We present MotionExplorer, an exploratory search and analysis system for sequences of human motion in large motion capture data collections. This special type of multivariate time series data is relevant in many research fields including medicine, sports and animation. Key tasks in working with motion data include analysis of motion states and transitions, and synthesis of motion vectors by interpolation and combination. In the practice of research and application of human motion data, challenges exist in providing visual summaries and drill-down functionality for handling large motion data collections. We find that this domain can benefit from appropriate visual retrieval and analysis support to handle these tasks in presence of large motion data. To address this need, we developed MotionExplorer together with domain experts as an exploratory search system based on interactive aggregation and visualization of motion states as a basis for data navigation, exploration, and search. Based on an overview-first type visualization, users are able to search for interesting sub-sequences of motion based on a query-by-example metaphor, and explore search results by details on demand. We developed MotionExplorer in close collaboration with the targeted users who are researchers working on human motion synthesis and analysis, including a summative field study. Additionally, we conducted a laboratory design study to substantially improve MotionExplorer towards an intuitive, usable and robust design. MotionExplorer enables the search in human motion capture data with only a few mouse clicks. The researchers unanimously confirm that the system can efficiently support their work.
The analysis of equine motion has a long tradition in the past of mankind. Equine biomechanics aims at detecting characteristics of horses indicative of good performance. Especially, veterinary medicine gait analysis plays an important role in diagnostics and in the emerging research of long-term effects of athletic exercises. More recently, the incorporation of motion capture technology contributed to an easier and faster analysis, with a trend from mere observation of horses towards the analysis of multivariate time-oriented data. However, due to the novelty of this topic being raised within an interdisciplinary context, there is yet a lack of visual-interactive interfaces to facilitate time series data analysis and information discourse for the veterinary and biomechanics communities. In this design study, we bring visual analytics technology into the respective domains, which, to our best knowledge, was never approached before. Based on requirements developed in the domain characterization phase, we present a visual-interactive system for the exploration of horse motion data. The system provides multiple views which enable domain experts to explore frequent poses and motions, but also to drill down to interesting subsets, possibly containing unexpected patterns. We show the applicability of the system in two exploratory use cases, one on the comparison of different gait motions, and one on the analysis of lameness recovery. Finally, we present the results of a summative user study conducted in the environment of the domain experts. The overall outcome was a significant improvement in effectiveness and efficiency in the analytical workflow of the domain experts.
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