3-D recovery of human motion by mobile stereo cameras

A method is described which recovers the 3-D shape of deformable objects, particularly human motions, from mobile stereo images. In the proposed technique, camera calibration is not required when taking images. Existing optical 3-D modeling systems must employ calibrated cameras that are set at fixed positions. This inevitably puts constraints on the range of the movement of an object. In the proposed method, multiple mobile cameras take images of a deformable object moving freely, and its 3-D model is reconstructed from the video image streams obtained. The advantages of the proposed method include the fact that the cameras employed are calibration-free, and that the image-taking cameras can move freely. The theory is described, and the performance is shown by an experiment on 3-D human motion modeling in an outdoor environment. The accuracy of the 3-D model obtained is evaluated and a discussion is given. This work was presented in part at the 10th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, February 4–6, 2005