VRLOCO: Real-Time Human Locomotion from Positional Input Streams

Virtual reality applications, especially in entertainment and training, require environments populated with multiple interacting humans. Whether the virtual humans are controlled by real people or by computer programs, a large portion of their activity will involve locomotion. This paper presents VRLOCO, a locomotion engine designed to meet the locomotion requirements of virtual environments. First, VRLOCO is broadly capable; it includes five locomotion primitives—walking, running, lateral stepping, turning around, and backward stepping—and can blend smoothly between primitives during transitions. Second, locomotion control in VRLOCO is simple; controllers drive the locomotion by supplying streams of intuitive positional inputs—desired body center position and facing direction—over time. Finally, VRLOCO is responsive and efficient; it generates locomotion on-line, processing user- or program-generated control inputs and producing new frames at rates greater than 30 Hz. Technically, VRLOCO combines a method for generalizing prototypical locomotion data with algorithms for determining locomotion mode and blending between different modes. The effectiveness of the approach has been tested using several locomotion controllers—programs representing autonomous agents, interactive graphic user interfaces, and a VR input device consisting of a stationary bicycle equipped with optical encoders and a microcontroller.

[1]  Norman I. Badler,et al.  Interactive behaviors for bipedal articulated figures , 1991, SIGGRAPH.

[2]  Daniel Thalmann,et al.  Combined Direct and Inverse Kinematic Control for Articulated Figure Motion Editing , 1992, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[3]  A. B. Drought,et al.  WALKING PATTERNS OF NORMAL MEN. , 1964, The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume.

[4]  Lance Williams,et al.  Motion signal processing , 1995, SIGGRAPH.

[5]  Shuuji Kajita,et al.  Dynamic walk control of a biped robot along the potential energy conserving orbit , 1990, EEE International Workshop on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Towards a New Frontier of Applications.

[6]  Ken-ichi Anjyo,et al.  Fourier principles for emotion-based human figure animation , 1995, SIGGRAPH.

[7]  Armin Bruderlin,et al.  Interactive animation of personalized human locomotion , 1993 .

[8]  Thomas W. Calvert,et al.  Goal-directed, dynamic animation of human walking , 1989, SIGGRAPH.

[9]  Norman I. Badler,et al.  Terrain reasoning for human locomotion , 1994, Proceedings of Computer Animation '94.

[10]  David Zeltzer,et al.  Dynamic simulation of autonomous legged locomotion , 1990, SIGGRAPH.

[11]  David C. Brogan,et al.  Animating human athletics , 1995, SIGGRAPH.

[12]  Yiannis E. Papelis,et al.  HCSM: a framework for behavior and scenario control in virtual environments , 1995, TOMC.

[13]  Jean-Claude Latombe,et al.  Planning motions with intentions , 1994, SIGGRAPH.

[14]  Hyeongseok Ko.  Kinematic and dynamic techniques for analyzing, predicting, and animating human locomotion , 1995 .

[15]  Mark Steedman,et al.  Animated conversation: rule-based generation of facial expression, gesture & spoken intonation for multiple conversational agents , 1994, SIGGRAPH.

[16]  J. Furusho,et al.  Control of a Dynamical Biped Locomotion System for Steady Walking , 1986 .

[17]  M. Vukobratovic,et al.  Biped Locomotion , 1990 .

[18]  Jessica K. Hodgins,et al.  Animation of dynamic legged locomotion , 1991, SIGGRAPH.

[19]  Michael Girard,et al.  Computational modeling for the computer animation of legged figures , 1998 .

[20]  Norman I. Badler,et al.  Intermittent Non-Rhythmic Human Stepping and Locomotion , 1993 .

[21]  Michael Girard,et al.  Computer animation of knowledge-based human grasping , 1991, SIGGRAPH.

[22]  Craig W. Reynolds.  Flocks, herds, and schools: a distributed behavioral model , 1998 .

[23]  I. Shimoyama,et al.  Dynamic Walk of a Biped , 1984 .

[24]  Hyeongseok Ko,et al.  Insertion of an articulated human into a networked virtual environment , 1994, Fifth Annual Conference on AI, and Planning in High Autonomy Systems.

[25]  N. Badler,et al.  Straight Line Walking Animation Based on Kinematic Generalization that Preserves the Original Characteristics , 1992 .