Researchers' AI can perform 3D motion capture with any off-the-shelf camera

But researchers at the Max Planck Institute and Facebook Reality Labs claim they've developed a machine learning algorithm -- PhysCap -- that works with any off-the-shelf DSLR camera running at 25 frames per second. In a paper expected to be published in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics in November 2020, the team details what they say is the first of its kind for real-time, physically plausible 3D motion capture that accounts for environmental constraints like floor placement. PhysCap ostensibly achieves state-of-the-art accuracy on existing benchmarks and qualitatively improves stability at training time. Motion capture is a core part of modern film, game, and app development. Attempts to make motion capture practical for amateur videographers have ranged from a $2,500 suit to a commercially available framework that leverages Microsoft's depth-sensing Kinect.