A Mobile Motion Capture Technique Excelling in 3-D Modeling of Temporary Events

This paper presents a novel technique for motion capture applicable to temporary events. Every existent optical motion capture system employs stereo vision technique for 3D shape recovery. It needs multiple fixed cameras and their calibration. This restricts the system from applying to temporary events that need immediate image taking without camera calibration such as traffic accidents or unannounced street events. The optical motion capture technique described in this paper does not need camera calibration at the spot of an event interested. A 3-D model of the event is yielded from the captured video images by the application of the factorization technique. An experiment was conducted in which table tennis player´s motions were captured at an athletic gym and its 3-D model was yielded at the lab. Two uncalibrated mobile cameras were employed for the experiment and satisfactory results were obtained. Discussion is given on future application of the technique.