Vicon Vantage
August 11, 2015, Siggraph, Los Angeles—Vicon Motion Systems introduced their Vantage system with new hardware and software to add more capabilities to their systems. The 31-year old company has been working in motion capture using active emitters and targets on the subjects.
The latest system is a new architecture, upgrades the IR emitters to get better range and resolution, and gets new software that allows use with tablets and other small computers. The cameras have integrated a computer, accelerometers, and temperature sensors to indicate any motion or temperature changes after setup and calibration. The underlying software triangulates the target positions and tracks their movements. The new LED lights provide a more even lighting field and longer distance imaging.
Together, the new software and hardware improve usability while the addition of new technologies provide a means to identify potential error sources before capture. The whole package displays its health with a green or red light as well as other indications.
The embedded software enables fast data transfers via streaming to tablet computers for quick observations as the raw data are transferred for detailed analysis on a larger computer. Data can be transported directly into game engines like Unreal and Unity and the data are used in post in all major formats including CD3 and FDX. A SDK helps with integration efforts to other tools.
Setup has been reduced to about 3-4 minutes and the ability to stream the preprocessed data to a tablet allows the operator to be in the virtual space rather than being tethered to a PC. The new system can use components from earlier systems and the new software accommodates data streams and conversions while still supporting the new viewing capabilities. The system has a virtual camera function and can be powered via a power over Ethernet switch on standard Cat 5 cables.
The company has been active in media and entertainment, scientific, and industrial applications. Although there is a growing interest in lower resolution systems, they are focused on high resolution motion capture such as facial motion detection or medical and physical therapy research. They consider their tools to be the feeder for other applications and expect the higher level of automation in the systems to enable new applications and improve the productivity in existing functions. For more information, see their web site, www.vicon.com
