EventEgo3D++: 3D Human Motion Capture from a Head-Mounted Event Camera

TL;DR

EventEgo3D++ introduces a novel 3D human motion capture method using a monocular event camera on head-mounted devices, excelling in low light and fast movements, with real-time performance and comprehensive datasets.

Contribution

It is the first approach to leverage a monocular event camera with a fisheye lens for egocentric 3D human motion capture, including a new dataset and real-time capabilities.

Findings

Achieves superior 3D accuracy and robustness in challenging conditions

Supports real-time 3D pose updates at 140Hz

Demonstrates effectiveness on real and synthetic datasets

Abstract

Monocular egocentric 3D human motion capture remains a significant challenge, particularly under conditions of low lighting and fast movements, which are common in head-mounted device applications. Existing methods that rely on RGB cameras often fail under these conditions. To address these limitations, we introduce EventEgo3D++, the first approach that leverages a monocular event camera with a fisheye lens for 3D human motion capture. Event cameras excel in high-speed scenarios and varying illumination due to their high temporal resolution, providing reliable cues for accurate 3D human motion capture. EventEgo3D++ leverages the LNES representation of event streams to enable precise 3D reconstructions. We have also developed a mobile head-mounted device (HMD) prototype equipped with an event camera, capturing a comprehensive dataset that includes real event observations from both controlled studio environments and in-the-wild settings, in addition to a synthetic dataset. Additionally, to provide a more holistic dataset, we include allocentric RGB streams that offer different perspectives of the HMD wearer, along with their corresponding SMPL body model. Our experiments demonstrate that EventEgo3D++ achieves superior 3D accuracy and robustness compared to existing solutions, even in challenging conditions. Moreover, our method supports real-time 3D pose updates at a rate of 140Hz. This work is an extension of the EventEgo3D approach (CVPR 2024) and further advances the state of the art in egocentric 3D human motion capture. For more details, visit the project page at https://eventego3d.mpi-inf.mpg.de.