IP Library Granted Patent US 8,867,786
Granted Patent B2
US 8,867,786 · App. 13/665,627 · Granted Oct 21, 2014

Scenario-specific body-part tracking

Inventor: Robert Matthew Craig (Bellevue, WA)
Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,867,786
App. No.
13/665,627
Granted
Oct 21, 2014
Kind
B2
Abstract

A human subject is tracked within a scene of an observed depth image supplied to a general-purpose body-part tracker. The general-purpose body-part tracker is retrained for a specific scenario. The general-purpose body-part tracker was previously trained using supervised machine learning to identify one or more general-purpose parameters to be used by the general-purpose body-part tracker to track a human subject. During a retraining phase, scenario data is received that represents a human training-subject performing an action specific to a particular scenario. One or more special-purpose parameters are identified from the processed scenario data. The special-purpose parameters are selectively used to augment or replace one or more general-purpose parameters if the general-purpose body-part tracker is used to track a human subject performing the action specific to the particular scenario.

Claims (54)

1. A method of retraining a general-purpose body-part tracker, the method comprising:

receiving a set of different instances of scenario data, each instance of scenario data representing a human training-subject performing an action specific to a particular scenario;

iterating over the set of different instances of scenario data with the general-purpose body-part tracker, the general-purpose body-part tracker previously trained using supervised machine learning to identify one or more general-purpose parameters to be used by the general-purpose body-part tracker to track a human subject; and

identifying one or more special-purpose parameters to be selectively used to augment or replace the one or more general-purpose parameters if the general-purpose body-part tracker is used to track a human subject performing the action specific to the particular scenario; and

associating the one or more special-purpose parameters with a scenario identifier that identifies the particular scenario for which the special-purpose parameters are to be selectively used by the general-purpose body-part tracker to track a human subject.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving input data representing a human subject performing an action;

receiving the scenario identifier indicated as being applicable to the input data; and

analyzing the input data with the general-purpose body-part tracker using the one or more special-purpose parameters associated with the scenario identifier indicated as being applicable to the input data to identify a body model representing the human subject.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more special-purpose parameters influence one or more of:

a weighting of one or more classifier functions used to identify the body model of the human subject;

a selection and/or branching of one or more classifier functions used to identify the body model of the human subject;

a weighting of one or more regression functions used to identify a position of at least a portion of the body model of the human subject in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space; and/or

a selection and/or branching of one or more regression functions used to identify a position of at least a portion of the body model of the human subject in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more special-purpose parameters influence selection of a three-dimensional position of one or more points defining the body model of the human subject.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

retrieving the one or more special-purpose parameters associated with the scenario identifier from a data store responsive to receiving the scenario identifier, the data store forming an element of an application program.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving input data representing a human subject performing an action;

analyzing the input data with the general-purpose body-part tracker using the one or more special-purpose parameters associated with the scenario identifier; and

outputting an indication that the input data is applicable to the particular scenario, the indication including the scenario identifier.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein each instance of scenario data includes one or more depth images representing a depth-camera recording of the human training-subject performing the action.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein retraining to identify the one or more special-purpose parameters is unsupervised, and the set of different instances of scenario data is received without supervised ground-truth annotations.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

outputting an indication that one or more additional instances of scenario data are needed based on convergence and/or divergence of said iterating.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving from a currently-active application program, an indication that a currently-observed human subject is performing the action specific to the particular scenario, the indication representative of the scenario identifier; and

using the one or more special-purpose parameters associated with the scenario identifier to enhance body-part tracking of the general-purpose body-part tracker if the general-purpose body-part tracker tracks the currently-observed human performing the action specific to the particular scenario.

11. A storage device holding instructions, the instructions defining a body-part tracker, the instructions executable by a logic device to:

receive a set of different instances of scenario data, each instance of scenario data representing a human training-subject performing an action specific to a particular scenario;

iterate over the set of different instances of scenario data with the general-purpose body-part tracker, the general-purpose body-part tracker previously trained using supervised machine learning to identify one or more general-purpose parameters to be used by the general-purpose body-part tracker to track a human subject; and

identify one or more special-purpose parameters to be selectively used to augment or replace the one or more general-purpose parameters if the general-purpose body-part tracker is used to track a human subject performing the action specific to the particular scenario, the one or more special-purpose parameters based on iteration over the set of different instances of scenario data;

receive input data representing a human subject performing the action specific to the particular scenario; receive an indication of applicability of the one or more special-purpose parameters to the input data; analyze the input data with the general-purpose body-part tracker using the one or more special-purpose parameters indicated as being applicable to the input data to identify a body model of the human subject performing the action.

12. The storage device of claim 11 , further executable by the logic device to: output an indication that one or more additional instances of scenario data are needed based on convergence and/or divergence of the iteration.

13. The storage device of claim 11 , further executable by the logic device to: associate the one or more special-purpose parameters with a scenario identifier that identifies the particular scenario for which the special-purpose parameters are to be selectively used by the general-purpose body-part tracker to track a human subject; and wherein the indication of applicability includes the scenario identifier.

14. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the one or more special-purpose parameters influence one or more of: a weighting of one or more classifier functions used to identify the body model of the human subject; and/or a selection and/or branching of one or more classifier functions used to identify the body model of the human subject; a weighting of one or more regression functions used to identify a position of at least a portion of the body model of the human subject in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space; and/or a selection and/or branching of one or more regression functions used to identify a position of at least a portion of the body model of the human subject in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space.

15. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the one or more special-purpose parameters influence selection of a three-dimensional position of one or more points defining the body model of the human subject.

16. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein each instance of scenario data includes one or more depth images representing a depth-camera recording of the human training-subject performing the action; and wherein the input data representing a human subject includes one or more depth images representing a depth-camera recording of the human subject performing the action.

17. The storage device of claim 11 , further executable by the logic device to: receive the set of different instances of scenario data without supervised ground-truth annotations; and identify the one or more special-purpose parameters without supervised ground-truth annotations.

18. A method of tracking a human subject, the method comprising:

receiving input data including a depth image representing a depth-camera recording of a human subject performing an action;

receiving a scenario identifier indicated as being applicable to the input data;

retrieving one or more special-purpose parameters associated with the scenario identifier from a data store; and

analyzing the input data with a general-purpose body-part tracker using the one or more special-purpose parameters that augment or replace one or more general-purpose parameters to identify a body model representing the human subject performing the action;

the general-purpose body-part tracker previously trained using unsupervised machine learning to identify the one or more special-purpose parameters after being initially trained using supervised machine learning to identify the one or more general-purpose parameters.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising, during previous training using unsupervised machine learning:

receiving a set of different instances of scenario data, each instance of scenario data representing a human training-subject performing an action specific to a particular scenario;

identifying, based on the set of different instances of scenario data, one or more special-purpose parameters to be selectively used to augment or replace the one or more general-purpose parameters if the general-purpose body-part tracker is used to track the human subject performing the action specific to the particular scenario; and

associating the one or more special-purpose parameters with the scenario identifier that identifies the particular scenario for which the special-purpose parameters are to be selectively used by the general-purpose body-part tracker to track the human subject.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the one or more special-purpose parameters influence one or more of:

a weighting of one or more classifier functions used to identify the body model of the human subject;

a selection and/or branching of one or more classifier functions used to identify the body model of the human subject;

a weighting of one or more regression functions used to identify a position of at least a portion of the body model of the human subject in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space; and/or

a selection and/or branching of one or more regression functions used to identify a position of at least a portion of the body model of the human subject in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 9, 2014
From: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
To: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
Reel/Frame 034544/0541 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 1, 2012
From: CRAIG, ROBERT MATTHEW
To: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 029222/0791 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20140119640A1 · May 1, 2014