The Visual Analysis of Human Movement

1. Introduction and Historical Background 1.1 Why make human figure models? 1.2 Historical roots 1.3 What is currently possible? 1.4 Manipulation, animation, and simulation 1.5 What did we leave out? 2. Mody Modeling 2.1 Geometric body modeling 2.2 Representing articulated figures 2.3 A flexible torso model 2.4 Shoulder complex 2.5 Clothing models 2.6 The anthropometry database 2.7 The anthropometry spreadsheet 2.8 Strength and torque display 3. Spatial Interaction 3.1 Direct manipulation 3.2 Manipulation with constraints 3.3 Inverse kinematic positioning 4. Behavioral Control of Articulated Figures 4.1 An interactive system for postural control 4.2 Interactive manipulation with behaviors 4.3 The animation interface 4.4 Human figure motions 4.5 Virtual human control 5. Simulation with Societies of Behaviors 5.1 Forward simulation with behaviors 5.2 Locomotion 5.3 Strength guided motion 5.4 Collision-free path and motion planning 5.5 Posture planning 6. Task-level Specifications 6.1 Performance simulation with simple commands 6.2 Natural language expressions of kinematics and space 6.3 Task-level simulation 6.4 A framework for instruction understanding 7. Epilogue 7.1 A road map toward the future 7.2 Conclusion

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Simulating humans: computer graphics animation and control

Improv is a system for the creation of real−time behavior−based animated actors. There have been several recent efforts to build network distributed autonomous agents. But in general these efforts do not focus on the author’s view. To create rich interactive worlds inhabited by believable animated actors, authors need the proper tools. Improv provides tools to create actors that respond to users and to each other in real−time, with personalities and moods consistent with the author’s goals and intentions. Improv consists of two subsystems. The first subsystem is an Animation Engine that uses procedural techniques to enable authors to create layered, continuous, non−repetitive motions and smooth transitions between them. The second subsystem is a Behavior Engine that enables authors to create sophisticated rules governing how actors communicate, change, and make decisions. The combined system provides an integrated set of tools for authoring the "minds" and "bodies" of interactive actors. The system uses an english−style scripting language so that creative experts who are not primarily programmers can create powerful interactive applications.

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Improv: a system for scripting interactive actors in virtual worlds

We describe an implemented system which automatically generates and animates conversations between multiple human-like agents with appropriate and synchronized speech, intonation, facial expressions, and hand gestures. Conversation is created by a dialogue planner that produces the text as well as the intonation of the utterances. The speaker/listener relationship, the text, and the intonation in turn drive facial expressions, lip motions, eye gaze, head motion, and arm gestures generators. Coordinated arm, wrist, and hand motions are invoked to create semantically meaningful gestures. Throughout we will use examples from an actual synthesized, fully animated conversation.

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Animated conversation: rule-based generation of facial expression, gesture & spoken intonation for multiple conversational agents

In this paper we develop a set of inverse kinematics algorithms suitable for an anthropomorphic arm or leg. We use a combination of analytical and numerical methods to solve generalized inverse kinematics problems including position, orientation, and aiming constraints. Our combination of analytical and numerical methods results in faster and more reliable algorithms than conventional inverse Jacobian and optimization-based techniques. Additionally, unlike conventional numerical algorithms, our methods allow the user to interactively explore all possible solutions using an intuitive set of parameters that define the redundancy of the system.

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Real-time inverse kinematics techniques for anthropomorphic limbs

The problem of positioning and manipulating three dimensional articulated figures is often handled by ad hoc techniques which are cumbersome to use. In this paper, we describe a system which provides a consistent and flexible user interface to a complex representation for articulated figures in a 3D environment. Jack is a toolkit of routines for displaying and manipulating complex geometric figures, and it provides a method of interactively manipulating arbitrary homogeneous transformations with a mouse. These transformations may specify the position and orientation of figures within a scene or the joint transformations within the figures themselves. Jack combines this method of 3D input with a flexible and informative screen management facility to provide a user-friendly interface for manipulating three dimensional objects.

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JACK: a toolkit for manipulating articulated figures

In this paper, we describe an interactive system for positioning articulated figures which uses a 3D direct manipulation technique to provide input to an inverse kinematics algorithm running in real time. The system allows the user to manipulate highly articulated figures, such as human figure models, by interactively dragging 3D "reach goals." The user may also define multiple "reach constraints" which are enforced during the manipulation. The 3D direct manipulation interface provides a good mechanism for control of the inverse kinematics algorithm and helps it to overcome problems with redundancies and singularities which occur with figures of many degrees of freedom. We use an adaptive technique for evaluating the constraints which allows us to ensure that only a certain user-controllable amount of time will be consumed by the inverse kinematics algorithm at each iteration of the manipulation process. This technique is also sensitive to the time it takes to redraw the screen, so it prevents the frame display rate of the direct manipulation from become too slow for interactive control.

Interactive real-time articulated figure manipulation using multiple kinematic constraints.

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Interactive real-time articulated figure manipulation using multiple kinematic constraints

This paper describes a technique for augmenting the process of 3D direct manipulation by automaticallyfinding an effective placement for the virtual camera. Many of the best techniques for direct manipulation of 3D geometric objects are sensitive to the angle of view, and can thus require that the user coordinate the placement of the viewpoint during the manipulation process. In some cases, this process can be automated. This means that the system can automatically avoid degenerate situations in which translations and rotations are difficult to perform. The system can also select viewpoints and viewing angles which make the object being manipulated visible, ensuring that it is not obstructed by other objects.

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Cary B. Phillips

Papers

Simulating humans: computer graphics animation and control

JACK: a toolkit for manipulating articulated figures

Interactive real-time articulated figure manipulation using multiple kinematic constraints.

Interactive real-time articulated figure manipulation using multiple kinematic constraints

Automatic viewing control for 3D direct manipulation