Integration of bottom-up/top-down approaches for 2D pose estimation using probabilistic Gaussian modelling

In this paper, we address the recovery of human 2D postures from monocular image sequences. We propose a novel pose estimation framework which is based on the integration of probabilistic bottom-up and top-down processes which iteratively refine each other: foreground pixels are segmented using image cues whereas a hierarchical 2D body model fitting constraints body partitions. Its main advantages are two-fold. First, the presented framework is activity-independent since it does not rely on learning any motion model. Secondly, we propose a confidence score indicating the quality of each estimated pose. Our study also reveals significant discrepancy between ground truth joint positions according to whether they are defined by humans or a motion capture system. Quantitative and qualitative results are presented on a variety of video sequences to validate our approach

Human Pose Estimation from Monocular Images : a Comprehensive Survey

Human pose estimation refers to the estimation of the location of body parts and how they are connected in an image. Human pose estimation from monocular images has wide applications (e.g., image indexing). Several surveys on human pose estimation can be found in the literature, but they focus on a certain category; for example, model-based approaches or human motion analysis, etc. As far as we know, an overall review of this problem domain has yet to be provided. Furthermore, recent advancements based on deep learning have brought novel algorithms for this problem. In this paper, a comprehensive survey of human pose estimation from monocular images is carried out including milestone works and recent advancements. Based on one standard pipeline for the solution of computer vision problems, this survey splits the problema into several modules: feature extraction and description, human body models, and modelin methods. Problem modeling methods are approached based on two means of categorization in this survey. One way to categorize includes top-down and bottom-up methods, and another way includes generative and discriminative methods. Considering the fact that one direct application of human pose estimation is to provide initialization for automatic video surveillance, there are additional sections for motion-related methods in all modules: motion features, motion models, and motion-based methods. Finally, the paper also collects 26 publicly available data sets for validation and provides error measurement methods that are frequently used