A systematic approach was developed for biofidelic human activity modeling and simulation by using body scan data and motion capture data to replicate a human activity in 3D space. Since technologies for simultaneously capturing human motion and dynamic shapes are not yet ready for practical use, a motion capture system can be used to capture markers on the body during motion and a 3D body scanner can be used to capture the body shape in a pose. Using advanced computer animation software tools, the body scan data and motion capture data are fused to build a dynamic, animation-capable model that can replicate a human activity in 3D space with the true shape and true motion of a human.

Using this approach, a model library was built to provide large variability of human activities with respect to anthropometrics and human motions. The 3D body scan data and motion capture data used to build these models were collected from 100 subjects performing nine activities at the 3D Human Signatures Laboratory of the US Air Force Research Laboratory. The model library provides wide range of anthropometric spectrum and motion variation. Given search criteria which include gender, age, height, weight, body build, ethnicity, and activity type, a particular activity model can be found from the library that may be an exact match or a close representation. Efforts were made to ensure that the activity models can be integrated into widely used game engines and image generators.