Video-Based Motion Capture for Measuring Human Movement

Abstract

Through the advancement of electronics technologies, human motion analysis applications span many domains. Existing commercially available magnetic, mechanical and optical systems for motion capture and analyses are far from being able to operate in natural scenarios and environments. The current shortcoming of requiring the subject to wear sensors and markers on the body has prompted development directed towards a marker-less setup using computer vision approaches. However, there are still many challenges and problems in computer vision methods such as inconsistency of illumination, occlusion and lack of understanding and representation of its operating scenario. The authors present a videobased marker-less motion capture method that has the potential to operate in natural scenarios such as occlusive and cluttered scenes. In specific applications in sports biomechanics and education, which are stimulated by the usage of interactive digital media and augmented reality, accurate and reliable capture of human motion are essential.