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Diploma and Master Theses (authored and supervised):

G. Gerstweiler, E. Vonach:
"Development of an Active Motion Capture Suit for Teaching Motion Skills";
Supervisor: H. Kaufmann; 188/2, 2011.



English abstract:
Current multimedia support for teaching and practicing motion skills is usually
limited to video and two-dimensional graphics. Especially in areas like
rehabilitation and sports the employment of virtual reality applications for
educational purposes could offer considerable benefits, like a detailed real-time
feedback about the training progress or the support of motivation and autonomy
of the users. However for any virtual reality motion skill training system a means
for motion input is essential.
In particular application areas related to sports impose a number of special
requirements that have to be considered. Most full body motion capture devices
are either specifically designed for a certain application or not suitable for sports
due to different reasons. For example in a lot of sporting activities it might be
required to lie on the floor, perform rolls or make direct contact with other
tracked persons. For that reason motion capture techniques where the user has
to be equipped with relatively large devices could cause pain if making physical
contact to hard surfaces like the floor. Furthermore matters like possible fast
movements, sufficient freedom of motion and hygienic issues have to be
considered as well.
The authors show in the course of this work, that a motion capture suit with
active infrared optical markers can be constructed to meet the special
challenges of motion skill training. For that purpose they compile a wide range
of related requirements and devise concepts to fulfill these needs. Subsequently
these concepts are applied to construct a fully functional prototype, suitable for
a broad range of sporting activities. In order to assess the performance of the
active motion suit in an educational context and to demonstrate the potential of
the employment of a virtual environment, the constructed input device is used in
an actual virtual reality application for teaching motion skills.
The active motion capture suit developed in this project is suitable for sports
and rehabilitation, but not limited to these specific application areas. Most
importantly the authors successfully accomplished to incorporate all required
wiring and electronic components unobtrusive. Due to individually controllable
markers the layout can be optimized for different setups and tracking
algorithms.

Keywords:
Motion Skill Training, Active Optical Motion Suit, Full Body Motion Capturing, Active Infrared Markers, Virtual Reality


Electronic version of the publication:
http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_204368.pdf


Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.