Using k-Poselets for Detecting People and Localizing Their Keypoints

A k-poselet is a deformable part model (DPM) with k parts, where each of the parts is a poselet, aligned to a specific configuration of keypoints based on ground-truth annotations. A separate template is used to learn the appearance of each part. The parts are allowed to move with respect to each other with a deformation cost that is learned at training time. This model is richer than both the traditional version of poselets and DPMs. It enables a unified approach to person detection and keypoint prediction which, barring contemporaneous approaches based on CNN features, achieves state-of-the-art keypoint prediction while maintaining competitive detection performance.