is it possible to find the distance between the legs of a walking person using MATLAB?

2 views (last 30 days)
is it possible to find the distance between the legs of a walking person using MATLAB? human walking video is the input..
  2 Comments
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 26 Apr 2013
Is the walking person a fixed distance away? Are they walking at a fixed angle? Are there ground markings that could be used to determine the distance?
Cedric
Cedric on 26 Apr 2013
Edited: Cedric on 26 Apr 2013
Could you put color patches or e.g. infra red LEDs on their legs, or are these random persons?

Sign in to comment.

Accepted Answer

Anchit Dhar
Anchit Dhar on 26 Apr 2013
As an alternative, you can use Skeletal tracking with the Kinect for Windows sensor. This problem will get reduced to distance computation between the ankle/Knee joints(3D points), whichever fits your definition for distance.
Note: Kinect for Windows is supported in MATLAB through Image Acquisition Toolbox, R2013a onwards.
  3 Comments
Sivakumaran Chandrasekaran
@ Anchit.. Kinect looks cool. I dont have much details about the integration of MATLAB with it, but the device is good.but more costlier.
Anchit Dhar
Anchit Dhar on 1 May 2013
@Walter: From what I have observed while working with Kinect for Windows, it does a very good job of localizing the joint coordinates. But then, it all depends on what accuracy are you looking for.
@Siva: Here is a link to the example for getting the joint coordinates from a Kinect for Windows sensor using MATLAB & Image Acquisition Toolbox:

Sign in to comment.

More Answers (2)

Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 26 Apr 2013
No. You cannot determine the distance between legs of someone in a hoop skirt with a sufficiently long train.
  3 Comments

Sign in to comment.


Jan
Jan on 26 Apr 2013
How is "distance between legs" mathematically defined? Legs consists of at least 3 rigid segments (simulating the 26 bones of the feet seems to be over-doing here) with a spatial extent. While the distnace between the hip-joint centers is (almost) constant, the "distance" between the lower leg segments or the feet needs a meaningful definition before we can discuss, if this can be determined by a 2D-projected movie.
  9 Comments
Jan
Jan on 27 Apr 2013
@Sivakumaran Chandrasekaran: The problem of the "distance" is still not cleared: Do you mean the 3D-distance between the center of the feet in each frame of the movie? Or the distance between the points on the floor, where the heels get ground contact during walking? While the first distances varies from frame to frame, the second distance varies from stride to stride.
Note that it is very hard to define the center of a foot exactly, most of all in 3D.

Sign in to comment.

Community Treasure Hunt

Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!

Start Hunting!