Real-time skeleton tracking for embedded systems

Foti Coleca; Sascha Klement; Thomas Martinetz; Erhardt Barth

doi:10.1117/12.2003004

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7 March 2013 Real-time skeleton tracking for embedded systems

Foti Coleca, Sascha Klement, Thomas Martinetz, Erhardt Barth

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Proceedings Volume 8667, Multimedia Content and Mobile Devices; 86671X (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2003004
Event: IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, 2013, Burlingame, California, United States

Abstract

Touch-free gesture technology is beginning to become more popular with consumers and may have a significant future impact on interfaces for digital photography. However, almost every commercial software framework for gesture and pose detection is aimed at either desktop PCs or high-powered GPUs, making mobile implementations for gesture recognition an attractive area for research and development. In this paper we present an algorithm for hand skeleton tracking and gesture recognition that runs on an ARM-based platform (Pandaboard ES, OMAP 4460 architecture). The algorithm uses self-organizing maps to fit a given topology (skeleton) into a 3D point cloud. This is a novel way of approaching the problem of pose recognition as it does not employ complex optimization techniques or data-based learning. After an initial background segmentation step, the algorithm is ran in parallel with heuristics, which detect and correct artifacts arising from insufficient or erroneous input data. We then optimize the algorithm for the ARM platform using fixed-point computation and the NEON SIMD architecture the OMAP4460 provides. We tested the algorithm with two different depth-sensing devices (Microsoft Kinect, PMD Camboard). For both input devices we were able to accurately track the skeleton at the native framerate of the cameras.

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Foti Coleca, Sascha Klement, Thomas Martinetz, and Erhardt Barth "Real-time skeleton tracking for embedded systems", Proc. SPIE 8667, Multimedia Content and Mobile Devices, 86671X (7 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2003004

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