Machine Learning and Deep Neural Network Architectures for 3D Motion Capture Datasets

Biomechanical movement data are highly correlated multivariate time-series for which a variety of machine learning and deep neural network classification techniques are possible. For image classification, convolutional neural networks have reshaped the field, but have been challenging to apply to 3D movement data with its intrinsic multidimensional nonlinear correlations. Deep neural networks afford the opportunity to reduce feature engineering effort, remove model-based approximations that can introduce systematic errors, and reduce the manual data processing burden which is often a bottleneck in biomechanical data acquisition. What classification techniques are most appropriate for biomechanical movement data? Baseline performance for 3D joint centre trajectory classification using a number of traditional machine learning techniques are presented. Our framework and dataset support a robust comparison between classifier architectures over 416 athletes (professional, college, and amateur) from five primary and six non-primary sports performing thirteen non-sport-specific movements. A variety of deep neural networks specifically intended for time-series data are currently being evaluated.