Digital Analysis and Visualization of Swimming Motion

Abstract

Competitive swimming is a demanding sport that requires rigorous training to achieve technical perfection. Research on computer simulations of flow have improved our understanding of how thrust and drag can be optimized for better performance. However, for a swimmer translating this information to technical improvement can be difficult. In this paper, we present an analysis and visualization framework for swimming motion that uses virtual reality to display 3-dimensional models of swimmers. The system allows users to digitize their motions from video sequences, create personalized virtual representations by morphing prototypical polygonal models, visualizing motion characteristics and comparing their motions to other competitors stored in a library. The use of virtual reality alleviates many problems associated by the current video-based visualization methods for analyzing swimming motion