Analysis of Human Shapes and Motion – Morpho

This research project is aimed at designing new technologies for the measure and the analysis of human motions using visual data. Recent advances in computer vision allow to capture full deformations of dynamic and evolving surfaces. In this project we propose to study how to use such capture data for the purpose of combined analyses of both shapes and motions. The interest arises in several application domains where temporal surface deformations need to be captured and analyzed. In particular, potential applications with human bodies are numerous and the project focus is therefore on human body and on how to characterize their movements through new biometric models for analysis purposes. To this aim, three main challenges need to solved. First, temporally consistent 3D models are required prior to any motion-related processing. This means that temporal correspondences, i.e. point trajectories, need to be estimated. The second challenge lies in the design of analyzing tools that consider temporally consistent 3D models. In this project, it is planned to use spectral analysis tools and manifold learning tools for that purpose. A third challenge is the application to human body analysis. This project will explore new biometric measures that account for both shapes and motions in the analysis. In order to solve for these scientific challenges, the project consortium brings together 3 academic partners from Grenoble and Nancy. The Laboratoire Jean Kuntzman participates with 2 leading research teams, PERCEPTION and EVASION, that are specializing in 3D modeling of dynamic scenes from videos and motion animation tools respectively. The GIPSA-lab and its department of Automatics provides a strong experience in human motion analysis and the ability to explore new applications in various fields including medical applications. The LORIA participates with the ALICE research team that is internationally recognized for its expertise in geometry processing and will contribute in the development of shape analyzing tools.