Computer scientists belonging to the Max-Planck-Institute for Informatics (MPI) in Saarbrücken have developed a novel method to capture the movements of several people, in real time, using conventional cameras. The discovery will benefit animation specialists, athletes and medical scientists.
Computer scientists at the Max-Planck-Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken can compute the skeleton motion of the actor in realtime. Picture: MPI
Digitally animated characters are being widely used in many Hollywood’s movie productions. Movies such as “Ted,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Avatar,” and “The Adventures of Tintin,” have used such characters. Certain movies combined digital characters and real actors, while others have used virtual characters throughout.
Steven Spielberg had used the motion capture approach in “The Adventures of Tintin” movie. In this method, that has to take place in studio, the actor is made to wear a special suit that has special markers attached to it. A camera system sends out infrared light which is reflected by the special markers. This reflected light is received by the camera system. This process is used to capture the actor’s movements. Animation specialists use this data and transfer the movements to the virtual character.
The special suits used in this method constrain the movements of actors and are therefore not preferred by the actors. The MPI research team which included Christian Theobalt, Carsten Stoll, Nils Hasler, and Jürgen Gall of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich developed a novel method that enabled the capture of motions in real time, but without the markers. The method of representing and computing the filmed scene is the novelty. Normal cameras are used for capturing and visualizing the movements within milliseconds.
The new computing technique also works well for capturing movements of several persons and against noisy backgrounds. Hence, this method may help athletes capture their motion and improve their efficiency. In the medical field, it may help physicians to check the healing status after performing surgery on joints.
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