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Simple yet efficient real-time pose-based action recognition (1904.09140v1)

Published 19 Apr 2019 in cs.CV and cs.LG

Abstract: Recognizing human actions is a core challenge for autonomous systems as they directly share the same space with humans. Systems must be able to recognize and assess human actions in real-time. In order to train corresponding data-driven algorithms, a significant amount of annotated training data is required. We demonstrated a pipeline to detect humans, estimate their pose, track them over time and recognize their actions in real-time with standard monocular camera sensors. For action recognition, we encode the human pose into a new data format called Encoded Human Pose Image (EHPI) that can then be classified using standard methods from the computer vision community. With this simple procedure we achieve competitive state-of-the-art performance in pose-based action detection and can ensure real-time performance. In addition, we show a use case in the context of autonomous driving to demonstrate how such a system can be trained to recognize human actions using simulation data.

Citations (46)

Summary

  • The paper introduces a novel real-time action recognition pipeline that encodes pose data into image-like formats (EHPI) for CNN classification.
  • It employs a modular design integrating YOLO V3 for detection, advanced pose estimation, and custom tracking to ensure reliable performance.
  • Evaluated on the JHMDB dataset, the method outperforms comparable approaches and demonstrates practical potential for autonomous applications like valet parking.

Analysis of "Simple yet Efficient Real-Time Pose-Based Action Recognition"

The paper "Simple yet Efficient Real-Time Pose-Based Action Recognition" authored by Dennis Ludl, Thomas Gulde, and Cristobal Curio, centers on the development and demonstration of a real-time action recognition pipeline, leveraging pose estimation as a core component. This research contributes to the ongoing advancements in autonomous systems, particularly those that co-exist in environments shared with humans, such as autonomous vehicles.

The proposed system employs monocular camera sensors to detect humans, estimate their pose, track them over time, and recognize their actions in real-time. This is achieved by encoding human pose into a distinct data format termed Encoded Human Pose Image (EHPI), which can be processed using conventional computer vision classification techniques.

Methodological Overview

The pipeline devised by Ludl et al. is modular, comprising several key components:

  1. Object Detection: Utilizing YOLO V3 for its balance between speed and accuracy, the system identifies potential human presence in frames by generating bounding boxes around likely human objects.
  2. Pose Estimation: The algorithm described by Xiao et al. is leveraged here, providing a 2D skeleton representation from the identified bounding boxes.
  3. Tracking: The authors implement a custom feature-tracking method based on skeleton joints across sequential frames, compensating for potential errors in object detection.
  4. Action Recognition: The EHPI format transforms sequential pose data into an image-like structure amenable to deep learning classification via CNNs, specifically using a six-layer network and alternatively ShuffleNet v2.

Experimental Findings

In evaluating the EHPI methodology on the JHMDB dataset, the authors report state-of-the-art performance when contrasted with other pose-based algorithms. Their approach was found to surpass comparable methodologies such as PoTion in the pose classification subset of the task, underlining the system's potential for reliable action recognition solely based on pose data.

In the automotive parking use case scenario, the real-world implications of the pipeline are further validated. The modular construction provides robustness to diverse environmental conditions, facilitating applications in autonomous systems like valet parking. The integration of simulated data significantly augments the training process, highlighting the potential to offset domain transfer challenges and reduce dependency on extensive real-world data collection.

Practical and Theoretical Implications

Practically, this pipeline presents a solution scalable to various autonomous systems requiring real-time interaction with humans. By maintaining competitive accuracy with a simplified approach, it aligns well with the operational constraints of embedded and real-time applications in robotics and vehicular automation.

Theoretically, the research underscores the relevance of abstraction layers between raw visual data and high-level inference, especially when leveraging simulation data for training AI systems. Future investigations should explore more sophisticated network architectures that exploit the inherent spatiotemporal relations in EHPIs, potentially enhancing the discrimination of subtle action differences and allowing further reduction in learning data from real-world environments.

Concluding Remarks

Dennis Ludl and colleagues’ work on EHPI and the associated real-time pipeline offers promising directions for robust and efficient pose-based action recognition systems applicable to critical domain environments such as autonomous driving. The findings serve as a foundation for future research in maximizing the fidelity of simulated training data while ensuring scalable deployment strategies for adaptive autonomous technologies.

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