Description and tracking of moving articulated objects

Proposes a method to obtain reliable shape description of articulated objects by integrating initial descriptions computed from different view images. Ribbon, which is a 2-D analog of a generalized cone, is used as the basic shape representation scheme. An initial description for each frame is the collection of composed ribbons, which is obtained after filtering out most inadequate ribbons and grouping the remaining ribbons by using geometric constraints. Ribbon matching is then conducted between different frames and ribbons which match are retained. From the retained ribbons, the geometric constraints make integrated descriptions and the tracking of parts is established from the ribbon matching results. Since the ribbon matching allows one ribbon to be matched with two ribbons, an articulation which is not detected in one frame but is detected in another frame can be recovered. Experimental results are also shown.>