About

This website is a personal site created and maintained by Jeroen Arendsen. It started during my time as a PhD student as a result of my general interest in gestures and HCI and my desire to publish various thoughts to the world at large. My PhD topic was the perception of sign language and other gestures. I worked on a gesture recognition project at the Delft University of Technology (DUT). I also participated in a project (ELo, pdf) to create software for deaf children to practice sign language vocabulary.

By now the site has turned into a site that also covers other aspects and interests, not just gesture. For example, it also covers my interest in robotics, usability and user experience. Out of nostalgia I will however keep the old name ‘A Nice Gesture’.

This site was named ‘A Nice Gesture’ after a workshop held by our group at the DUT which was called in Dutch ‘Een Mooi Gebaar’. That is an expression referring to acts that are fairly small by themselves but become bigger because an actor (succesfully) communicates his good intentions with them.

The logo of the site is the shortest summary of a question: “What makes people see that something is a gesture?”. In the picture you probably see a hand. But do you also see the gesture? Some do and some don’t. If you are told it is a Queen Anne’s Fan, would that help you see? A range of topics is treated on this site. They share one thing: it has to be about gestures (with a small exception for cool robot stuff). Besides that you can check the categories in the sidebar for specific interests.

Share and enjoy!

Jeroen