Motion estimation of elastic articulated objects from points and contours with volume invariable constraint

This paper presents a model of elastic articulated objects based on revolving conic surface and a method of model-based motion estimation. The model includes 3D object skeleton and deformable surfaces that can represent the deformation of human body surfaces. In each limb, surface deformation is represented by adjusting one or two deformation parameters. Then, the 3D deformation parameters are determined by corresponding 2D image points and contours with volume invariable constraint from a sequence of stereo images. The 3D motion parameters are estimated based on the 3D model. The algorithm presented in this paper includes model-based parameter estimation of motion and parameter determination of deformable surfaces. © 2007 Pattern Recognition Society.