Emblematic Gestures
Gestures are capable of delivering verbal messages with the simple wave of a hand or raising of fingers. There are two types of gestures, those that occur while speaking and those that can occur without speaking. The latter is known as emblematic gestures. In a research project, David Matsumoto defines emblems as "...verbal messages encoded in body movements in an enculturation process, and produced spontaneously and understood widely as a form of cultural communication" (Matsumoto 2013, 2). These types of gestures are incredibly useful since they allow communication across distances in which speaking may be undesirable.
But just how universal are emblematic gestures? Since emblematic gestures are symbols, different cultures have different meanings for the same gesture. Matsumoto writes "Cultural differences in emblems also occur because of differences in the existence of symbolic objects" (Matsumoto 2013, 2). Different cultures have different meanings for the same emblematic gestures, whether it's because of different symbolism or different values, the gesture for "okay" does not always mean that.
​Translating emblematic and other types of gestures from culture to culture can be challenging, especially during real-time communication. Research being done by Béatrice S. Hasler can provide a potential solution to this problem. Hasler writes "We present the conceptual design and an early prototype of a real-time gesture translator using body tracking and gesture recognition in avatar-mediated intercultural interactions" (Hasler 2014). The ability to translate gestures cross-culturally would be a huge benefit to academia and to the economic realm where businesses trade across the world on a daily basis.
