3D method used to track Rivera's pitch could also shake out terrorists-NY Times

• 7/1, "3D motion capture recreates Yankees closer" NY Times by Gabriel Perna

"Thanks to advanced motion capture technology, there may be a new way for baseball scouts to study players, the government to track terrorists and marketers to better analyze consumer behaviors....

• Motion capture technology analyzes human movements through animated 3-D images. As head of New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences' Movement Laboratory, Chris Bregler, an associate professor, lives and breathes it every day.

Recently, Bregler and his seven-person research team used videos of New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera to recreate a 3D reconstruction of his skeletal motion for The New York Times. ...

• Because you don't need special cameras, only the ones used in the field, Bregler said his method has more versatility than those in Hollywood. Beyond sports, there are applications in medicine - for example, observing a patient to test gait or posture....

Bregler even discussed using this technology to fight terrorism. "We know how to track airplanes and missiles, but we don't know how to track and understand people," he said. "To better understand what humans do,... the best signal is in their body movements.""

• Here is the video of Mo's pitches.

• (Amusing idea although I hear terrorists no longer exist except in America). ed.

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