Example-based control of human motion

Abstract

In human motion control applications, the mapping between a control specification and an appropriate target motion often defies an explicit encoding. This thesis presents a method that allows such a mapping to be defined by example, given that the control specification is recorded motion. The method begins by building a database of semantically meaningful instances of the mapping, each of which is represented by synchronized segments of control and target motion. A dynamic programming algorithm can then be used to interpret an input control specification in terms of mapping instances. This interpretation induces a sequence of target segments from the database, which is concatenated to create the appropriate target motion. The method is evaluated on two examples of indirect control. In the first, it is used to synthesize a walking human character that follows a sampled trajectory. In the second, it is used generate a synthetic partner for a dancer whose motion is acquired through motion capture.