2018 Volume 26 Pages 74-84
This study proposes a method to systematically visualize the motion-characteristic distribution of Japanese folk dances passed down in a certain area. This is accomplished by adopting an approach that involves analyzing motion-capture data collected from the dances. The visualization process in the proposed method consists of three stages. The first stage is the modeling of the relationship among motion-capture data, folk dances, and the settlements in which folk dances have been passed down. This relationship is modeled as a hierarchical-structure model. The second stage is the extraction of motion characteristics from motion-capture data streams. The motion characteristics of each data stream are summarized as a fourteen-dimensional feature vector. The third stage is the visualization of the motion-characteristic distribution of the dances investigated. Each of the dances is mapped on a two-dimensional scatter plot in accordance with the feature quantities obtained in the second stage. Information on the hierarchical-structure model constructed in the first stage is also displayed. The analysis results for the distribution of Bon Odori dances showed that the proposed method could have almost completely visualized the motion-characteristic distribution of sample folk dances, while also demonstrating consistency with the knowledge of the dances acquired in the previous studies.
