Motion capture technology: Film effects to wearable devices and games

"Hobbit" in the Fierce Grunt, "teddy Bear" is full of flesh-filled plush bear, even "Avatar" in the Beauty tribe Princess ... The film's classic virtual image of the vivid performance is always able to impress the audience, and they are given life behind all from an important technology-action capture.

In the studio, dozens of high-speed cameras capture the action of the actual actor, then restore and render the action to the corresponding virtual image. The technical application of this process is action capture, which is expressed in English as motion Capture.

The technology, which was used in the 70 's to make special effects on film animation, is now being transformed by a new technological force. The key role of this force is the rapid development of sensor technology in recent years.

As the size of the sensor is made smaller and cheaper, the action captures a new category from the original optical dynamic trap: Inertial motion capture.

Compared to the former is the use of high-speed cameras to capture the person installed mark points to counter the limb movements. The core of the latter is the use of wireless inertial sensor combination supplemented by data fusion algorithm to collect human action posture, and the use of wireless transmission on the computer or mobile devices.

Although the former still has a more mature technology and capture accuracy, but from the cost, the inertia of the complete set of equipment market price can be low to optical dynamic capture system price of one-tenth.

In the production of sensor based inertial dynamic trapping equipment, Beijing Connaught Teng Technology Co., Ltd. is the technology research and development and equipment manufacturing representatives. Company co-founder, chief technology officer Dayon recently received an interview with Tencent Technology, introduced their application of motion capture technology, as well as the technology in the virtual reality, wearable smart device value.

Motion capture: Moving from movie animation to wearable smart devices

"If it were five years ago, we might not have imagined that sensor-based motion capture techniques could be applied to larger areas, such as physical training and health care," he said. Because the sensor size, precision and cost are not up to the requirements. "Dayon in introducing the market opportunities of inertial fishing.

Connaught also Teng company in English name Noitom, the name comes from the English word motion in reverse order spelling. In the company's business category, in addition to film, animation, games and other production companies to provide action capture equipment, it is more important to apply technology to the consumer domain-level products, such as they have been produced for golf players myswing products.

The North American 149-dollar, golf-facing equipment, using motion capture and pattern recognition algorithm, through mobile phone applications to the players to display the corresponding action data, such as their swing rhythm, rod head speed, rod head trajectory and the angle of the rod at the ball. When this information is passed on to the player and combined with the corresponding coaching advice, it can provide direct help for golfers to improve their technical standards.

Dayon said the company is in the enterprise-level film animation production and consumer-level market development, because the former can stimulate the company's product quality and precision to create more mature. The latter means that the company's technology can be applied to a larger market and people.

Especially in the field of the rapid development of wearable intelligent equipment at present, if you can integrate motion capture, pattern recognition algorithms, or add a chip embedded in the technology algorithm, then the market wearable device function will not only traditional steps or calorie consumption calculation, but can provide more action data records, analysis, statistics, For example, basketball players can understand the game's ball time, the number of shots, dribble times, run time and even hit rate and other types of data.

Therefore, in addition to the upcoming end of the year to the film and television animation production or game companies to sell mobile equipment, Connaught also Teng's other business is to need to use the dynamic capture technology and algorithms for the company to carry out technical authorization.

According to Dayon introduced, has been to a foreign one to do wearable equipment, a large well-known listed companies to carry out the algorithm technology authorization. Some of the domestic sensors to do sensor modules and wrist watch and other smart equipment companies in and Connaught also talk about the corresponding technical licensing cooperation.

Outside of sports, another industry is the larger-scale medical sector. Some medical laboratories in the country, for example, are developing equipment for diagnosis and rehabilitation training for epileptic patients in conjunction with Connaught Teng. If the traditional way is to rely on the doctor to visually detect the patient's gait and physical signs, then the action-capturing device, by means of digital precision measurement methods more objective data statistics and diagnosis, to reflect the patient's therapeutic effect.

In the future, this set of sensors and algorithms combined with the dynamic capture technology will be used by more industries, but also need to rely on more segments of the accumulation of companies to participate in the joint.

Revolutionary Realm: Virtual reality games

In Dayon's view, from a more cutting-edge perspective, the field of motion capture that truly can produce revolutionary value will be born in the virtual reality game.

Games that allow people to immerse themselves in virtual reality will bring players into a new gaming world. There, there is no mouse keyboard, the player seems to be in a completely by their own actions dominate, and with the corresponding movements to stimulate the corresponding game effect of the virtual reality scene.

Playing games with Oculus Rift monitor

In the actual demo, Dayon put on a set of action to capture the module of the vest and gloves, when his hand waving, the screen of the game characters will also swing the arm and trigger the effect of the carton explosion (attached: demo video). This and the Kinect, such as the use of deep infrared Camera capture action technology, the use of sensor-mounted motion capture and head-wearing display equipment combination, will enable the game from the living room or fixed scene to a more free scene extension, in addition, the action on the accuracy can also produce a qualitative upgrade.

The large-scale use of virtual reality technology depends on two conditions, first of all, the display of the virtual scene in front of people to make people feel really in a new scene. Another condition is interactive technology, and good interaction does not make people feel that they are still in the real world. For example, when you enter a virtual magic world by displaying devices, if you want to manipulate your mouse or keyboard at this point, this interaction is still a reminder to the user that you are in real life.

In the current industry development, the display field of representative equipment, namely Oculus Rift. The headset has reduced the traditional thousands of dollar equipment to $300. Low-priced equipment solves the first device threshold for virtual reality games, which also stimulates more game makers to develop games based on the device.

According to Dayon, currently a number of game leaders for the device endorsement, more than 70 games can be used to experience the device. But most games still need players to use the joystick or keyboard, the interaction is not changed in the scene, the game experience is still unable to achieve quality changes.

When the sensor based motion technology capture can be applied to the game on a large scale, the interactive problem of virtual reality game will be solved. This is also Connaught Teng Company's areas of concern.

"After the technology matures, we need to convince more gaming companies to consider using dynamic capture techniques, such as Blizzard, EA, Zynga, and even Tencent." When industry participants jointly reduce the cost of capital and technology and form a unified set of standards, the development of virtual reality games will be far more than everyone's imagination. Perhaps in a year's time, it will create a state of awe. The end of the market will be hit first. ”

What are the challenges of disruptive virtual reality games? "Physical exertion may be an obstacle. You know, now the otaku just need to move their fingers to operate. In this case, these problems need to be solved. ”