Motion Classification Using Dynamic Time Warping

Automatic generation of metadata is an important component of multimedia search-by-content systems as it both avoids the need for manual annotation as well as minimising subjective descriptions and human errors. This paper explores the automatic attachment of basic descriptions (or 'Tags') to human motion held in a motion-capture database on the basis of a Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) approach. The captured motion is held in the Acclaim ASF/AMC format commonly used in game and movie motion capture work and the approach allows for the comparison and classification of motion from different subjects. The work analyses the bone rotations important to a small set of movements and results indicate that only a small set of examples is required to perform reliable motion classification.