Skeleton-based matching for animation transfer and joint detection

In this paper we present a new algorithm for establishing correspondence between objects based on matching of extracted skeletons. First, a point cloud of an input model is scanned. Second, a skeleton is extracted from the scanned point cloud. In the last step, all the extracted skeletons are matched based on valence of vertices and segment lengths. The matching process yields into two direct applications - topological mapping and segment mapping. Topological mapping can be used for detection of joint positions from multiple scans of articulated figures in different poses. Segment mapping can be used for animation transfer and for transferring of arbitrary surface per-vertex properties. Our approach is unique, because it is based on matching of extracted skeletons only and does not require vertex correspondence.