An Overview and History of Motion Capture
Midori Kitagawa, Brian Windsor · 2020
Motion capture (mocap) samples and records motion of humans, animals, and inanimate objects as three-dimensional data. The data can be used to study motion or to give an illusion of life to three-dimensional computer models. The development of modern day mocap technology has been led by the medical science, army, and computer generated imagery field where it is used for a wide variety of purposes. The chapter sheds light on some of the pioneers in mocap in the 19th and 20th centuries. Mocap systems commercially available today can be categorized into three main groups: optical systems, magnetic systems, and mechanical systems. Mechanical (exo-skeletal) mocap systems directly measure joint angles of a capture subject who wears an articulated device that consists of straight rods and potentiometers.