PONE-D-23-22062Chinese Sign Language Recognition based on Surface Electromyography and Motion Information.PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Li,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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Andrea Tigrini, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Authros presented a good study on chinese sign language recognition using sEMG data. Although the applicability could be of interest, Reviewers have recognized some important major points that have to be solved otherwise leading to rejection. Authros have to clearly address all the points risedé by Reviewers.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The study presented by Wenyu Li and colleagues focuses on chinese sign language recognition (SLR) based on the fusion of sEMG and motion information (through the recording of acceleration and angular velocity). 120 target words were listed and considered for the study. Then, a cHMM is employed to fuse all the recorded information and recognize words vocabulary.

Overall, the paper is clear and well written, but the methods section requires more details. Some suggestions are reported.

- Parahgraph "Introduction"

I would suggest to insert a couple of references related to the use of the sEMG signal for pattern recognition of complex task and for the development of sEMG-based human-machine interaction:

1. "Control of Hand Prostheses Using Peripheral Information", IEEE reviews in biomedical engineering, 2010

2. "Handwritten Digits Recognition From sEMG: Electrodes Location and Feature Selection", IEEE Access, 2023

- Paragraph "Materials and Methods"

Sampling frequency of the sEMG and of acceleration and angular velocity are not reported, nor the duration in time of the performed gestures. Please provide these details.

- Line 104 to 109: why are the combinations calculated as reported? Is there a specific logic from the authors or is there a reference? Please specify and refer if necessary.

- Line 127: Which is the criterion based on which the 120 words were selected? Please explain.

- Line 181-182: Acronyms (e.g. VCM, FFE, ET) should be defined in the text when used in a sentence, even if their explanation is present in a table. Please define them.

- Line 192 to 200: Is MAV the only feature considered for both sEMG and ACC signals? From the paragraph it is not clear if the MAV is calculated from the entire signal related to a word or if a segmentation process has been performed. Please clarify how the feature is extracted and if a sliding window approach is used specify also the length of the considered window, the length of the sliding and the amount of overlapping if present.

- Line 201: It is not clear the length of the moving window K and of the step T: trials have been made to find the values for K and T that give the optimal results? Which are the final values? Please add this information.

- Line 203: How the activity thresholds Tsemg and Tacc are set? Which are their values? If there are references, please report them.

- Line 210: remove "contain"

- Line 281, 291 and 320: "THGV" is not defined in the work. Is it a typing error (real term "DHGV") or is it something different? If so, please define it.

- Line 319: Article "The" missing.

If present, consider to add some references, in the discussion or conclusion section, related to similar works for a comparison of the results reported in this study.

Reviewer #2: The authors have recognized Chinese sign language using sEMG and acceleration signals and achieved the average recognition rate 90.41%. However, the novelty is not presented clearly throughout the paper. In addition, the manuscript is not written in standard format, i.e., first section of result (experimental preparation) is a part of methodology. Also, there should have a distinct discussion section describing the validation of the obtained results, limitations of the works and future directions etc. Again, the obtained performance is not compared and validated with the existing works which is very important to publish a work in a reputed journal like PLOSE ONE.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-23-22062R1Chinese Sign Language Recognition based on Surface Electromyography and Motion Information.PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Li,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

==============================

ACADEMIC EDITOR: Authors have consistently updated the manuscript based on the previous comments. The paper is well organized and written. However, some minor points deserve to be clarified since Experts in the field still recognized minor issues that need to be carefully revised.

==============================

Please submit your revised manuscript by Dec 23 2023 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Andrea Tigrini, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments:

Paper was updated, but it still need minor points correction since a Reviewer highlightred reasonable aspects that deserves at least to be addressed.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: N/A

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: The authors have made a great improvement of the manuscripts. However, still there are some issues in order to meet the standard of a reputed journal.

1. The experimental results are not validated with existing literatures. So, a performance comparison section should be added.

2. In discussion, the obtained results are discussed very shortly.

3. There should be a dot after et al like Kshitij et al. [xx]

4. There should be sentence about the ethical approval and consent of the participants.

5. The major contributions of the research should be added at the end of the Introduction.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Chinese Sign Language Recognition based on Surface Electromyography and Motion Information.

PONE-D-23-22062R2

Dear Dr. Li,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Andrea Tigrini, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

The manuscript was reviewed according to the comments provided by the reviewer. The quality of the manuscript fit with the PLOS ONE standards, thus it can be published.

Reviewers' comments: