Strategically placed video cameras monitor activity in many banks and stores. Imagine a high-tech version of that -- a system that doesn't need a security guard to watch the video feed. Instead, the video monitors would send information to a computer that could not only detect motion but also discern whether a person is walking down a hall or breaking into a safe. The computer might even alert the police.
All this may be possible thanks to Chris Bregler, an assistant professor of computer science who is figuring out how to make computers recognize all kinds of physical movement.
In his early research -- done in conjunction with Interval Research Corp. -- Bregler, 32, analyzed face and lip movements during speech and eventually was able to electronically match these patterns with the words being formed. That technology, now used for computerized lipreading, made it possible for Bregler and colleagues to synthesize an eerily realistic video clip of President John F. Kennedy saying, "I'm a little teapot, short and stout."
Now the Stanford scientist has turned to full-body movement. Using sophisticated mathematical techniques, Bregler and others have programmed computers to recognize specific motions -- like a Charlie Chaplin walk -- and realistically animate figures moving onscreen. They even animated in 3-D the famous 19th-century Eadweard Muybridge models.
Bregler suspects that personal computers eventually will come equipped with video cameras -- in addition to a keyboard and a mouse -- so that users can operate the machine by signals as subtle as a wink or a nod. The day may be coming when, instead of logging off, you simply turn to your computer and wave.
