title: Hybrid markerless tracking of complex articulated motion in golf swings.
abstract: Sports video tracking is a research topic that has attained increasing attention due to its high commercial potential. A number of sports, including tennis, soccer, gymnastics, running, golf, badminton and cricket have been utilised to display the novel ideas in sports motion tracking. The main challenge associated with this research concerns the extraction of a highly complex articulated motion from a video scene. Our research focuses on the development of a markerless human motion tracking system that tracks the major body parts of an athlete straight from a sports broadcast video. We proposed a hybrid tracking method, which consists of a combination of three algorithms (pyramidal Lucas-Kanade optical flow (LK), normalised correlation-based template matching and background subtraction), to track the golfer's head, body, hands, shoulders, knees and feet during a full swing. We then match, track and map the results onto a 2D articulated human stick model to represent the pose of the golfer over time. Our work was tested using two video broadcasts of a golfer, and we obtained satisfactory results. The current outcomes of this research can play an important role in enhancing the performance of a golfer, provide vital information to sports medicine practitioners by providing technically sound guidance on movements and should assist to diminish the risk of golfing injuries.
authors.affiliation: AI-Rehab Research Group, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kampus Pauh Putra, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sim Kwoh
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.affiliation: AI-Rehab Research Group, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kampus Pauh Putra, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sundaraj
authors.affiliation: AI-Rehab Research Group, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kampus Pauh Putra, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia. Electronic address: ahamed1557@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Nizam Uddin
authors.initials: NU
authors.lastname: Ahamed
authors.affiliation: AI-Rehab Research Group, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kampus Pauh Putra, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Lam Chee
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Kiang
authors.affiliation: AI-Rehab Research Group, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kampus Pauh Putra, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sivadev
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nadarajah
authors.affiliation: AI-Rehab Research Group, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kampus Pauh Putra, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Arun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sahayadhas
authors.affiliation: AI-Rehab Research Group, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kampus Pauh Putra, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Md Asraf
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: AI-Rehab Research Group, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kampus Pauh Putra, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Md Anamul
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: AI-Rehab Research Group, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kampus Pauh Putra, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Rajkumar
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palaniappan
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006055:Golf / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D014743:Videotape Recording
keywords: Golf swing; Hybrid tracking; Markerless tracking; Motion tracking