Markerless Visual Human Movement Tracking for HCI: What Frequency?

Abstract

This paper tries to establish a minimal tracking frequency limit for visual human movement tracking algorithms that intend to be useful for the realization of some kind Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) metaphor. More specifically, we examine the question of this minimal frequency for Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) navigation and 3D object manipulation. We approach the question from three different perspectives: shortly reviewing non-visual and visual marker-based solutions integrated regularly into AR/VR systems, spectral analysis of human movement and latency implications for AR/VR settings. Finally, we conclude the paper by combining and discussing the results from these different areas. We find that tracking with update rates as low as 12.5Hz can provide a usable basis for interaction. The most important message of the paper is that stable and working (even if slow, when compared to other techniques) markerless tracking algorithms are desperately needed because only working online with and based on such systems can the pros and cons of markerless tracking be evaluated.