Computer animation: a new application for image-based visual servoing

Abstract

Presents an application for image-based visual servoing: computer graphics animation. Indeed, the control of a virtual camera in a virtual environment is not a trivial problem and usually requires skilled operators. Visual servoing, a now well known technique in robotics and computer vision, consists in positioning a camera according to the informations perceived in the images. Using this method within a computer graphics context leads to a very intuitive approach of animation. Furthermore, in that case a full knowledge about the scene is available. It allows us to easily introduce constraints within the control law in order to react automatically to modifications of the environment. We apply this approach in two different contexts: highly reactive applications (virtual reality, video games) and the control of humanoid avatars.