Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive review of motion capture (MoCap) data recovery techniques, with a particular focus on the suitability of artificial intelligence (AI) for addressing missing or corrupted motion data. Existing approaches are classified into three categories: non-data-driven, data-driven (AI-based), and hybrid methods. Within the AI domain, frameworks such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), transformers, and graph neural networks (GNNs) demonstrate strong capabilities in modeling complex spatial-temporal dependencies and achieving accurate motion reconstruction. Compared with traditional methods, AI techniques offer greater adaptability and precision, though they remain limited by high computational costs and dependence on large, high-quality datasets. Hybrid approaches that combine AI models with physics-based or statistical algorithms provide a balance between efficiency, interpretability, and robustness. The review also examines benchmark datasets, including CMU MoCap and Human3.6M, while highlighting the growing role of synthetic and augmented data in improving AI model generalization. Despite notable progress, the absence of standardized evaluation protocols and diverse real-world datasets continues to hinder generalization. Emerging trends point toward real-time AI-driven recovery, multimodal data fusion, and unified performance benchmarks. By integrating traditional, AI-based, and hybrid approaches into a coherent taxonomy, this review provides a unique contribution to the literature. Unlike prior surveys focused on prediction, denoising, pose estimation, or generative modeling, it treats MoCap recovery as a standalone problem. It further synthesizes comparative insights across datasets, evaluation metrics, movement representations, and common failure cases, offering a comprehensive foundation for advancing MoCap recovery research.