The Kneed Walker for human pose tracking

The Kneed Walker is a physics-based model derived from a planar biomechanical characterization of human locomotion. By controlling torques at the knees, hips and torso, the model captures a full range of walking motions with foot contact and balance. Constraints are used to properly handle ground collisions and joint limits. A prior density over walking motions is based on dynamics that are optimized for efficient cyclic gaits over a wide range of natural human walking speeds and step lengths, on different slopes. The generative model used for monocular tracking comprises the Kneed Walker prior, a 3D kinematic model constrained to be consistent with the underlying dynamics, and a simple measurement model in terms of appearance and optical flow. The tracker is applied to people walking with varying speeds, on hills, and with occlusion.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: CVPR
• Authors: Marcus A. Brubaker, David J. Fleet
• Keywords: Computer Vision, CVPR 2008, Generative Model, Human Walking Speeds, Kinematic Model, Physics-based Model, Simple Measurement Model