Camera-Filled Dome Recreates Full 3-D Motion Scenes
Those thrilling moments when a soccer player kicks home the winning goal in the World Cup final or Beyonce debuts new dance choreography in concert might someday be recreated in full 3-D motion down to the smallest piece of confetti and played back from almost any angle. Such a possibility comes from a new motion-capture technique capable of reconstructing scenes captured by more than 500 video cameras mounted inside a two-story geodesic dome.
The new technique comes from Carnegie Mellon University researchers working in the Panoptic Studio—a video lab with a camera system capable of capturing 100,000 different points in motion at any time. Researchers developed a technique that uses consistent motion patterns as a cue for identifying and tracking certain points on an object captured by cameras. And it all works without the need for physical markers, such as those used by Hollywood motion-capture systems to translate the acting performance of Andy Serkis into the movements of the ape leader Caesar in the newest “Planet of the Apes” films.
More: Camera-Filled Dome Recreates Full 3-D Motion Scenes - IEEE Spectrum