1. A recognition apparatus for recognizing motions and/or actions of an object under observation, said recognition apparatus comprising: measurement means attached to said object under observation in order to measure a status change entailing the motions and/or actions of said object under observation; characteristic quantity extraction means for extracting characteristic quantities from the measurements taken by said measurement means; recognition means for recognizing the motions and/or actions of said object under observation in accordance with the characteristic quantities extracted from said measurements; and output means for outputting a recognized result.