catholic one, ensure you find one not run by any religious org at all. The fed tax dollars, if or however much goes to hospitals run by Catholics benefits everyone that attends that hospital. So you are then saying ONLY Catholics can use those hospitals no one else so if you are not Catholic you need to find a different hospital even if it is maybe 20 miles away.
No please ...
So if a woman goes to her doctor, and needs hormones for any of the other reasons they use them, and works for a CA inti'tution, they don't have to cover ANY hormones ? How exactly are they gonna know what they are RX'd for ?
My religious beliefs say I must kill my daughter if she dishonors the family. Obama won't let me follow my religious beliefs.
Bootyfunk
hahaha, i love it. you have to force the catholic church to do the right thing. always.
urfknstupid
I find it sad that women can't do the right thing and stop being wh0res.
momoya
Trollers gonna troll.
how am I trolling? Back in the 50's we didn't need this garbage. People had morals and values, not like today.
Tool...lame attempt at trolling.
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
I find it sad you were born stupid.
yes, people had lots of morals. like black people couldn't vote or marry a white person. the 50s were great... if you were a straight, white, christian male. that's it. if you don't fit into that mold, the 50s weren't that awesome. but i bet you'd fit right in there.
and stop being dumb. you're obviously h_o_mophobic to the extreme. and you really, really hate women.
with stupid wh0res like you and h-o-e-h-o-e running around, who wouldn't hate women? And yes, people had actual morals and values. I find nothing bad about the things mentioned, either. Those are.. oh yeah, morals and values. Why in the h-e-l-l would a white person want to marry a smelly, poo flinging chimp anyway? Want wildlife? go to a zoo.
I agree, no one would want a poo-flinging chimp like you, tool.
urfknstupid's mom
HONEY, IT'S TIME TO STOP PLAYING ON THE COMPUTER AND DO YOUR HOMEWORK. I WANT YOU TO REALLY WORK HARD THIS YEAR SO YOU DON'T END UP IN THE REMEDIAL CLASSES AGAIN, WE ALREADY HELD YOU BACK A WHOLE GRADE.
God, could you idiots get a little more f-u-c-k-i-n-g cliche'd? Same old s-h-i-t every day. Think of some new material!
We're just desperate for more of your truth. Help us be original by convincing us to backslide to the dark ages you live in! That would be great. You must be very popular with your friends and family!
wow...I never thought of it that way before...i'm going home and tell my wife i', just trying to 'give her a gift'. lololololol fing jokester
@Seriously: I don't particularily believe in "God". I just live life day to day like most people.
@urfknstupid:"how am I trolling? Back in the 50's we didn't need this garbage. People had morals and values, not like today."
No they didn't. The girls just went to "visit out of state relatives" for 9 months. Often returning home just in time for her mom to present "mom's" new child to the neighbors
Live your life like most people? Really? You don't get out often, then, because most people don't behave like you or share your views. I kind of doubt they are your views, actually; you're the worst kind of wh0re. The attention seeking kind.
And most people who graduated from 8th grade know that "cliched" doesn't have an apostrophe but an accent. Of course, morons like you are so clueless they think using a word like "cliched", even if they don't know what it means, is SPECIAL.
So free abortions, free birth control pill, free condoms, free STD testing, free HPV injections for 9 year olds. I guess if Obama is gonna shove it down the troats of Catholics it is only right to provide these freebees. Their going to need em.
Exactly how is dragging Catholics into the "safe $ex" illusion any different than Santorum making Tom Tom attend church on Sundays ?
if women weren't such wh0res they wouldn't need contraception or abortion, now would they?
idk, try keeping your dick in, troll...
You do know that married women use contraception, don't you? No, of course you don't. You're 12.
of course men have NOTHING to do with it
@urafkntool, You know you are a great argument in favor of abortion
speak the truth and the ad hominem trolls come out. how.. well, not unusual on cnn's liberal blog.
It's so cute! It's decided it's speaking the truth and no one else can handle it! Aw, we all wish we could just pinch your little prepubescent cave-dweller cheeks.
Why didn't you address the statement about married women, you ball-less wonder? Did you know that statistics show that almost EVERY woman in the US uses contraception at some point in her life?
That shouldn't be a surprise. After all, wouldn't most women want to prevent spawning a moron like you?
Married women using contraception are violating their marriage vows. They are required to give their husband an heir. "Love, honor, and cherish" does not mean wasting his time in bed at night, or wasting the gift of life he is attempting to give.
What a hunk of burning love you are! Have you forced your wife to give you heirs yet, as is her duty?? Do you keep her chained to the bed?? I heard that women are like screen doors, you have to bang them a few times to loosen them up! Tell us more!
Waste his time in bed at night? How about nooners, is it ok to waste his time then? Then, wait...GIFT? Haha you wish you had a gift. By this logic, then, guys with ED are pointless, so...is it ok if the church pays for viagra so he can give his gift?
@seriously: IF it's your business, we tried to. She had a miscarriage. And there's no "faux jading". I do hate women. Except my wife. Everyoen else as far as I'm concerned is a trashy wh0re. Period.
It's too bad she wasted your time in bed at night...God has just simply decided you should not have children because you're so full of hate. Make sure and keep calling people wh0res whenever you can, though, that'll get you far!
Where in your marriage vows did you find that, honey? Please, you're not even an effective troll; what kind of husband or father would a twelve-year-old moron be? Lucky you haven't managed to have s3x with anything but your sister's undies.
No one is THAT stupid. What happens AFTER the heir is provided ? 20 more ? OMG. There is a law about being THAT dumb.
@H-o-e-h-o-e: I'm going to laugh when you get r-a-p-e-d by gangs of n-i-g-g-e-r-s in the near future. That's the sort of thing that should happen to mouthy s-l-u-t-s like you. Women need to remember to keep their mouths shut.
Retard
You should have been aborted
Obama is stupid.
I'm stupid. I wish 'tool would cornhole me sideways.
he dreams about just that, day and night.
'tool's so stupid he tried to drown a fish..
hey a new game...
'tool's so stupid he invented a solar flashlight!
Nonimus
I don't really think the issue is whether or not the CC should provide this coverage, or even what supposed rights individuals have to what health care coverage *they are offered,* but what right does the Federal government have to dictate what kind of coverage is offered to employees.
Although, I guess that is the essence of the fight against "Obamacare" as a whole anyway.
The Catholic hierachy do not believe in artificial birth control so why do they employ those who do? Did not the Supreme Court recently decide that religious organizations have the right to decide who they hire and fire? Bottom line: To reduce health insurance costs and to not be subject to Obama care regulations about supplying contraceptives, Catholic groups should simply not hire those in need of contraceptives and fire those who demand such coverage.
There are different opinions as to what a religion really is or what a non-profit is. To be fair therefore, there should be no tax-exemptions for any group and that includes the Democratic and Republican Parties. Faith and community initiative grant monies should also be cancelled and there should also be no tax deductions for contributions made to charities and non-profits.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/supreme-court-backs-church-in-landmark-religious-liberty-case/
"The government must stay out of hiring and firing decisions by a religious organization, even if a minister sues for employment discrimination, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.
Religious freedom groups praised the decision, and especially the fact that it came from a unanimous court."
yes, rulings like that would have been great for the mormon church before the 80s. their "extra" book of the bible says black people's skin was turned black by god because they are evil. so the church could use a disgusting ruling like that one as an excuse to hire along racial lines. every other business except the biggest - church - has to be equal and fair. but not religion. they can use religious dogma as an excuse for prejudice.
i agree they shouldn't be tax exempt, but i don't agree that they should be able to have prejudicial hiring practices.
JerryG1
Unlike most of my friends, I see and backed the benefit of the federal government using its might and authority to solve the great national problem of healthcare – cost and uninsured.
This latest ploy lays bare the use of the might and authority of the federal government by leftist democrats to implement their own agenda (birth control, abortion rights, etc.).
Trampling religious liberty, moral conscience¬, and individual freedom in the process; and exposing President Obama's administration and Obamacare as fringe, leftist, over-controlling, and over-reaching.
Exposing ... to the last Independent in the room.
I'm out of here. If there's anyone left, turn off the lights.
Dear Mr. Obama,
For your next news conference–
1. WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
To all overse-xed h-o-mo-sapiens:
: The failures of the widely used birth "control" methods i.e. the Pill ( 8.7% failure rate) and male con-dom (17.4% failure rate) have led to the large rate of abortions and S-TDs in the USA. Men and women must either recognize their responsibilities by using the Pill or co-ndoms properly and/or use safer methods in order to reduce the epidemics of abortion and S-TDs.- Failure rate statistics provided by the Gut-tmacher Inst-itute.
Added information before making your next move:
from the CDC-2006
"Se-xually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain a major public health challenge in the United States. While substantial progress has been made in preventing, diagnosing, and treating certain S-TDs in recent years, CDC estimates that approximately 19 million new infections occur each year, almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24.1 In addition to the physical and psy-ch-ological consequences of S-TDs, these diseases also exact a tremendous economic toll. Direct medical costs as-sociated with STDs in the United States are estimated at up to $14.7 billion annually in 2006 dollars."
And from:
Consumer Reports, January, 2012
"Yes, or-al se-x is se-x, and it can boost cancer risk-
Here's a crucial message for teens (and all se-xually active "post-teeners": Or-al se-x carries many of the same risks as va-ginal se-x, including human papilloma virus, or HPV. And HPV may now be overtaking tobacco as the leading cause of or-al cancers in America in people under age 50.
"Adolescents don't think or-al se-x is something to worry about," said Bonnie Halpern-Felsher professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. "They view it as a way to have intimacy without having 's-ex.'"
Obviously, Planned Parenthood, parents and educational system have failed miserably on many fronts.
"Obviously, Planned Parenthood, parents and educational system have failed miserably on many fronts."
the only one who fails miserably is you. your statistics are ridiculously off. the pill has an 8.7% fail rate? that is so wrong. that would mean for everyone woman on the pill, she would get pregnant approximately 1 out of every 11 times she had s_e_x. i know at least a dozen women on the pill for years, none of them pregnant, having regular s_e_x. how would you explain that? actually, the pill has a fail rate of less than 1%. seriously, get your facts straight.
and you should probably get laid too. i know you hate s_e_x and it's all yucky and gross and stuff, but seriously - try it.
It's not 'Mr Obama' it's 'President Obama'. Sorry.
"Facts on Contraceptive Use
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_contr_use.html
"WHO NEEDS CONTRACEPTIVES?
• 62 million U.S. women (and men?) are in their childbearing years (15–44).[1]
• 43 million women (and men) of reproductive age, or 7 in 10, are se-xually active and do not want to become pregnant, but could become pregnant if they or their partners fail to use a con-traceptive method.[2]
• The typical U.S. woman (man?) wants only 2 children. To achieve this goal, she (he?) must use cont-raceptives for roughly 3 decades.[3]
WHO USES CON-TRACEPTIVES?
• Virtually all women (98%) aged 15–44 who have ever had int-ercourse have used at least one con-traceptive method.[2](and men?)
• Overall, 62% of the 62 million women aged 15–44 are currently using one.[2] (and men)
• 31% of the 62 million women (and men?) do not need a method because they are infertile; are pregnant, postpartum or trying to become pregnant; have never had inte-rcourse; or are not se-xually active.[2]
• Thus, only 7% of women aged 15–44 are at risk of unwanted pregnancy but are not using con-traceptives.[2] (and men?)
• Among the 42 million fertile, s-exually active women who do not want to become pregnant, 89% are practicing con-traception.[2] (and men?)
WHICH METHODS DO WOMEN (men?) USE?
• 64% of reproductive-age women who practice con-traception use reversible methods, such as oral con-traceptives or condoms. The remaining women rely on female or male sterilization.[2]
FIRST-YEAR CON-TRACEPTIVE FAILURE RATES
Percentage of women (men?) experiencing an unintended pregnancy (a few examples)
Method Typical
Pill (combined)........ 8.7
Tubal sterilization... 0.7
Male condom........ 17.4
Vasectomy.............. 0.2
Periodic abstinence 25.3 (RCC Approved)
Calendar 9.0 (RCC Approved)
Ovulation Method 3.0 (RCC Approved )
Sympto-thermal 2.0 ( RCC Approved)
Post-ovulation 1.0 (RCC Approved)
No method 85.0" (RCC approved and important for those women wanting to get pregnant)
(Abstinence).............. 0 (RCC approved)
(Masturbation) 0
More facts about contraceptives from
guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_contr_use.html
"CON-TRACEPTIVE METHOD CHOICE
Cont-raceptive method use among U.S. women who practice con-traception, 2002
Method No. of users (in 000s) % of users
Pill ... 11,661 ,..........30.6
Male condom....... 6,841 18.0 "
The pill fails to protect women 8.7% during the first year of use (from the same reference previously shown).
i.e. 0.087 (failure rate)
x 62 million (# child bearing women)
x 0.62 ( % of these women using contraception )
x 0.306 ( % of these using the pill) =
1,020,000 unplanned pregnancies
during the first year of pill use.
For male condoms (failure rate of 17.4 and 18% use level)
1,200,000 unplanned pregnancies during the first year of male condom use.
The Gut-tmacher Inst-itute (same reference) notes also that the perfect use of the pill should result in a 0.3% failure rate
(35,000 unplanned pregnancies) and for the male condom, a 2% failure rate (138,000 unplanned pregnancies).
o Conclusion: The failures of the widely used birth "control" methods i.e. the pill and male condom have led to the large rate of abortions and S-TDs in the USA. Men and women must either recognize their responsibilities by using the pill or condoms properly and/or use other methods in order to reduce the epidemics of abortion and S-TDs.
Reality, too long, didn't read.
Keep your answers short you putz.
never read reality posts hit report abuse on them all and move on
If Catholics want to live by their own set of rules and laws, they are free to go an form their own theocracy. I'm sure the Vatican would be thrilled.
Blah, blah, blah! Who needs birth control. Why would the Catholic Church want to waste money on birth control? Everybody knows little boys can't get pregnant!!
J.W
I thought that more Catholics than that would say they were opposed to it actually. I am surprised it was almost 50/50.
I work with 4 Catholics. Only one of them even knows about the no birth control rule, hence she has 4 kids. The other 3 never heard the rule and flat out denied that the church had a rule against it. I (a non-catholic) had to show them on the official Catholic web site. BTW these 3 swear they are "good" Catholics. Go figure.
It's not an "assault on religion" for the government to demand that medical organizations provide people with the medicine that THEY decide to take. Birth control and abortion is common practice; the hospitals can provide "sinner buildings" where the doctors and staff who don't have a moral problem providing such services can do so and keep the hospital in compliance with the law. .
The issue is that these hospitals are founded and helped funded by the Church. If you go to a Catholic hospital, they will not provide anyone with an abortion or birth control. They have to go to another hospital for that. I highly doubt that they would set up 'sinner buildings' that would be considered 'separate' from the hospital where they would do abortions/contraceptives.
That kind of moronic thinking is the same as stepping in dog crap and claiming that, 'well, the other part of the shoe is clean.' It is also the same stupid thinking that Planned Parenthood gets hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money, but claim that none of it is used to fund abortions.
If there is crap on one part of it, you just assume that crap is on all of it.
It doesn't matter that the hospitals are founded and funded by the church. They are hospitals. That's enough. The government should not let a hospital stay in business if it cannot provide the medical care that patients need and would like to have.
I'm not going to call your thinking "moronic" because I think that's a lazy tactic for anybody to use, but I will address your "crap" analogy. Yes, it's ridiculous to claim "the other side of the shoe is clean." The hospitals have both shoes in crap when they refuse to give normal medical care to those that desire it. If hospitals want to stand around in crap, then they shouldn't be hospitals–the government should shut them down. My idea to have "sinner wards" was based on the assumption that the hospitals would rather have those then be shut down. On second thought, that's a bad idea; they should simply be shut down.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Peter Gene Hernandez, known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and choreographer. Born in 1985, his music career began in 2004, but his presence as a solo artist was only prominent in 2009. Mars has since released three studio albums, 21 singles (seven as a featured artiste), and four promotional singles. He is known for his songs such as "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade", "The Lazy Song", "Locked Out of Heaven", "When I Was Your Man", "Treasure", and "Uptown Funk". As of August 2014, he has sold over 100 million album copies worldwide, and seven of his singles are among the best-selling singles of all time. His work has earned him multiple awards throughout his career, a BT Digital Music Award, three Brit Awards, an Echo Award, a JUNO Award, five Grammy Awards, three Soul Train Music Awards, and an American Music Award. He has also been nominated for two ARIA Music Awards, eight BET Awards, two MOBO Awards, and eleven NAACP Image Awards.
Bruno Mars is on his 24K Magic Tour to promote his latest album, 24K Magic. The music video for his latest singles, titled "24K Magic", "That's What I Like" has garnered over 1.3 billion views on YouTube.


text:
\subsection*{Abstract}
\begin{quote}
  Fast and robust hand segmentation and tracking is an essential basis for
  gesture recognition and thus an important component for contact-less
  human-computer interaction (HCI). Hand gesture recognition based on 2D video
  data has been intensively investigated. However, in practical scenarios
  purely intensity based approaches suffer from uncontrollable environmental
  conditions like cluttered background colors.

  In this paper we present a real-time hand segmentation and tracking
  algorithm using Time-of-Flight (ToF) range cameras and intensity data.  The
  intensity and range information is fused into one pixel value, representing
  its combined intensity-depth homogeneity. The scene is hierarchically
  clustered using a GPU based parallel merging algorithm, allowing a robust
  identification of both hands even for inhomogeneous backgrounds. After the
  detection, both hands are tracked on the CPU. Our tracking algorithm can
  cope with the situation that one hand is temporarily covered by the other
  hand.
\end{quote}

\section{Introduction}

Gesture-based real-time human-computer interaction requires a fast and robust
segmentation of the human hands~\cite{mitra07gesturesurvey}. Classical
approaches are based on 2D intensity or color images. However, this kind of
techniques suffers from low efficiency and the lack of robustness in case of
cluttered scenes or if applied under varying lighting conditions. Addressing
practical application scenarios, techniques capable of handling both effects
are strongly required; frequently applied simplifications, e.g. restricted
lighting or material conditions~\cite{keskin05gesture}, or marker- or
glove-based approaches~\cite{starner98signlanguage} are hardly applicable.

One major approach to overcome the problems of segmenting intensity or color
image sequences for gesture recognition purposes is to use additional depth
information, delivered by laser range systems~\cite{heisele99range}, stereo
cameras~\cite{lee10gameinterface} or structured light range acquisition
systems~\cite{malassiotis01gesture}. The major drawback of all these
approaches is the comparably expensive sensing hardware and the significant
space requirement, which is due to systematic constraints, e.g. the baseline
required for stereo techniques or structured light, or mechanical setups in case of laser
range scanners.

Recently, the {\em Time-of-Flight (ToF)} technology, based on measuring the
time that light emitted by an illumination unit requires to travel to an
object and back to a detector, has been manufactured as highly integrated
\emph{ToF cameras}.  Unlike the other 3D acquisition systems, ToF cameras are
very compact. ToF-cameras are realized in standard CMOS or CCD technology and
thus can be cost efficiently manufactured~\cite{kolb10tof, xu99smartpixel}.
ToF-cameras have been successfully applied in the context of man-machine
interaction, e.g. for facial tracking~\cite{haker07facial}, for touch-free
navigation in 3D medical applications~\cite{soutschek08gesture}, upper-body-gesture~\cite{Holte08:Gesture} and hand-gesture
recognition~\cite{ghobadi08robot}.

In this paper, we introduce a hand segmentation approach based on a
hierarchical clustering technique. Using hierarchical clustering is beneficial,
since the final number of clusters of the scene delivering the ``best'' hand
segmentations highly depends on the scene complexity and thus can not be
determined beforehand. To achieve a high performance, we adopt the GPU-based
clustering approach introduced by Chiosa and Kolb~\cite{chiosa11multilevel} to
cluster fused range-intensity images. In this context, we introduce a novel
homogeneity criterion for range-intensity images. Our hand segmentation and
tracking system is capable of robustly detecting and tracking both hands, even
under the condition one hand is temporarily covered by the other hand or in case a distructing object, e.g. a third hand appears.

The reminder of the paper is structured as follows. In Sec.~\ref{s:priorwork}
we discuss major prior work on segmentation and tracking
techniques. Sec.~\ref{s:overview} gives an overview on our hand tracking
system, followed by detailed discussions on the applied hierarchical
clustering method (Sec.\ref{s:clustering}) and the hand tracking
(Sec.~\ref{s:tracking}). Sec.~\ref{s:results} presents some experimental
results of our tracking approach and in Sec.~\ref{s:conclusion} we draw some
final conclusions.

\section{Related Work}
\label{s:priorwork}

\subsection{Segmentation}
\label{s:priorwork.segmentation}
The most important basis for a hand tracking system is a robust and fast
clustering algorithm in order to segment the hands from their environment. The
Graph Cut algorithms, or Graph-based clustering algorithms \cite{Boy01:GC},
used by Schoenberg~et~al.~\cite{Schoen10SU}, delivers good clustering
results. However, with a runtime of approximately 3-4 FPS (frames per second) for
a $204^2$ pixel sized image, this method is unsuitable for real-time
applications. Another, simpler approach is used by
Breuer~et~al.~\cite{Breuer07:Gesture}, where only the depth information is used
to segment one hand from the background. By depth keying the background, only
the nearest 3D point cloud will be detected as hand. This method however is too inflexible because the hand is restricted to a certain spatial
position. Furthermore a hand segmentation based on range data only is too
error-prone. Holte~et~al.~\cite{Holte08:Gesture} present a motion detection
approach, where only the moving arms are segmented. In order to extract the moving
arms Holte~et~al. used 3D double difference images and represent this data by their
shape context scheme. Tsap~\cite{Tsap02:GT} and Tsap and
Shin~\cite{Tsap04:3DHT} use a connected component analysis of skin-colored
pixels, to segment the hands and the face. Only clusters with a certain shape
will be selected as possible hand clusters. In \cite{GLHL07:HS} Ghobadi~et~al.
propose a segmentation technique which combines two clustering approaches to
cluster fused range intensity images: k-means and expectation
maximization. The drawback of this method is the necessity to decide on the
number of clusters beforehand.

\subsection{Tracking}
\label{s:priorwork.tracking}
Tsap and Shin \cite{Tsap04:3DHT} use a simple depth analysis to distinguish
the hand from the face, defining the skin colored cluster nearest to the
camera as the hand. Furthermore they limit the depth space search for the
hand dynamically by using the motion history of the last frames. In
\cite{Tsap02:GT}, Tsap tracks only non-static skin-colored objects by applying
a set of filters on color, motion, and range data. After segmentation,
Breuer~et~al.~\cite{Breuer07:Gesture} apply a two-stage approach to detect the
hand based on principal component analysis and a refinement based on a model-fitting in object space.
Holte~et~al.~\cite{Holte08:Gesture} use the shape context (see
Sec.~\ref{s:priorwork.segmentation}) of the segmented moving arms for gesture
recognition. A gesture is recognized by matching the current harmonic shape
context with a known set, one for each possible
gesture. Haker~et~al.~\cite{haker07facial} use a simple classifier to detect
the human nose in fused intensity-range images for facial
tracking. Soutschek~et~al.~\cite{soutschek08gesture} use an approach to detect
the hand as the closest object with regard to the ToF-camera. They combine thresholding
applied to depth and amplitude information and an explicit palm detection in order to
remove the forearm geometry. In \cite{ghobadi08robot}, Ghobadi~et~al. apply
their k-means clustering technique proposed in \cite{GLHL07:HS} to
interactively track the hand on a frame-to-frame basis using haar-like
features in combination with AdaBoost.

\section{System Overview}
\label{s:overview}

\begin{figure}[t!]
  \begin{center}
    \includegraphics[width=.99\linewidth]{images/Ablaufdiagram.eps}
    \caption{Overview of the clustering and hand tracking algorithm.}
    \label{fig:fc}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

The clustering and hand tracking algorithm is shown in
Fig.~\ref{fig:fc}. Summarizing the procedure, our system consists of the two
major components, the {\itshape hierarchical clustering} and the {\itshape
  tracking} component.

\paragraph{Hierarchical Clustering } After receiving the range and intensity
information from the camera, the GPU based parallel merging algorithm clusters
the fused range-intensity data into regions (see
Sec.~\ref{s:clustering:pm}). The algorithm searches the mutual, optimal merge
partner for every region according to some homogeneity criterion. If this is
the case, both regions will be merged into one and the region size and data
will be updated. The clustering stops, when there are no optimal merge
partners left (see Sec.~\ref{s:clustering:mc}).

\paragraph{Tracking } The tracking algorithm analyzes the clustering
result. If the system is still in the initialization phase, the two clusters
nearest to the camera, which have a given minimum size, will be assigned as the
first hand and the second hand (see Sec.~\ref{s:tracking:init}). After the
initialization, from the current set of clusters two new hand clusters are
chosen by comparing their homogeneity values to the hand-clusters from the
last frame. The hands are assigned trough a nearest neighbor method (see
Sec.~\ref{s:tracking:track}). If only one cluster was found, we assume that
one hand is covered by the other, the lost hand will be marked. The lost hand
will be searched in the subsequent frames and will only be marked as found, if
a cluster satisfies specific homogeneity and space criteria (see
Sec.~\ref{s:tracking:special}).

\section{Segmentation (Clustering)}
\label{s:clustering}

A hierarchical clustering algorithm, implemented on the GPU as a {\itshape parallel merging algorithm},
is used in order to segment the hands from their environment. The advantage of a hierarchical approach is based on the fact, that the
number of clusters, and thus the size and shape of the hand clusters, results
only from the applied homogeneity criterion. This means that no predefined number is necessary.

The parallel clustering method (see Sec.~\ref{s:clustering:pm}), as
well as the merging criterion (see Sec.~\ref{s:clustering:mc}) which is used to merge
pixels and clusters into new clusters, are discussed in the following
subsections.

\subsection{Parallel Merging Algorithm}
\label{s:clustering:pm}
The Parallel Merging Algorithm is a hierarchical clustering method
\cite{WR11:RG}, where initially each pixel represents a region (cluster) with
his own region-ID and region characteristics.

For merging two regions ${\cal R}_1, {\cal R}_2$, they have to satisfy a given boolean criterion based on a homogeneity descriptor $\bv w^i=\hVeccc{w^i_1}{\ldots}{w^i_N},\;i=1,2$ consisting of $N$ components, i.e.
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:mergecrit}
\Betr{w^1_i-w^2_i} \leq t_i,\; i=1,\ldots , N.
\end{equation}
Based on the the individual homogeneity components $w_i$, the homogeneity difference between two regions is deduced
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:mergecrit2}
f({\cal R}_1,{\cal R}_2) = \sum_{i=1}^N \alpha_i\cdot\Betr{w_{i}^1-w_{i}^2},
\end{equation}
where $\alpha_i$ is the weight of the individual homogeneity components.

Given a specific cluster ${\cal R}$, all neighboring clusters ${\cal S}$
that satisfy the homogeneity criterion are identified and the optimal merge
partner ${\cal R}^\ast$ is selected, i.e.
$$
{\cal R}^\ast=\arg\min_{{\cal S}}\{f({\cal R},{\cal S})\}.
$$
After identifying the optimal merge partner ${\cal R}^\ast$ for ${\cal R}$, both regions
will be merged into a single region and the homogeneity measure for the merged region is
determined. The new merged region gets the greater region ID of both merge
partners and its characteristics will be updated. However, with a sequential
merging algorithm, the merging result depends on the merging order
(see Fig.~\ref{fig:sm}). A better solution is therefore to check for all regions its optimal merge partner.
Two regions are merged only if the
optimal merge partner choice is mutual, i.e. if $({\cal R}^\ast)^\ast = {\cal R}$.

\begin{figure}[t!]
  \begin{center}

    \begin{tabular}{ccc}
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.25\linewidth]{images/seq_merging_a.eps}
        \label{fig:sm.1}
      }&
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.25\linewidth]{images/seq_merging_b.eps}
        \label{fig:sm.2}
      }&
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.25\linewidth]{images/seq_merging_c.eps}
        \label{fig:sm.3}
      }

    \end{tabular}

  \end{center}
  \caption{(a) A clustering into four regions, with their ID and
    homogeneity measure $w$. Threshold $t = 51$. (b) Merging result
    for sequential merging, starting merging from top left to bottom
    right. (c) Merging result for sequential merging, starting merging from
    top right to bottom left.}
  \label{fig:sm}
\end{figure}
\noindent
The merging of regions is performed in parallel and thus the following rules must be obeyed in order
to obtain a correct result \cite{WR11:RG}:
\begin{enumerate}
\item Each region can only merge with one other region at a time; that being
  the neighbor which best satisfies the merging criteria.
\item In case of an equal measure the neighbor with the larger ID is selected in
  order to prevent cyclic dependencies.
\item A merge choice must be mutual in order for two regions to merge.
\end{enumerate}

These rules restrict a region to only merge with a single neighbor during any
merging iteration. The resulting region could otherwise be in violation
of the homogeneity requirements (see Fig.~\ref{fig:pm}).  By giving the new
region the greater ID (in combination with rule number 2), possible deadlocks can
be avoided. After merging two regions into a single region, its characteristics
will be updated.

A region that was unable to merge during a given iteration because its
selection was not mutual, may succeed in a subsequent iteration (see
Fig.~\ref{fig:pm}).

\begin{figure}[t]
  \begin{center}

    \begin{tabular}{ccc}
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.25\linewidth]{images/parallel_merging_a.eps}
        \label{fig:pm.1}
      }&
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.25\linewidth]{images/parallel_merging_b.eps}
        \label{fig:pm.2}
      }&
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.25\linewidth]{images/parallel_merging_c.eps}
        \label{fig:pm.3}
      }

    \end{tabular}

  \end{center}
  \caption{Threshold $t = 40$. (a) Mutual merging decision between region 1
    and 2. Region 3 and 4 have to wait until the next iteration. (b) Merging
    result from (a). Mutual merging decision between region 3 and 1. Region 4
    however does not satisfy the merging criteria anymore. (c) Final merging
    result.}
  \label{fig:pm}
\end{figure}

This iteration will be repeated until there is no optimal merge partner for
any region left, i.e. until all pairs of neighbors violate the merge criterion
(see Eq.~\eqref{eq:mergecrit}).

\subsection{Merging Criterion}
\label{s:clustering:mc}
The merging criterion, which is used to check the homogeneity between
neighboring regions is based on fusing intensity and range information into a
single value, similar to Ghobadi~et~al.~\cite{GLHL07:HS}. The choosen
homogeneity descriptor $\bv w$ (s. Sec.~\ref{s:clustering:pm}) which characterizes a region consists of two components:
\begin{equation}
  \bv w_{\cal R} = (z_{\cal R},\phi _{\cal R}),
\end{equation}
where $z_{\cal R}$ denotes the average $Z$-distance of the region with regard to the camera's optical axis and $\phi _{\cal R}$ the fused intensity and range value.

The characterizing entities for each region ${\cal R}$, i.e. initially a single pixel, are
given by the distance $d_{\cal R}$ in spherical sensor coordinates and the
reflected active light $I_{\cal R}$ of a region/pixel.

As the desired $\phi _{\cal R}$ needs to represent homogeneous
characteristics of a pixel region in a robust way, we apply the well known
dependency rule between intensity and the distance to derive a robust measure:
\begin{equation}
  I_{\cal R} \propto \frac{1}{d_{\cal R}^2} \Rightarrow 	\frac{1}{\sqrt{I_{\cal R}}} \propto
  d_{\cal R} \Rightarrow d_{\cal R} \sqrt{I_{\cal R}} \propto \text{const}.
\end{equation}
Thus, $d_{\cal R} \sqrt{I_{\cal R}}$ is a nearly constant measure for every individual
surface and interpreting each $(d_{\cal R},I_{\cal R})$-pair as point in the Euclidean
plain, we derive $\phi _{\cal R}$ as follows:
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:phi}
  \phi _{\cal R} = \arctan(d_{\cal R}\sqrt{I_{\cal R}}).
\end{equation}

When merging regions, the mean average of both regions $z_{\cal R}$ and $\phi _{\cal R}$ will be used for the new region's homogeneity descriptor.
The values of the thresholds ($t_z$ and $t_\phi $) for the merging criterion, as well the weights ($\alpha_z$ and $\alpha_\phi $) needed for the homogeneity difference, are listed in Table \ref{tab:ths}.

The hierarchical merging is applied to each frame delivered by the
ToF-camera. The algorithm is realized using a GPU-implementation similar to
Chiosa and Kolb~\cite{chiosa11multilevel}, which has be introduced for mesh
and data clustering. We simply use a standard 4-neighborhood-size to define pixel
neighbors and integrate our homogeneity measure as the merge criterion.

\section{Hand Tracking}
\label{s:tracking}

The hand tracking algorithm has been implemented on the CPU and is divided
into two steps. Step one is the initialization, where the hands will be
identified. In step two, both hands will be tracked.

\subsection{Initialization}
\label{s:tracking:init}
In step one, the hands will be detected from the set of regions, that has been
clustered until convergence, i.e. until no further pair of neighboring clusters
fulfills the merge criterion (see Eq.~\eqref{eq:mergecrit}).  The two clusters which
will be identified as hands are determined by the following simple rules:
\begin{itemize}
\item closest to the ToF-camera and
\item the cluster size is above a given threshold.
\end{itemize}
Both regions will be then assigned as first hand (cluster ${\cal R}_1$) and second
hand (cluster ${\cal R}_2$). As long as these regions satisfy the mentioned
criteria, both hands can be clearly assigned in the successive image through a
nearest neighbor assignment (see Fig. \ref{fig:detec}).

\begin{figure}[b!]
  \begin{center}
    \subfigure[]{
      \includegraphics[width=.6\linewidth]{images/detek_a.eps}
      \label{fig:detec.1}
    }
    \subfigure[]{
      \includegraphics[width=.6\linewidth]{images/detek_b.eps}
      \label{fig:detec.2}
    }
    \subfigure[]{
      \includegraphics[width=.6\linewidth]{images/detek_c.eps}
      \label{fig:detec.3}
    }
    \caption[Hand-detection]{As long as both hands satisfy the criteria from
      the initialization step, they can always be assigned correctly. The
      white and the gray cluster resembles the first hand respectively the second
      hand (left: clustered image; right: intensity image).}
    \label{fig:detec}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

After 30 frames, the initialization stops and the tracking is
initiated.  The following information of the hand clusters will be preserved
from the initialization:
\begin{itemize}
\item $ID_{1}$ and $ID_{2}$: Region IDs of both hand clusters,
\item $\phi _{1}$ and $\phi _{2}$: Homogeneity measure of both hand clusters,
\item $pos_{1}$ and $pos_{2}$: Cluster center of the first and the second hand in
  3D, with regard to the camera's optical center.
\end{itemize}
All these values are required in the tracking phase.

\subsection{Frame-to-Frame Tracking}
\label{s:tracking:track}

In step two, the maximum $r_{max}$ and minimum $r_{min}$ camera range will be
limited to the hands (see Fig. \ref{fig:rc}). Thus, pixels outside the range
$[r_{min},r_{max}]$ will be ignored for clustering, resulting in a speed up
for the clustering process.

$r_{min}$ and $r_{max}$ are recalculated for every frame as follows:
\begin{eqnarray*}
  r_{min}&=&min(d_{1},d_{2}) - r_{th}\\
  r_{max}&=&max(d_{1},d_{2}) + r_{th}
\end{eqnarray*}
where $d_{1}, d_{2}$ are the average distances of the first and the second
hand and $r_{th}$ a distance threshold. $r_{th}$ is needed, so that the user
can move his hands freely back and forth and avoids, that the hands could be
clipped away in the next frame (see Fig.~\ref{fig:backforth}).

\begin{figure}[t]
  \begin{center}

    \begin{tabular}{cc}
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{images/range_clipping_a.eps}
        \label{fig:rc.1}
      }&
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{images/range_clipping_b.eps}
        \label{fig:rc.2}
      }
    \end{tabular}

  \end{center}
  \caption{Clustered image with range clipping. (a) last frame of the
    initialization. (b) first frame of the tracking step.}
  \label{fig:rc}
\end{figure}
After setting the minimum and maximum range, two new hand clusters will be
searched in the next frame. All the clusters whose size are above a given minimum size $size_{min}$, will be compared to the hand
clusters from the last frame, based on their homogeneity measure $\phi $. From
the set of possible hand clusters, two clusters will be then assigned as the
new hands through a nearest neighbor method with regard to the tracking information
$(ID, \phi , pos$) from the hand clusters identified in the last frame.
\begin{figure}[b!]
  \begin{center}
    \subfigure[]{
      \includegraphics[width=.6\linewidth]{images/vor_zurueck_a.eps}
      \label{fig:backforth.1}
    }
    \subfigure[]{
      \includegraphics[width=.6\linewidth]{images/vor_zurueck_b.eps}
      \label{fig:backforth.2}
    }
    \caption[Tracking: back and forth]{Hand tracking through nearest neighbor
      assignment. Back and forth movement of the hands.}
    \label{fig:backforth}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}
\subsection{Mutual Occlusion of Hands}
\label{s:tracking:special}

The tracking method described in Sec.~\ref{s:tracking:track} works robustly as
long as two hands are clearly visible and distinguishable in the ToF-images.
Crossing hands would, however, lead to problems, because one hand would be
temporarily covered by the other hand, but the tracking algorithm would still
search for the second hand.

Therefore, to allow that one hand temporary gets covered by the other hand,
the following control method has been added to the tracking algorithm.

Right after the hands have been detected in the initialisation step (see
Sec.~\ref{s:tracking:init}), the algorithm checks the $XY$-distance between
both hands in every frame. Depending on this distance it will be decided if
both hands are in a critical area $D$, where the possibility of covering one
hand with the other hand in one of the subsequent frames is high. $D$ is defined
as follows:
\[
D=\begin{cases}
  true,  & \Betr{(pos_{1})_{xy} - (pos_{2})_{xy}} < d_{min} \\
  false, & \text{else.}
\end{cases}
\]
where $(pos_{i})_{xy}$ is the $XY$-position of the $i$-th hand and $d_{min}$
is the minimal distance.

As long as the distance between both hands is above the threshold $d_{min}$, the
hands will be tracked as described in Sec.~\ref{s:tracking:track}). In case if
$ D=true$, the following procedure is initiated:

\paragraph{Check for possible disappearance of a single hand}
A hand is considered missing, if in the current frame:
\begin{itemize}
\item no cluster has been found which can resemble the hand (based on $\phi $),
  or
\item a cluster has been found, but the distance between its cluster center
  and the hand position of the last frame, is above a given maximal distance,
  implying that no cluster can be assigned to the hand in a meaningful way.
\end{itemize}

\paragraph{Detection and tracking of the uncovered hand}
After a hand gets covered by the other, the last resolved tracking information
of the disappeared hand cluster (backhand cluster ${\cal R}_{bh}$) is stored in
order to detect the lost hand again after reappearance. The front hand cluster
${\cal R}_{fh}$, however, will be continuously tracked as described in
Sec.~\ref{s:tracking:track}.  The lost hand will be searched in the set of
remaining clusters. In order to reassign the lost hand to a cluster ${\cal R}$ the
following criteria have to be satisfied:
\begin{itemize}
\item The cluster center must be behind the front hand cluster center, in
  $Z$-direction, i.e. $(pos_{{\cal R}})_z < ({pos_{{\cal R}}}_{fh})_z$.
\item The distance between the cluster center $pos_{{\cal R}}$ and the center of the
  front hand cluster ${pos_{{\cal R}}}_{fh}$, must not exceed a threshold $t_d$: $\left|
    pos_{{\cal R}} - {pos_{{\cal R}}}_{fh}\right| < t_d$

  Thus the lost hand appears beside the hiding hand.
\item The difference between the homogeneity measures of the cluster ${\cal R}$
  and the stored measure of the back hand cluster ${\cal R}_{bh}$, must not exceed a
  threshold $t_{\phi }$: $\Betr{{\phi _{\cal R}}_{bh}-{\phi _{\cal R}}} < t_{\phi }$.
\end{itemize}

If more than one cluster satisfy these criteria, the new uncovered hand cluster
will be assigned to the one with minimal $\phi $ deviation. If none of the
clusters satisfy these criteria, the search for the lost hand will continue in
the next frame.

\section{Results}
\label{s:results}

\begin{table}
  \begin{center}
    \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}
      \hline
      Parameters & Value \\
      \hline\hline
      $t_z$    	& $0.04m$\\
      $t_{\phi }$  & $0.009$ (rad)\\
      $\alpha_z$    	& $\frac{8}{\pi}$\\
      $\alpha_{\phi }$  & $\frac{4}{3}$\\
      \hline\hline
      $size_{min}$    & $200px$\\
      $t_d$        		& $0.1m$\\
      $t_{\phi }$        & $0.009$ (rad)\\
      $r_{th}$				& $0.1m$\\
      $d_{min}$      	& $0.1m$\\
      \hline
    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
  \caption{Parameters used for the clustering (first four rows) and hand tracking algorithm (rest).}
  \label{tab:ths}
\end{table}

\begin{table}
  \begin{center}
    \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}
      \hline
      Process & time (Init) & time (Tracking) \\
      \hline\hline
      Update Camera         & 16 & 16 \\
      \hline\hline
      Find Mergepartner     & 29 & 27\\
      Merge Regions         & 5  & 3\\
      Update Values         & 10  & 4\\
      \hline\hline
      Tracking   			 	    & 7  & 9\\
      \hline\hline
      Total Time            & 67 & 59\\
      \hline
    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
  \caption{Average runtime (in msec) on an Intel Core 2 Duo PC with
    3.00 GHz, 4 GB RAM and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 graphic card, for
    $204^2px$ ToF-data.}
  \label{tab:speed}
\end{table}

After both hands have been detected in the initialization, the clustering and
tracking algorithm runs with an average frame-rate of 16 frames/sec
(see Table \ref{tab:speed}). However, some restrictions must be satisfied, to
ensure a flawless hand tracking. Objects or bodyparts, with a similar
reflectivity as skin must not get in contact with a hand, i.e. touch the hand
in approximately the same $Z$-distance to the ToF-camera, otherwise they will
be assigned to one hand cluster (see Fig.~\ref{fig:cerr}).
\begin{figure}[t]
  \begin{center}

    \begin{tabular}{cc}
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{images/clustering_err_a.eps}
        \label{fig:cerr.1}
      }&
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{images/clustering_err_b.eps}
        \label{fig:cerr.2}
      }

    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
  \caption{User holds both hands up. Hand palms and arms are on the same
    $XY$-plane. The grey and the white clusters are the hand clusters. (a)
    user wears a skin-colored sweater. The arms and hands get clustered
    together. (b) user wears a brown leather jacket. Arms and hands are
    clustered separately.}
  \label{fig:cerr}
\end{figure}

A similar error occurs when crossing both hands. Being the fact, that both
hands usually have the exact same homogeneity measure $\phi $, not keeping a
given minimum distance in $Z$-direction while crossing, can lead to a merging
of both hands into a single hand cluster (see Fig.~\ref{fig:terr}). These
clustering issues can forthermore lead to tracking errors
(see Fig. \ref{fig:terr.3}).
\begin{figure}[t]
  \begin{center}
    \begin{tabular}{ccc}
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.29\linewidth]{images/tracking_err_a.eps}
        \label{fig:terr.1}
      }&
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.29\linewidth]{images/tracking_err_b.eps}
        \label{fig:terr.2}
      }&
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.29\linewidth]{images/tracking_err_c.eps}
        \label{fig:terr.3}
      }
    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
  \caption{(a)-(c) shows a crossing sequence of both hands, where the hand are
    close together also in $Z$-direction. (b) Since both hands get in contact
    while crossing each other, a part of the back hand gets clustered to the
    front hand cluster, leading to tracking errors (as seen in (c)). (c) because the center of the back hand was shifted, the wrist gets mistaken as the new hand cluster.}
  \label{fig:terr}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[t]
  \begin{center}
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.6\linewidth]{images/hand_behind.eps}
        \label{fig:3rdh.1}
      }
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.6\linewidth]{images/hand_between.eps}
        \label{fig:3rdh.2}
      }
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.6\linewidth]{images/hand_front.eps}
        \label{fig:3rdh.3}
      }
  \end{center}
  \caption{The user's visible hands will be tracked correctly, although a third hand is behind (a), in between (b), or in front (c) of the user's tracked hands.}
  \label{fig:3rdh}
\end{figure}

However, as long as the mentioned restrictions are satisfied, the tracking algorithm can handle a third hand and will always track the correct two visible hands (see Fig. \ref{fig:3rdh}).

As mentioned in Sec.~\ref{s:clustering:mc}, the homogeneity measure $\phi $ is
based on the idea of Ghobadi~et~al.~\cite{GLHL07:HS}. The main difference
between both measures is, that Ghobadi~et~al. chose a linear approach to
describe the relation between distance and intensity of a given cluster ${\cal R}$:
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:ZessPhi}
  \phi _{{\cal R}} = \arctan{\left(\frac{d_{{\cal R}}}{I_{{\cal R}}}\right)},
\end{equation}
where $d_{{\cal R}}$ is the normalized distance and $I_{{\cal R}}$ the normalized
intensity of the cluster. This approach can lead to inacurate clustering
results (see Fig.~\ref{fig:phi}). With a more accurated calculation of $\phi $
from Eq.~\eqref{eq:phi} those clustering errors are significantly reduced.\\

A list with all the parameters and their values, which were applied, are shown in Table \ref{tab:ths}.
\begin{figure}[t]
  \begin{center}
    \begin{tabular}{cc}
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{images/phi_zess.eps}
        \label{fig:phi.1}
      }&
      \subfigure[]{
        \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{images/phi_new.eps}
        \label{fig:phi.2}
      }
    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
  \caption{(a) clustering result with $\phi $ from Ghobadi et~al.
    Eq.~\eqref{eq:ZessPhi}. Both hands get clustered into one hand cluster
    (white cluster) by a connection via the sleeve. The other sleeve gets then
    mistaken as the second hand cluster (grey cluster). (c) clustering result
    with $\phi $ from Eq.~\eqref{eq:phi} as proposed in this paper. Both hands
    get clustered correctly.}
  \label{fig:phi}
\end{figure}

\noindent

\section{Conclusion}
\label{s:conclusion}

In this paper, we introduce a fast an robust hand segmentation approach based
on a hierarchical clustering technique, which is implemented on the GPU as a
parallel merging algorithm in order to achieve a high performance.  We also
introduce a novel homogeneity criterion robustly merging regions in fused
range-intensity images. The intensity and range information is fused into one
pixel value, representing its combined intensity-depth homogeneity.

The results show that when certain restrictions are satisfied, our hand
segmentation and tracking system is capable of robustly detecting and tracking
both hands in real-time, even under the condition that one hand is temporarly
covered by the other hand.

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