Motion Editing with Data Glove

Authors:
Wai-Chun Lam
Feng Zou
Taku Komura

Summary:
Goal - Mapping hand motion to the whole body to edit human motion. Controlling human figures in real time environment such as games and virtual reality system.

Previous work in motion puppetry were focussed on facial expressions. Using mouse and keyboard controls for motion editing is difficult since the lesser degree of freedom that the devices offer.

A mapping between the hand and the body. The effectiveness of the tool is based on the mapping function. There are 2 stages in the tool - Capture stage and reproduction stage.

To match the trajectories and reduce the noise in the data, a fourier series expansion is applied to data. An ordinary walking motion was captured using this device and was used to make hopping motion with large strides and a running motion along zigzag path.

Limitation: The system works effectively if the original motion captured and the newly generated motion are related. Unrelated motion like jumping with 2 legs while original is walking does not work. Foot on ground cannot be captured exactly.

Discussion:

I would say this tool is better than the mouse + keyboard but this would still have constraints. And the animation shown here is fairly simple (no human features). There is no user study or proof that this tool works in a complex animation. Also mapping finger motion to walking is natural but how does mapping other parts of the body to the hand help.

Comments: Sashi, Drew