Getting BVH files

The Biovision ‘BVH’ format is a popular method of storing motion capture data. In our Kinect segment tracking study we’ve used specific software to extract segment positions and orientations for biomechanical analysis. We provide software which uses BVH files on this site. If you have this sofware and a Kinect, how can you get a BVH file? This short article will hopefully point you in the right direction.

We also offer the bvh files from our own Kinect study for download.

Brekel Kinect

A screenshot of Brekel Kinect, the ‘capture bvh’ button can be seen in the top right corner (click for large image)

Brekel Kinect is a free piece of software which utilises OpenNI and NITE drivers (see our page on Kinect software for more information) in a ‘Kinect sandbox’. Many of the features and data from the Kinect can be accessed and saved in various file formats including motion capture as bvh files. Visit the Brekel Kinect site for more information and the software download.

IPI Soft

IPI Soft aims at ‘motion capture for the masses’, allowing you to use webcam style devices to obtain 3D motion capture information. In addition to this it also supports 1 or Kinects. It utilises its own segment tracking algorithms and gives you a lot of control over the tracking process (avatar manipulation etc.). Depending on how many people you want to track at once, it costs $600 for single person or just over $1,000 (October 2012) for multiple people. We used this software in our segment tracking study and found that while accuracy is not massively increased over free solutions, you do get access to a more complex skeleton model and the ability to compare tracked motion to the recorded Kinect data. It allows exporting to bvh motion capture file format. IPISoft Website

IPI software in action (from IPI website). The motion was captured with 2 Kinect sensors