Implementation of an inertial measurement Unit based motion capture system

Abstract

Nowadays, due to its broad applications, demands on motion capture technology is increasing. Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is one of technology that is capable of estimating orientation of a rigid body. IMU technology uses information from three sensors, i.e. gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer to calculate the orientation. By using multiple IMU devices, human arm motion can be tracked. This paper presents an implementation of a real-time motion capture system. We proposed a serial-chain network to collect orientation data from the IMU devices. The proposed network focuses on flexibility and easy-to-use factor. Real-time experimental results show that our prototype is capable of capturing human arm motion. ？ 2011 IEEE.