Undressing the Human Body

Imagine you are a police detective trying to identify a suspect wearing a trench coat, baggy pants and a baseball cap pulled low. Or imagine you are a fashion industry executive who wants to market virtual clothing that customers of all shapes and sizes can try online before they purchase. Perhaps you want to create the next generation of “Guitar Hero” in which the user, not some character, is pumping out the licks. The main obstacle to these and other pursuits is creating a realistic, 3D body shape — especially when the figure is clothed or obscured. Researchers have created a computer program that can accurately map the human body’s shape from digital images or video. This is an advance from current body scanning technology, which requires people to stand still without clothing in order to produce a 3D model of the body. With the new 3D body-shape model, the scientists can determine a person’s gender and calculate an individual’s waist size, chest size, height, weight and other features.

The potential applications are broad. Besides forensics and fashion, Black and Balan’s research could benefit the film industry. Currently, actors must wear tight-fitting suits covered with reflective markers to have their motion captured. The new approach could capture both the actors’ shape and motion, while doing away with the markers and suits. In sports medicine, doctors would be able to use accurate, computerized models of athletes’ bodies to better identify susceptibility to injury. In the gaming world, it could mean the next generation of interactive technology. Instead of acting through a character, a camera could track the user, create a 3D representation of that person’s body and insert the user into the video game. The researchers stress the technique is not invasive; it does not use X-rays, nor does it actually see through clothing. The software makes an intelligent guess about the person’s exact body shape.

More information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081027101350.htm

http://www.cs.brown.edu/~alb/scapeClothing/