Utilization of a Video Theodolite System for Dynamic Analysis of Human Motion

• Published in: Journal of the Japan society of photogrammetry and remote sensing Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 77 - 80
• Main Authors: MURAI, Shunji, CHIKATSU, Hirofumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 1994
• ISSN: 0285-5844; 1883-9061
• DOI: 10.4287/jsprs.33.3_77

Video image sequences often give important information about the dynamics of human motion in the field of sports, training or rehabilitation. In understanding of the dynamics of human motion from general TV or video image sequences, there are two complicated subjects. One is image processing, for example automated recognition of features on the human body, such as e.g. the head, elbows or knees. The second is how to estimate the photogrammetric camera orientation parameters on a moving camera. This paper describes the development of a video theodolite system, consisting of a CCD camera, a theodolite and a video recorder. The system makes it possible to record image data with a moving camera and simultaneously determine the camera rotation parameters in real time. The authors first analyzed the dynamics of the sprinter Carl Lewis and that of boat rowing by using TV images. In both these cases however, the camera orientation parameters could be determined by utilizing fixed information in the images such as the goal line and course lines in the first case, and the buoys marking the rowing course line in the second case. But often, there exist no such fixed information in the images why the authors concentrated on developing a system where the camera orientation parameters could be determined in real time while recording a moving object. In order to measure the rotation parameters, a CCD camera was mounted on top of a theodolite.ωand κwere defined as the horizontal and vertical angles respectively, φalways being 0 degrees as the theodolite was levelled. The current values of the parameters were then superimposed continuously on the image frames and thus recorded as a part of the image data.