Abstract: A capture device may capture a user's motion and a display device may display a model that maps to the user's motion, including gestures that are applicable for control. A user may be unfamiliar with a system that maps the user's motions or not know what gestures are applicable for an executing application. A user may not understand or know how to perform gestures that are applicable for the executing application. Providing visual feedback representing instructional gesture data to the user can teach the user how to properly gesture. The visual feedback may be provided in any number of suitable ways. For example, visual feedback may be provided via ghosted images, player avatars, or skeletal representations. The system can process prerecorded or live content for displaying visual feedback representing instructional gesture data. The feedback can portray the deltas between the user's actual position and the ideal gesture position.

Abstract: A system may receive image data and capture motion with respect to a target in a physical space and recognize a gesture from the captured motion. It may be desirable to isolate aspects of captured motion to differentiate random and extraneous motions. For example, a gesture may comprise motion of a user's right arm, and it may be desirable to isolate the motion of the user's right arm and exclude an interpretation of any other motion. Thus, the isolated aspect may be the focus of the received data for gesture recognition. Alternately, the isolated aspects may be an aspect of the captured motion that is removed from consideration when identifying a gesture from the captured motion. For example, gesture filters may be modified to correspond to the user's natural lean to eliminate the effect the lean has on the registry of a motion with a gesture filter.

Abstract: It may be desirable to apply corrective data to aspects of captured image or the user-performed gesture for display of a visual representation that corresponds to the corrective data. The captured motion may be any motion in the physical space that is captured by the capture device, such as a camera. Aspects of a skeletal or mesh model of a person, that is generated based on the image data captured by the capture device, may be modified prior to animation. The modification may be made to the model generated from image data that represents a target or a target's motion, including user gestures, in the physical space. For example, certain joints of a skeletal model may be readjusted or realigned. A model of a target may be modified by applying differential correction, magnetism principles, binary snapping, confining virtual movement to defined spaces, or the like.

Abstract: In applications that display a representation of a user, it may be reasonable to insert a pre-canned animation rather than animating a user's captured motion. For example, in a tennis swing, the ball toss and take back in a serve could be a pre-canned animation, whereas the actual forward swing may be mapped from the user's gestures. An animation of a user's gestures can be chained together into sequences with pre-canned animations, where animation blending techniques can provide for a smoother transition between the animation types. Techniques for blending animations, that may comprise determining boundaries and transition points between pre-canned animations and animations based on captured motion, may improve animation efficiency. Gesture history, including joint position, velocity, and acceleration, can be used to determine user intent, seed parameters for subsequent animations and game control, and determine the subsequent gestures to initiate.