Patent Document ID: 9424679
Application ID: 14550022
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of capturing motion of a person having a plurality of support structures attached to different portions of the person's body, wherein each individual support structure in the plurality of support structures includes a plurality of marks having known relationships with one another and has sufficient rigidity such that each mark in the plurality of marks of the individual support structure maintains a substantially fixed distance from the other marks in the plurality of marks of the individual support structure during movement by the person, the method comprising: generating motion capture data representing movement of the person and at least some of the support structures during a performance captured by a camera over a plurality of frames; processing the motion capture data, on a frame-by-frame basis, to: (i) associate individual support structures in the plurality of support structures with virtual bone structures of a virtual skeleton associated with a virtual character; and, for each individual support structure having one or more marks visible in a frame being processed, selecting one or more of the visible marks depicted in the frame, calculating a corresponding number of ray traces extending from the camera through the selected marks on the support structure visible in the frame and generating geometric projection data for each calculated ray trace; and (ii) determine an orientation of the virtual structure skeleton by aligning virtual marks for the virtual bone structures that correspond to the selected visible marks to substantially lie on the calculated ray traces as constrained by joints and movement restrictions of the virtual skeleton.