Step2Motion: Locomotion Reconstruction from Pressure Sensing Insoles
This addresses the need for robust, unconstrained motion capture in outdoor environments, offering a solution that avoids constraints of mocap suits and optical systems, though it appears incremental as it applies existing sensor technology to a new application.
The paper tackles the problem of reconstructing human locomotion from pressure sensing insoles, presenting Step2Motion as the first method to use multi-modal insole data (pressure and inertial) for this purpose, achieving versatility across diverse locomotion styles such as walking, jogging, and dancing.
Human motion is fundamentally driven by continuous physical interaction with the environment. Whether walking, running, or simply standing, the forces exchanged between our feet and the ground provide crucial insights for understanding and reconstructing human movement. Recent advances in wearable insole devices offer a compelling solution for capturing these forces in diverse, real-world scenarios. Sensor insoles pose no constraint on the users' motion (unlike mocap suits) and are unaffected by line-of-sight limitations (in contrast to optical systems). These qualities make sensor insoles an ideal choice for robust, unconstrained motion capture, particularly in outdoor environments. Surprisingly, leveraging these devices with recent motion reconstruction methods remains largely unexplored. Aiming to fill this gap, we present Step2Motion, the first approach to reconstruct human locomotion from multi-modal insole sensors. Our method utilizes pressure and inertial data-accelerations and angular rates-captured by the insoles to reconstruct human motion. We evaluate the effectiveness of our approach across a range of experiments to show its versatility for diverse locomotion styles, from simple ones like walking or jogging up to moving sideways, on tiptoes, slightly crouching, or dancing.