Title: Dynamic human shape description and characterisation

Authors: Zhiqing Cheng; Stephen Mosher; Jeanne Smith; Huaining Cheng; Timothy Webb; Kathleen Robinette

Addresses: Infoscitex Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, 45431, USA ' Infoscitex Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, 45431, USA ' Infoscitex Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, 45431, USA ' 711th Human Performance Wing, Air Force Research Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio 45433, USA ' 711th Human Performance Wing, Air Force Research Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio 45433, USA ' 711th Human Performance Wing, Air Force Research Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio 45433, USA

Abstract: Dynamic human shape description and characterisation was investigated in this paper. The dynamic shapes of four subjects in five activities (digging, jogging, limping, throwing, and walking) were created via 3D motion replication. The Paquet shape descriptor (PSD) was used to describe subject shapes in each frame. The unique features of dynamic human shapes were revealed from the observations of the 3D plots of PSDs. The principal component analysis was performed on the calculated PSDs and principal components (PCs) were used to characterise PSDs. The PSD calculation was then reasonably approximated by its significant projections in the eigenspace formed by PCs and represented by the corresponding projection coefficients. As such, the dynamic human shapes for each activity were described by these projection coefficients. To demonstrate potential applications of shape dynamics, a preliminary study was performed on using projection coefficients for activity classification.

Keywords: digital human modelling; dynamic shape descriptors; principal component analysis; PCA; activity recognition; human shape description; human shape characterisation; digging; jogging; limping; throwing; walking; 3D motion.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHFMS.2012.051562

International Journal of Human Factors Modelling and Simulation, 2012 Vol.3 No.3/4, pp.312 - 328

Received: 08 May 2012
Accepted: 16 Aug 2012

Published online: 29 Aug 2014 *

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