Combining Generative and Discriminative Models in a Framework for Articulated Pose Estimation

We develop a method for the estimation of articulated pose, such as that of the human body or the human hand, from a single (monocular) image. Pose estimation is formulated as a statistical inference problem, where the goal is to find a posterior probability distribution over poses as well as a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate. The method combines two modeling approaches, one discriminative and the other generative. The discriminative model consists of a set of mapping functions that are constructed automatically from a labeled training set of body poses and their respective image features. The discriminative formulation allows for modeling ambiguous, one-to-many mappings (through the use of multi-modal distributions) that may yield multiple valid articulated pose hypotheses from a single image. The generative model is defined in terms of a computer graphics rendering of poses. While the generative model offers an accurate way to relate observed (image features) and hidden (body po...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: IJCV
• Authors: Rómer Rosales, Stan Sclaroff
• Keywords: Discriminative Model, Estimation, Human Hand, IJCV 2006