Do geometric models affect judgments of human motion?

Human figures have been animated using a wide variety of geometric models including stick figures, polygonal models, and NURBS-based models with muscles, flexible skin, or clothing. This paper reports on experiments designed to ascertain whether a viewer's perception of motion characteristics is affected by the geometric model used for rendering. Subjects were shown a series of paired motion sequences and asked if the two motions in each pair were `the same' or `different.' The two motion sequences in each pair used the same geometric model. For each trial, the pairs of motion sequences were grouped into two sets where one set was rendered with a stick figure model and the other set was rendered with a polygonal model. Sensitivity measures for each trial indicate that for these sequences subjects were better able to discriminate motion variations with the polygonal model than with the stick figure model.