# IMUOptimize: A Data-Driven Approach to Optimal IMU Placement for Human Pose Estimation with Transformer Architecture

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.08923 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.08923/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 16 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Feb 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [AMASS: Archive of Motion Capture as Surface Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03278/) (2019)
- [Physical Inertial Poser (PIP): Physics-aware Real-time Human Motion Tracking from Sparse Inertial Sensors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.08528/) (2022)
- [TransPose: Keypoint Localization via Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.14214/) (2020)
- [IMUPoser: Full-Body Pose Estimation using IMUs in Phones, Watches, and Earbuds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.12518/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [ChairPose: Pressure-based Chair Morphology Grounded Sitting Pose Estimation through Simulation-Assisted Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01850/) (2025)
- [Deep Learning-Based Estimation of Ground Reaction Forces in Parkinsonian Gait Using an Optimized Set of IMU Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.02408/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents a novel approach for predicting human poses using IMU data, diverging from previous studies such as DIP-IMU, IMUPoser, and TransPose, which use up to 6 IMUs in conjunction with bidirectional RNNs. We introduce two main innovations: a data-driven strategy for optimal IMU placement and a transformer-based model architecture for time series analysis. Our findings indicate that our approach not only outperforms traditional 6 IMU-based biRNN models but also that the transformer architecture significantly enhances pose reconstruction from data obtained from 24 IMU locations, with equivalent performance to biRNNs when using only 6 IMUs. The enhanced accuracy provided by our optimally chosen locations, when coupled with the parallelizability and performance of transformers, provides significant improvements to the field of IMU-based pose estimation.