3D motion captured without markers

Though the research was performed in a specialised, heavily instrumented video laboratory, Yaser Sheikh, an assistant research professor of robotics who led the research team, said the techniques might eventually be applied to large-scale reconstructions of sporting events or performances captured by hundreds of cameras wielded by spectators.

The video lab, called the Panoptic Studio, also can be used to capture the fine details of people interacting.

In contrast to most previous work, which has typically involved around 10 to 20 video feeds, the Carnegie Mellon researchers weren’t concerned about gaps in data as their camera system can track 100,000 points at a time. Instead, they need to ascertain which of the multiple video trajectories can see each of those points and select only those camera views for the reconstruction.

‘At some point, extra camera views just become ’noise,’‘ said Hanbyul Joo, a Ph.D. student in the Robotics Institute. ‘To fully leverage hundreds of cameras, we need to figure out which cameras can see each target point at any given time.’