Using wearable sensors for real-time recognition tasks in games of martial arts – An initi

Abstract — Beside their stunning graphics, modern entertainment systems feature ever-higher levels of immersive userinteraction. Today, this is mostly achieved by virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) setups. On top of these, we envision to add ambient

UsingWearableSensorsforReal-timeRecognitionTasksinGamesofMartialArts–AnInitialExperiment

ErnstA.Heinz,KaiKunze,MatthiasGruber,DavidBannach,PaulLukowiczInstituteforComputerSystemsandNetworks(CSN)

UMIT–UniversityofHealthSystems,MedicalInformaticsandTechnology

HallinTyrol,=Austria=

{ernst.heinz,kai.kunze,matthias.gruber,david.bannach,paul.lukowicz}@umit.at,URL=http://csn.umit.at/

Abstract—Besidetheirstunninggraphics,modernentertain-mentsystemsfeatureever-higherlevelsofimmersiveuser-interaction.Today,thisismostlyachievedbyvirtual(VR)andaugmentedreality(AR)setups.Ontopofthese,weenvisiontoaddambientintelligenceandcontextawarenesstogamingapplicationsingeneralandgamesofmartialartsinparticular.Tothisend,weconductedaninitialexperimentwithinexpensivebody-worngyroscopesandaccelerationsensorsfortheChumKiumotionsequenceinWingChun(apopularformofKungFu).Theresultingdatacon rmthefeasibilityofourvision.Fine-tunedadaptationsofvariousthresholdingandpattern-matchingtechniquesknownfromthe eldsofcomputationalintelligenceandsignalprocessingshouldsuf cetoautomatetheanalysisandrecognitionofimportantWingChunmovementsinrealtime.Moreover,thedataalsoseemtoallowforthepossibilityofautomaticallydistinguishingbetweencertainlevelsofexpertiseandqualityinexecutingthemovements.

Keywords:Body-wornSensors,Experiment,GamesofMartialArts,KungFu,MotionAnalysis,MovementRecog-nition,WearableComputing,WingChun

I.INTRODUCTION

Videoanalysisandmotioncapturingarestandardtoolsinprofessionalsportstomonitorandimproveathleticperfor-mancebyrecognizingand ne-tuningthequalityofmove-ment.Cutting-edgesystemswithhigh-qualitysensorshardlysuf cetoful lltheseprofessionals’needs.Quiteoften,trainersandotherexpertsstillprocesstherecordeddatabyhand.Thewholesetupandprocedurearenotonlyexpensiveandtime-consumingbutalsoerror-proneinthesensethattheeffectivenessoftheanalysisdependsonthehumansdoingit.Hence,thelarge-scaleuseofsimilaranalysesforthehobbyistandgamingmassesrequiresacompletelydifferentapproach.Inparticular,asweliketoincreasetheimmersivenessoftheuserexperienceandinteractioninvideogamesofmartialartswherepeople’sreal-worldphysicalactionsdirectlyneedtodirectlyaffecttheirplayingreality.

Weenvisiontoemployinexpensivewearablesensorstoachievethis–preferablytinygyroscopesandaccelerometerswornbypeopleontheirbodiesintegratedintotheirclothesandotherpersonalaccessories(e.g.,watchesorjewelery).Suchbody-mountedsensorsprovideaninexpensivealterna-tiveformotionanalysiswhilelettingusersmoveandroamaboutfreely,independentofanyadditionalinfrastructure.AsdecribedinSectionIII,weconductedaninitialexperimentcapturingWingChunmovementswithwearablegyroscopes

andaccelerationsensorstotestthefeasibilityofourvision.SectionIVdiscussesandanalyzestheexperimentalresults,provingtobeverypromisingindeed.Basedthereon,itcertainlyseemsworthwhiletocontinueinthisdirectionandtrytoautomateatleastsomeparts(ifnotall)ofanexpertanalysisformanyimportantWingChunmovements.

Besideinsportsandgameplay,martialartsfromtheFarEastgainevermorepopularityandimportanceinmanyotherareasaswell.TaiChi,forinstance,isofspecialinterestbecauseclinicalstudiesshowthatithelpstoreducetheprobabilityoffalling,especiallyfortheelderly[1]andpatientswithchronicconditions[2].

II.RELATEDWORK

Bynow,manyindependentresearchershavedemonstratedthesuitabilityandexcellentfurtherpotentialofbody-wornsensorsforautomaticcontextandactivityrecognition,e.g.,[3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9],[11].Theavailablescienti cliteraturereportsaboutsuccessfulapplicationsofsuchsen-sorstovarioustypesofactivities,rangingfromtheanalysisofsimplemodesoflocomotion[5]tomorecomplextasksofeverydaylife[4]andevenworkshopassembly[10].Therearemuchfewerpublications,however,aboutusingwearablesensorsinmartialarts.In[12],wearablepressuresensorsintegratedintobodyprotectorshelptocontrolandde-cidethecountingofpointsforTaekwando.Supposedlyhelp-ingchildrenwiththeirKungFueducation,[13]introducessomekindofinteractivecomputerizedtoyball.FocusingonKungFu,[14]presentsavideocapturingsystemforarti cialandaugmentedrealitygamesofmartialarts.Theworkemphasizesthespeci cgamingaspectsoftheapplicationandsuffersfromtheusualdrawbacksofvideo-basedapproaches,i.e.,highsensitivityforlightingconditionsanddemandingrequirementsonequipmentandinfrastructure.Othervideo-basedcaptureandprocessingsystemsforaugmentedvirtualrealitygamingandtrainingarepresentedin[15]and[16].ThelatterintroducesawirelessvirtualrealitysystemandsomeprototypeTaiChitrainingapplicationontopofit.Yet,thesystemfeaturesonlylimitedusabilityandveryrestricteddegreesoffreedomfortheuser.Moreover,itdoesnotevaluatefullmotionbutjuststancesinstead.

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