3D SfM as a measuring technique for human body transformation

Abstract

The tracking of fat loss as well as muscle gain has always been one of the most important steps during a person’s fitness journey. It does not only motivate to continue practicing exercises, but also helps to develop specific workout plans to enhance particular body parts of athletes. Structure for Motion (SfM), unlike other reconstruction techniques, produces acceptable results from low-quality inputs. This makes the method applicable for ubiquitous equipment like a smartphone camera, while still being scalable to professional environments with proper equipment. In order to track overall body transformation, we propose a photogrammetry workflow employing SfM, reproducibly generating a model of the human body in different stages of a fitness plan. For visualization, we do a mesh alignment step followed by a comparison between the reconstructed body models of the subject, resulting in color-mapped meshes. Following this workflow the transformation of specific body regions can be analyzed in detail, only using consumer hardware.