Real-time motion capture system using one video camera based on color and edge distribution

This paper proposes a real-time, video based motion capture system using only one video camera. Since conventional video based motion capture systems need many cameras and take a long time to deal with many video images, they cannot generate motion data in real time. Therefore they cannot be used as a real-time input device for a standard PC. On the other hand, the prototype system proposed in this paper uses only one video camera, it takes video images of the upper body of the person, e.g., x, y, z position of the hands, a face rotation, a body rotation, etc., and it employs a very simple motion-tracking method to generate such upper body motion data in real time. This paper mainly describes its aspects as a hand and face motion-capturing device for a standard PC showing its application examples.