Monocular 3D Human Motion Estimation With Global Temporal Aggregation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods for estimating temporally consistent 3D human shape and motion from monocular video fail to effectively capture long-term temporal dynamics and perform poorly under occlusions due to limitations in spatio-temporal feature aggregation and lack of exploitation of human body's geometric model and appearance.

Innovation Solution

A method that utilizes Continuous Surface Embeddings (CSE) for body-aware feature extraction, self-similarity and self-attention mechanisms for spatio-temporal feature aggregation, and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) refinement to predict and refine 3D human shape and motion, incorporating camera parameters for improved temporal consistency.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If CNN or RNN modules are used for spatio-temporal feature aggregation from neighboring frames, then local temporal coherence is improved, but long-term temporal dynamics are lost

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvelocal temporal coherenceVSAvoidlong-term temporal dynamics
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extends the temporal aggregation beyond local neighboring frames by incorporating features from the entire video sequence, transitioning from a local temporal window to a global temporal dimension. This allows the model to capture both local coherence and long-term dynamics simultaneously.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent employs a unified spatio-temporal feature aggregation mechanism that serves multiple functions: capturing local temporal coherence through neighboring frames and capturing long-term temporal dynamics through the entire video sequence, making the model versatile for different temporal scales.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Ease of manufacture

If generic deep features from RGB frames are used, then feature extraction is simplified, but human body geometric model prior knowledge is not exploited

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvefeature extraction simplicityVSAvoidhuman body geometric model accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent transforms generic RGB frame features into body-aware features by incorporating parameters from the human body geometric model (SMPL). This parameter transformation integrates prior knowledge about human body topology and geometry into the feature representation, improving measurement precision while maintaining reasonable complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces body-aware features as an intermediary between generic RGB features and the final 3D human pose estimation. These features serve as a bridge that incorporates human body geometric model prior knowledge into the deep learning pipeline, enhancing accuracy without requiring direct integration of complex geometric models.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Productivity

If per-frame prediction is performed without joint-estimation, then processing speed is improved, but temporal consistency deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprocessing speedVSAvoidtemporal consistency
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs joint-estimation of 3D human pose and shape across the entire video sequence rather than independent per-frame prediction. This continuous estimation approach ensures temporal consistency by considering all frames simultaneously, maintaining stable and coherent human motion representation throughout the video.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #20Continuity of useful action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary spatio-temporal feature aggregation from the entire video sequence before final prediction. This preliminary action of aggregating features across all frames ensures that temporal information is captured early in the processing pipeline, enabling consistent predictions while maintaining reasonable processing efficiency.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4446990B1Method and system for estimating temporally consistent 3D human shape and motion from monocular video
Publication Date: 2026.02.11 TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD
  • EP4446990B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4446990B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4446990B1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

Estimating temporally consistent 3D human body shape, pose, and motion from a monocular video is a challenging task due to occlusions, poor lightning conditions, complex articulated body poses, depth ambiguity, and limited availability of annotated data. Embodiments of present disclosure provide a method for temporally consistent motion estimation from monocular video. A monocular video of person(s) is captured by a weak perspective camera and spatial features of body of the persons are extracted from each frame of the video. Then, initial estimates of body shape, body pose, and features of the weak perspective camera are obtained. The spatial features and initial estimates are then aggregated to obtain spatio-temporal features by a combination of self-similarity matrices between the spatial features, pose and the camera and selfattention maps of the camera features and the spatial features. The spatio-temporal aggregated features are then used to predict shape and pose parameters of the person(s).