Introduction to the Special Issue on Representation, Analysis, and Recognition of 3D Humans

Modeling, processing, recognizing, searching, and retrieving 3D human data (shapes, gestures, interactions) is a well-established research area in multimedia. In the last decade, there has been a significant increase in opportunities for using 3D human data in medicine, security, and human computer interaction, largely driven by the development of effective devices and algorithms for recovering 3D data (e.g., Microsoft Kinect, Intel RealSense, Google Project Tango, and Apple Prime-Sense). Such rich information opens the way to new modes of experiential computing and interactive environments, as well as new multimedia content. Based on this, this special issue (SI) aims to be of interest to an interdisciplinary target audience, as well interdisciplinary teams of contributors, spanning applied math, multimedia experiential computing, computational science and engineering, and application domain experts. This SI intends to bring together researchers interested in defining new and innovative solutions that advance the way 3D human data are used in multimedia computing, communications and applications such as human behavior understanding from 3D sensors, animation and entertainment, sports analytics, natural interaction, and virtual and augmented reality.