Hand Motion Capture and Tracking in 3D Animation

Abstract

This extended abstract details previous methods for motion tracking and capture in 3D animation and in particular that of hand motion tracking and capture. Our research aims to enable gesture capture with interpretation of the captured gestures and control of the target 3D animation software. This stage of the project involves the development and testing of a motion analysis system. A motion analysis system is being built from algorithms recently developed. We review current software and research methods available in this area and describe our work-in-progress. Motion capture is a technique of digitally recording the movements of real entities, usually humans. It was originally developed as an analysis tool in biomechanics research, but has grown increasingly important as a source of motion data for computer animation. In this context it has been widely used for both cinema and video games. Hand motion capture and tracking in particular has received a lot of attention because of its critical role in the design of new Human Computer Interaction methods and gesture analysis. One of the main difficulties is the capture of human hand motion.