Moving from video to 3D Environment

Hello, Any advice on this would be very appreciated.

Background: A common practice at our lab is to track the motion of 3D bodies so we can make measurements and general observations. Basically what is known is body dimensions and position in space throughout testing. To quickly verify our data and our model we usually make a video recreation of testing. We make our videos by transforming the bodies for every frame and using MATLAB's "getframe" to construct a movie matrix and "movie2avi" to turn it into a video.

Question: What we would like to do is view the 3D bodies throughout their motion and still be able to interact with the model by pausing, dynamically changing the viewpoint, or navigating to a specific frame. This would be more like a virtual reality or video game environment than a video. Where I would love some input is where to start looking. For the 3D environment I don't know if I should stay within MATLAB proper, investigate Simulink (which I have very little experience with), or look to export the data to an entirely different platform. Any suggestions or success stories would really help me educate myself for this decision.

Constraints: We often deal with motion where a maximum visible displacement is 1mm so the accuracy of the model needs to be as good as transforming bodies in MATLAB, a looser recreation would not be desirable.

Thanks for reading,

-Sean

Answer 1

[Doug Eastman]

Simulink 3D Animation should allow you to do what you are looking for. It uses VRML world to animate a scene that you can navigate around in while it is running. Although it has Simulink in its name, it can be used directly with MATLAB if you prefer.