A Study on Finding Key Movements to Discriminate Expert and Novice by Using a Kinect-Like 3D Sensor

What is an essential difference between the expert movement and the novice one at where the movement plays important role such as dancing, playing darts, or preparing tea at Japanese tea ceremony? We would like to figure out it from the movement of the human joints at an activity. Which will give us a hint how to improve our behavior. In our study, Structure Sensor, a Kinect-like 3D sensor, is used to track and record 3-dimensional positions of the human joints during an action. The device is portable and does not require any sensors nor markers attached to observed persons. We then investigate the effectiveness of a statistical approach. Results of preliminary experiments established for dancing will be reported.