3Mm Bubbles Tracked with Vicon in Automotive

The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1 The Standard Vicon Engineering

For over 40 years British 3MM BUBBLES TRACKED automotive test company, MIRA, has been recognized WITH VICON IN AUTOMOTIVE as a leading independent product engineering, testing AERODYNAMICS WIND TUNNEL consultancy and certiﬁcation organization. UK’s Only Full-Scale Wind Tunnel Uses MIRA strives to deliver new vehicle Vicon for Environmentally Friendly Car Design systems and components by integrating innovative design and simulation techniques, which are validated in over 30 major test facilities.

Operating across a range of transport technologies, MIRA provides particular expertise in vehicle safety, aerodynamics, thermal management, NVH (noise, vibration and harshness), EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) engineering, power train integration, environmental engineering and all aspects of durability.

MIRA’s engineers thrive on diverse and technically challenging projects, offering an innovative approach or solution for its customers. It’s customer base includes major vehicle manufacturers, systems and component suppliers and other independent consultancies throughout most of the vehicle-producing world.

Continued

Vicon Proﬁles University of Reading EU Space Agency Q&A Carnegie Mellon How the Brain Represents Planetary Surface Denver Children’s University 3D Space Operations Hospital 04 06 10 14 The Standard Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1

Credit Velocity Magnitude m/s MIRA

0.25 0.88 1.50 2.13 2.75

The Challenge However, in 2005 MIRA started to Andy Ray, EMEA Sales Manager at Car manufacturers increasingly look into a new visualization method Vicon said, “Angus came to Oxford look for ways to improve the called bubble tracking using 3mm with the bubble machine and we efficiency of their vehicles. Making helium filled bubbles. These bubbles tested it in our studio. Our first a car or truck more aerodynamic are pumped around the rear of a attempt was successful! It was has many benefits. For example, it vehicle in a full-scale automotive fantastic to see, in real time, the improves fuel efficiency, making the aerodynamics wind tunnel to give an bubbles being tracked and moving vehicle greener, and it will enable accurate display of air flow. Previously, across the screen. We didn’t even the car to travel faster; particularly this was a manual process, limited need to chemically alter the useful if you’re a Formula 1 driver! by very small capture volumes and soap solution.” the labor intensive task of Angus Lock, head of Aerodynamics processing the data. Seeing the successful results of at MIRA said, “Fuel efficiency is the project, the DTI awarded MIRA now more important than ever. Lock hoped to track the bubbles funding to complete its bubble flow Our customers are leading the way, using technology more commonly visualization technique, including ahead of the 2012 EU guidelines found in a gait lab. He realized, the purchase of a 12 camera T40 requiring all new cars to reduce because of the near transparent motion capture system. CO2 emissions to 130g/KM. The nature of the bubbles, the speed problem is, the current analysis and seemingly random way they Lock explained, “MIRA chose to methods either don’t offer us moved, he needed a highly accurate work with Vicon’s T-Series cameras enough detail or they take months system. Every bubble needed to be because of its unique mix of high to complete.” tracked in the 3mx2mx2m wind resolution, fast capture rates and tunnel, to give Lock the accurate proven motion tracking abilities. Always looking for a challenge, the and precise airflow data. engineers at MIRA set themselves With our Vicon mocap system, we the task of looking for a way to The Solution can tell where flows originate, what improve the efficiency of current MIRA worked with Vicon to win the flow is doing at any one moment airflow visualization – a technique funding for the project from the in time and how it evolves in time. used to improve the aerodynamics Department of Trade and Industry of a vehicle by monitoring the (DTI). The two companies conducted Data that used to take us months airflow around it. However, drag preliminary research to prove that a to gather and analyze, now takes reduction techniques are notoriously Vicon motion capture system could an afternoon.” slow and time consuming: the most see and track a soap bubble. common methods include Particle The Result Image Velocimetry (PIV), which is The first hurdle encountered Several high profile car limited to a single plane, tomographic during the project was to ensure manufacturers and two Formula 1 PIV or Particle Tracking Velocimetry the bubbles would be visible to teams have successfully used the (PTV), which is limited to academia the cameras. and small volumes. Continued 02 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

“MIRA chose to work with Vicon’s T-Series cameras because of its unique mix of high resolution, fast capture rates and proven motion tracking abilities.”

innovative airflow visualization T-Series’ class leading technology technique. Lock continued, in a completely new application “Measuring the precise location area, as well as rapidly getting For more of hundreds, even thousands of to grips with the capabilities of information on Vicon T-Series visit helium filled bubbles gives our the system. Our technical www.vicon.com clients valuable velocity information, partnership with Vicon means and they’re able to build up a picture we can continue to deliver a truly of what the flow is doing around world class aerodynamic flow the car.” visualization technique.”

“The continual technical support from Vicon helps us exploit the

technologies including how Vicon CEO NOTE helped bring the Magic Mirror to life Douglas Reinke in Broadway’s Shrek the Musical. CEO & President Sponsors of the 2010 World Cup, Adidas, held a World Media Day to demonstrate how motion capture The Standard can help soccer players improve their game as well as prevent Welcome to the latest edition injuries. In addition, 3D home of The Standard. This issue viewing will become more and is our most diverse to date more common. For the ﬁrst time and aims to introduce you to ever this year’s World Cup and the the interesting and innovative 2011 Sony open for Golf and BCS National Championship Game will work of all our customers. Last year saw some unusual be available to watch in 3D. As well as our traditional Life applications emerge for motion

Science articles, by popular capture from tracking 3mm bubbles Looking forward, 2010 continues request, we’ve also featured to develop environmentally friendly to be about listening to what our articles on Virtual Reality, cars to helping soldiers deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. customers need to enable them to Film, Engineering, Games, carry out their important work. Education, Rehabilitation One system was even used to and Sport Science. We hope demonstrate to children with At JEGM in Miami, we will be you enjoy reading about the Neonatal Diabetes how a new drug making a series of announcements wide range of applications can save them from having daily insulin injections. showing our dedication to a group of out there. core customers. This joint meeting Motion capture has come a long of GCMAS and ESMAC is going to Editorial team: way. 10 years ago I had to explain be a great conference and I look Tara Valgoi, Emma Wixey what motion capture was and forward to seeing you all there. Hayley Roberts, Lindsay Gerber how it helped - these days’ people already know. Its growing popularity Contributions: Finally, myself and our valued Karen Raz is getting it into the hands of more Vicon employees would like to thank and more people. Recent evidence all our customers for carrying out of this was at the 2010 Consumer such life changing work. The Electronics Show; Intel’s keynote difference you make never ceases speech covered a range of new to amaze us. 03 The Standard Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1

Vicon Proﬁles CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY PITTSBURGH

Then we cluster together groups Jessica Hodgins, Professor in Computing of markers and ﬁgure out from the Science and Robotics and Moshe Mahler, motion of those clusters how the skin and muscle should deform in Animation Designer at Carnegie Mellon an actual capture.

spoke to The Standard about the “What we hope to accomplish successful research projects they have with projects like this, when we’re measuring the surface of the skin been working on with their Vicon motion instead of measuring the skeleton as you do traditional motion capture, capture system. is to allow people to create much more realistic animations deformations in the shoulder Carnegie Mellon University of figures. You can either do the complex as it moves. is a global research facility skeletal motion capture and then recognized for its world- in the skinning process try and put To see a video of Hodgins explains, “The project this story class arts and technology back the level of detail that’s lost, we’re best known for wasn’t actually please visit our programs, collaboration or just capture it and try and use it YouTube channel across disciplines and a research project but a community www.youtube.com/ directly from the system.” innovative leadership service project. We captured six vicon100 hours of motion capture data and in education. The inclusion of new T160’s into the put it all out on the web for people lab has opened up other research to use. There have been more than possibilities for Hodgins. She fifty papers published by authors explains, “We just did a big capture who have nothing to do with our lab of facial animation data using these using this data. It’s had a big impact new T160 cameras. We’re going to on the research community. try and use that data to understand how we might be able to build better “Right now we’re trying to update rigs for facial animation. We had that database by making it specific 300-400 markers just on the face to particular activities that occur in and we had the cameras all moved the kitchen. We’re doing experiments Credit in. We hired a number of actors with cutting and stirring and cooking Mahler, Bancroft to give us emotionally expressive and Slyper and things like that, to look at tasks sentences to capture their emotion.” for assistive technology, which would allow the elderly to stay in Moshe Mahler has worked in the The university began as a small their homes for longer.” motion capture lab at Carnegie technical school and evolved into Mellon for 6 years and has what it is today under the guidance This project involves trying to conducted various research of exceptional leadership teams. understand how the skin and projects. He’s also created a few The world-renowned faculty muscle deforms when the shoulder art pieces, one of which is called members are practicing moves. To achieve a higher quality ‘Walk N’ Say’ implementing a professionals who bring extensive of data, small markers are densely classic 1983 ‘See N’ Say’. This is a knowledge and experience into placed on the shoulders and circular toy with various animals the classroom. cameras are moved closer together. pictured around the dial, connected to a screen. The user not only hears The university has been a Vicon Hodgins continues, “For this the animal sound from the toy but customer for ten years and its capture we drew a grid on the also sees the animation change on current set up includes twelve MX patient’s shoulder and put markers the screen. 40’s and four T160’s that have been at the intersections of each of the used for various research projects. gridlines to make sure the markers Her current project involves trying are roughly uniformly spaced. Continued to understand the skin and muscle 04 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

Mahler said, “We had an representation of each one of which is running the projector. When actor come in and portray their the animals. someone pulls the string it changes interpretation of each of the the animation on the screen.” animals. We then took this data We use a rugged rotary potentiometer Times Higher Education ranked and printed it out and used a to help us tell where the dial is Info Carnegie Mellon 27th overall and classic rotoscoping technique to pointing. Then we have that hooked 9th in technology in it’s ‘Top 200 get the motion capture data onto up to an arduino, which sends World Universities in 2009’ a nostalgic crayon drawing a radio signal to a hidden laptop

Vicon Entertainment

HOM completed multiple days on LA based animation studio, Credit Vicon House of Moves (HOM), the motion capture stage shooting WET was involved in creating the several performers, including a Playstation 3 animation and providing weapons specialist to perform motion capture services for complex sword fighting moves. the recently released highly cinematic video game, WET. A2M selected the moves that would make it into the game and the HOM animation team tracked and WET, developed by Artificial retargeted the capture data onto Mind and Movement (A2M), is a 3D character and weapon models. highly-stylized third person shooter HOM executed the character that seamlessly blends gun play, animation by utilizing a motion sword kills and over-the-top capture base, and adding dynamic acrobatics to create the ultimate poses, speed adjustments, weight, interactive action experience. The timing and other sweetening game allows the player to shoot elements as well as key-framing anywhere, anytime, all while running, facial and secondary animation. sliding down ladders and across The final animation was delivered the floor, or performing any number to A2M in Autodesk Maya for of acrobatic moves. Featuring an integration into the game engine. ironic mix of humor and violence, HOUSE unique retro film visual treatment, and original 70’s inspired music, WET OF MOVES ANIMATES is an experience unlike any other. HOM was engaged by A2M to WET was released on September FINAL BOSS animate a final climactic battle, Info 15, 2009. The game stars a heroine and contribute to other fight named Rubi Malone voiced by Hollywood actress Eliza Dushku. FIGHT BATTLE sequences. The cinematic-like sequence allows the player to make SEQUENCE decisions that guide the course, and ultimately the success or failure of FOR “WET” the battle.

We’re always excited to hear about the interesting and diverse applications customers are using their Vicon systems. If you have work you’d like featured in the next edition of The Standard please contact us at [email protected]

How do you use your Vicon system? The Standard

05 The Standard Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1

Credit Andrew Glennerster

Vicon Engineering USING IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY TO DISCOVER HOW THE BRAIN REPRESENTS 3D SPACE

Andrew and a group of researchers Info have set up an immersive virtual reality laboratory to study spatial perception and motor control in freely-moving observers.

Andrew Glennerster, My colleagues and I use a Vicon The majority of studies on human School of Psychology MX3 system and Tracker software three-dimensional vision have, to track the head movements and Clinical Language historically, focused on binocular of participants in the immersive stereopsis – the ability to perceive Sciences, University virtual reality laboratory. The depth from a static head position of Reading experiments aim to improve our using two eyes. Yet, studying human understanding of how people see 3D vision in moving observers is a stable 3D world despite the fact that they move their head and fundamental to understanding eyes continually, which is one how we see in depth. Humans, of the key challenges in along with many other animals, neuroscience today. use movement to help them ﬁnd out about the depth structure of 06 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

the scene around them. It’s thought The purpose of our experiments is seen from two viewpoints that are binocular stereopsis only evolved to discover how the brain interprets a meter apart), the brain should, in to allow hunting animals to the information from moving images theory, be able to compute the Virtual Reality Research Group remain still and avoid being seen to form a representation of the 3D location and size of objects in the University by their prey. world. We use virtual reality because room. Fig 1. shows the expansion Laboratory of it enables us to create scenes that of the virtual room and an example Physiology, Oxford The reason for the relative neglect of would be impossible to reproduce in of the images the observer sees. http://virtualreality. 3D vision in freely moving observers the real world. For example, in one physiol.ox.ac.uk has largely been a technological one. of our experiments, as an observer The main result is, remarkably, In general, vision scientists must moves from one side of the room to people are quite unaware of the manipulate the images the observer the other, the whole room expands fact that the room around them sees in order to find out what are by a factor of 4. Crucially, the point is expanding. It means that, at the critical aspects determining of expansion is always half way least for conscious awareness, their perception. If the observer is between the observer’s eyes, even the information from binocular free to move, this is difficult to do when they are moving. So objects stereopsis (seeing depth with two in a controlled way without using move further away and also get eyes) and from motion parallax virtual reality. One of the keys to a larger along the observer’s line of (the information about depth that convincing virtual simulation of a sight, meaning that the images that comes from moving around) is 3D scene is fast and accurate fall onto the retina are the same ignored, despite this information measurement of the observer’s irrespective of the expansion of the signaling a four-fold change in size head position and orientation. room. This means that any single of the virtual room. We carried out a This is provided in the lab by our image the observer sees could have series of experiments that show the Vicon MX3 tracking system, which come from either a small room or a information is used in some tasks represents a great improvement in larger room. However, by comparing and is combined in efficient ways accuracy and latency over earlier two images (e.g. the images seen by with other sources of information head trackers. the left and right eyes, or images about the size and depth of objects. Thus, it is not that the information about the scale of the scene is lost entirely but, just as in other “Studying human 3D vision in experiments on ‘change blindness’, moving observers is fundamental to the fact that nothing obvious changes as the observer moves understanding how we see in depth.” across the virtual room gives them a powerful sense that the room has remained the same size, over-riding their 3D cues.

This peculiar room, which changes size but appears to stay the same, raises challenging questions about the way humans represent 3D space. Our current experiments explore some of the contradictions that people’s perceptions of space in this room seem to imply, if they represent the room as something like a 3D model. Instead, we are testing the hypothesis that their representation is more like the type of view-based models that have recently become popular in computer vision.

Continued

07 The Standard Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1

Fig 1. The question of how visual information is integrated by observers as 01 Small room they move their head and eyes is central to achieving progress in 02 Large room neuroscience today. Information from a continually changing retinal image must contribute to a stable representation of the scene but we have little idea, as yet, what form that representation takes. There is considerable interest in the computer vision community in implementing human-like visual representation. Once we have identiﬁed and described them with adequate precision, many commercial and medical applications are likely to follow. One of the most exciting long term prospects may be the possibility of helping the blind build up a ‘visual’ representation of a scene using the information from cameras under their control.

There is no necessity for visual information to arrive at the brain through the optic nerve – touch may prove to be just as effective – and, despite all the current interest in retinal implants, cameras that Credit saccade and ﬁxate like the eyes may Reproduced with prove to be a more ﬂexible source permission, from Glennerster et al., of images for a blind person than 2006, (c) Elsevier. the signals from a retinal implant. One reason that cameras and touch may be preferable to retinal implants is that the input images could be pre-processed in various ways, with a negligible delay, before 03 the person ‘feels’ them.

Room scale Other members of the VR lab:

Dr. Stuart Gilson 2 Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford

1 Ms. Ellen Svarverud School of Psychology and CLS, University of Reading 0 0 1 2 3 Dr. Lyndsey Pickup School of Psychology and CLS, Distance University of Reading

08 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

Vicon Entertainment

Doug Peter /EMPICS Entertainment

Credit VICON AT Copy courtesy of ICG Magazine November THE CINEMA 2009 issue. We’ve been involved with several high profile films in the past 12 months, including Angels and Demons, Harry Potter and The Curious For more details Case of Benjamin Button. on Vicon’s The most recent and arguably involvement in the biggest of those is Robert ‘A Christmas Carol’ Zemeckis’ A Christmas Visit http://www.icg Carol, which was released magazine.com/ in December 2009. wordpress/2009/ 10/30/ghosts-in- the-machine/ ICG, the magazine that represents the International Cinematographers Guild, published an article on the during a press conference at Los from beginning to end, just like film last year. Reporter, Carolyn Angeles’ Union Station to kick off a they are doing theater. So the Giardina, quotes Zemeckis on the promotional train tour that travelled pacing of a scene is all up to the benefits of performance capture from Los Angeles to New York. actors. I don’t have to worry about in film making: the cinema technique. I can “We don’t have to do things out of concentrate on what the “Performance capture is a beautiful continuity, (or) break things up for characters are doing.” process,” Zemeckis said last summer coverage. The cast does the scene

Vicon Life Sciences EVERY ISSUE IS In October 2009, a new gait AVAILABLE ONLINE AT NEW GAIT lab opened in the department WWW.VICON.COM/STANDARD of Rehabilitation Medicine LAB IN KOREA at Chungnam National The Standard www.vicon.com/standard University, Korea. Setting the standard 2010 Edition 1 The Laboratory is equipped with eight MX T20 cameras, 4 AMTI The Standard Vicon Engineering

For over 40 years British OR6-7 force platforms, Tekscan 3MM BUBBLES TRACKED automotive test company, MIRA, has been recognized WITH VICON IN AUTOMOTIVE as a leading independent product engineering, testing F-Scan with ConforMat System AERODYNAMICS WIND TUNNEL consultancy and certiﬁ cation organization. UK’s Only Full-Scale Wind Tunnel Uses It strives to deliver new vehicle Vicon for Environmentally Friendly Car Design systems and components by and a Delsys 8-channel Trigno integrating innovative design and simulation techniques, which are validated in over 30 major EMG system. test facilities. Operating across a range of transport technologies, MIRA provides particular expertise in vehicle safety, aerodynamics, thermal management, NVH (noise, vibration and harshness), EMC Faculty members directly involved (electromagnetic compatibility) engineering, power train integration, environmental engineering and all aspects of durability.

in the new lab are Dr. Bong-Ok Kim, MIRA’s engineers thrive on diverse and technically challenging projects; they’re always able to offer an innovative approach or solution for Dr. Min- Kyun Sohn, Dr. Kang-Hee its customer base, which includes major vehicle manufacturers, systems and component suppliers and other independent consultancies throughout most of the vehicle- and Dr. Sung-Joo Ji. producing world.

Continued

Planned Projects for the lab Vicon Proﬁ les University of Reading ESA ARL Q&A Carnegie Mellon How the brain represents Planetary Surface Denver Children’s University 3D space Operations Hospital include developing a Rehabilitation 04 06 10 14 Robot for patients with spinal cord injury and the rehabilitation of stroke and elderly patients. 09 The Standard Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1

Vicon Engineering PLANETARY SURFACE OPERATIONS AIDED BY MOTION CAPTURE AT EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY’S AUTOMATION & ROBOTICS LABORATORY (ESA ARL)

Credit ESA - Automation + Robotics Laboratory

10 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

“The ESA ARL is now working with an eight camera Vicon motion capture system to track the movements of the rovers aimed for planetary surface exploration.”

The European Space Agency working with an eight camera Vicon scheme. In a nutshell, we’re was established in 1975 and motion capture system to track the narrowing the difference between is an intergovernmental movements of the rovers aimed how we expect the rover to move organization dedicated to for planetary surface exploration. and what it actually does.” space research, technology The Vicon system is installed in an 2 and exploration. 80m planetary terrain simulation ground called the Planetary Its Automation & Robotics Utilisation Testbed (PUTB), which Laboratory (ARL) is currently mimics some tricky planetary conducting tests, which will enable surfaces such as boulder ﬁelds, them to accurately program the sandy dunes and gravel patches. movements of autonomous robots for planetary exploration, such as The Vicon system allows the Mars and Moon rovers. ARL to test algorithms and make alterations to the programme Pantelis Poulakis, a robotics which is vital in the planning for systems engineer at the ESA the next Mars mission in 2018. ARL said, “The rovers are either tele-operated or they execute “In order to ‘know’ its position autonomous navigation algorithms on the surface of the planet and onboard. The latter is necessary to close the loop with the navigation for a Mars mission scenario due algorithms, the rovers are equipped to the long time it takes for signals with a set of sensors called to travel between Earth and Mars a ‘localization’ scheme,” Poulakis and the limited availability of explained. communication windows.” Info Headquartered in Paris, ESA “It’s a continuous learning curve has a staff of more than 2,000. Being able to accurately predict for us. The Vicon system tracks the movement of the rover in space the rover’s navigation trajectories, is extremely important to the ESA thus providing an external ARL. It required a motion tracking localization reference. We then system that can give instantaneous analyze that data, in order to feedback and provide an excellent validate the navigation algorithms quality of data. The ESA ARL is now and test our onboard localization

Check out our newly launched social Facebook Always online. media channels. www.facebook.com/vicon Twitter Stay up to date on the latest Vicon www.twitter.com/_vicon news, software releases, new YouTube products and celebrate the brilliant www.youtube.com/vicon100 work of our customers.

11 The Standard Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1

Based on Microsoft Research Info SenseCam technology, Vicon Revue is a tool aimed at medical researchers as an aid for people with memory loss.

For more information on Vicon Revue visit www.viconrevue.com

For more information on research that has taken place with SenseCam visit http://research. microsoft.com/ en-us/um/ cambridge/projects/ sensecam/

Vicon Revue Preliminary results from SenseCam “We have a lot more research to have produced remarkable results. do, but the preliminary results By wearing the camera and are compelling. repeatedly reviewing the images MEMORIES at regular intervals, patients’ ability There’s something uniquely to recapture memories of events powerful about the images FOR LIFE recorded is massively improved. SenseCam technology produces Estimates suggest that dementia Incredibly, some have found that that seems to stimulate recall in will affect 700,000* people in the they are eventually able to retrieve our patients, enabling them to UK and 5,000,000* people in the the memories themselves, without remember thoughts and feelings US, which is why Vicon were so visual prompting. However, it has not depicted by the images.” pleased Microsoft granted us a never been available to purchase. license to develop their exciting SenseCam technology. We aim Vicon Revue will be available for to help memory loss sufferers medical researchers as an aid with Vicon Revue. for people with severe memory impairment including sufferers from Alzheimer’s disease. Clinical Neuropsychologist Dr. Emma Based on Microsoft Research Berry, who has been involved in the *http://alzheimers.org.uk/ SenseCam Technology research from the beginning says, *http://www.alzinfo.org/

12 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

Vicon Entertainment Vicon Awards HOUSE OF MOVES CAPTURES RECOGNITION DANCERS FOR BLACK EYED FOR THE PEAS’ ‘BOOM BOOM POW’ T-SERIES Production Studio Motion Theory Taps House of Moves for Music Video Mocap

LA based studio, Vicon House of shapes that pulsate to the beat as Moves, provided motion capture they multiply, divide and morph into services for the Black Eyed Peas’ groups of CG dancers. To see the Black Eyed Peas music high impact ‘Boom Boom Pow’ Video: Boom music video. “Since the dancers acted as catalysts Boom Pow for change, it was important for us to visit our YouTube channel Directed by Motion Theory’s have total control of how they looked www.youtube.com/ Mathew Cullen and Mark Kudsi, and transformed in the video. They vicon100 the promo features a troupe of needed to have a human feel so it perfectly synchronized CG dancers was important to capture the details that were animated based on of their movement in a realistic performances captured on the manner,” explained Kudsi. Vicon was extremely proud to newly constructed Vicon House receive the award in November of Moves (HOM) soundstage. “The use of mocap for this project 2009 for Best New Product was necessary in accomplishing our Developed in the UK at the BCS “Working at HOM was a fairly intuitive creative vision. Mocap also gave us & Computing Awards 2009 for and a very streamlined process. the flexibility to quickly try several our T-Series camera range. We had instant feedback after every different iterations of choreography take, which made it very easy to that we wouldn’t have had the time In an event held at the famous direct and make adjustments,” said for, had we done everything by hand.” Battersea Park Events Arena in Kudsi. “HOM also provided us with the UK, the award recognizes footage from the capture session Motion Theory spent one day shooting significant achievement in business that proved to be extremely helpful two dancers on the newest of House technology product development throughout the editorial process. of Moves’ two custom designed by UK IT professionals. With 10 We were able to incorporate motion capture stages. The new finalists in the category, Vicon placeholders of our session the stage features soundproof walls T-Series wowed the judges by very next day into our edit.” and a scalable truss system that demonstrating the impressive can allow for facial, body and finger measurable benefit for customers. The video embodies the supersonic or full-performance capture. The Vicon T-Series - the world’s first 16 energy of the track with rapid-fire stage is also equipped to record Info megapixel motion capture camera cuts of dancers and of the hip hop professional-quality audio during group as they transform into their capture into a single time code digital doppelgangers. Several synced performance. sequences feature transformer-like

from Vicon, please take ﬁve minutes to www.vicon.com/support We want your feedback. complete the customer satisfaction To ensure we’re as up to date as survey located in your Vicon Online possible on the service you’ve received Support Account.

13 The Standard Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1

Vicon Life Sciences Q&A DENVER CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Credit Gait lab at Denver Children’s Hospital

The Standard profiled the at University of Colorado and is capture protocols. With this Children’s Hospital in Denver helping to support faculty research setup, we can utilize a calibrated 10 years ago. We caught up and student training today. measurement volume of with James Carollo and his approximately 9.0m x 1.5m x team for a quick update on how Our current motion capture 2.5m in the main lab, and 2.5m x things have progressed since environment was built in 2007, 1.5m x 2.5m in the treadmill installing their first Vicon to accommodate the move of our room using 14mm markers for system a decade ago. entire hospital to the campus of a full-body motion capture. We the University of Colorado. It have now completely transferred How has your Vicon system consists of two separate Vicon over to Nexus v1.4 for motion MX systems to service our capture and processing, and use changed over the last 10 years? principle measurement areas, BodyBuilder, PECS, and Polygon. The original Children’s Hospital one for over-ground recording Denver laboratory was built in 1999, and one associated with our Bertec At the time of the original so the current technology at the split-belt force measuring treadmill. laboratory design, we were early time was Vicon 512, Workstation, Upper extremity recordings can be adopters of Polygon; beginning and BodyBuilder. We started with made in either measurement area. with v0.9. Our team in Denver six analog progressive cameras, continues to utilize the weekly and expanded it to eight cameras In 2007 the most recent multispecialty review of clinical before retiring the system in 2007. camera technology was the MX data, and Polygon facilitates this F40 cameras; we currently use review allowing us to easily locate We also had sufficient analog data 13 in the main lab and 7 in the and display our video, kinematic, channels to support four Kistler treadmill room. We designed the kinetic, and EMG data together for force platforms and 16 EMG facility with a common “control all the conditions and comparisons channels. The Motion Lab System’s room” so the same technical staff we need to make to arrive at a MA-300 from the original installation can manage motion capture in both clinical recommendation. We hope is still being used today, although rooms simultaneously. We also laid that this product continues to evolve, for routine clinical use we have added out the facility with extra camera so that we can integrate our a wireless EMG telemetry system and control cables so we can move radiographic, HD video and (ZeroWire). The original Vicon 512 cameras from one measurement plantar pressure recordings system is on loan to one of our area to the other quickly to directly into this multimedia tool. academic partners accommodate specific motion Continued 14 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

Has the level of detail you Has your relationship with Vicon analysis; it was stable and could can capture changed? been important over the years? satisfy all of our fundamental The improved resolution of I have been pleased with the measurement requirements. the F-Series cameras was a support we have received from Where the new system gives us significant step forward for Vicon over the years, especially more options is for those experiments us given our original analog since the Vicon office opened in that need higher frame rates and cameras had effectively a 0.6 Colorado. We view our relationship more complicated marker sets. megapixel resolution. Increased with Vicon as a two-way partnership, We have been interested in better spatial and grayscale resolution is benefiting both parties and learning understanding the implications of a great advantage in optical motion from each other. The transition spinal fusion on gait performance capture especially in larger volumes from a mature Workstation product in our patients with neuromuscular and more complex models. It helps to an early Nexus environment scoliosis, and our new system to improve the accuracy of the was harder than we anticipated, allows us to measure full-body marker centroid calculation and especially with our laboratory’s movement more easily and over a reduce tracking errors when level of complexity. Working larger distance than before. The targets come close to each other. together, we have found a stable addition of the force measuring We routinely use no larger than configuration of hardware and treadmill integrated into our motion 14mm markers for all experiments software that is flexible enough capture environment also gives us and clinical motion captures, for the different experiments and many more options for our growing and can use smaller markers for measurement systems we use, adolescent sports program. specialized models that need more allowing us to efficiently conduct markers per segment or a more our work and support our patients. densely packed configuration. While we rarely capture faster than 120Hz Does your current system over-ground, treadmill captures allow you to conduct research during higher walking or running projects you couldn’t previously? speeds benefit from the higher We were satisfied with our old frame rates available. system for routine clinical gait

Vicon Sponsors Tom Shannon, Founder and Director second year he was given the at Vicon said, “Vicon believes it opportunity to take on a project in has a social responsibility to attract these areas in the third year. After IMECHE bright, lateral thinkers to pursue meeting with Dr Stephen White, a biomedical engineering as a research fellow of the University, AWARD worthwhile and fulfilling career. a brief for a flow delivery system We’re very pleased and proud to to look at how endothelial cells be given the opportunity to sponsor respond to shear stresses was this prize and to be able to judge conceived. Throughout the third three fascinating and innovative year of Simon’s degree the flow entries this year. apparatus was designed and built.

“All three entries were of a very Crowther comments, “I am high standard, each demonstrating honored to have won the Vicon a very clear understanding of the Prize in the 2009 Student Project science and of the engineering Competition. Having worked so required. Simon Crowther’s work hard throughout the year, it is on the development of a device to great to receive recognition from Vicon sponsored the IMechE precisely mimic flow patterns found the IMechE for what I have done. MED Student Project award for in human vessels will have great Presenting my work to such a the second year running. The practical application as will the distinguished audience was also Vicon sponsored award, Best work of the two runners-up, Wael a privilege. I would like to thank Project involving the Design Dandachli and Perrin Metzger.” everyone who was involved with, or Development of a Medical and helped out with the project. Device, was awarded to Simon Crowther is currently studying I would also like to thank Tom Crowther from the University of Mechanical Engineering at the Shannon from Vicon and Professor Bristol for the development of a University of Bristol. Having enjoyed Peter Brett from Aston University Precise Flow Delivery System fluid mechanics and design and for judging the category.” for Biomedical Applications. manufacture units in his first and 15 The Standard Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1 2010 CONFERENCES

North America

JEGM ISBS 3DMA Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis International Society of Eleventh International Stay up to date. Symposium on the 3-D Analysis View The Standard Society and the European Society Biomechanics in Sports www.vicon.com/ of Movement Analysis in Adults July 19 – 23, 2010 of Human Movement standard and Children Marquette, MI July 14 – 16, 2010 May 12 – 15, 2010 www.nmu.edu/isbs San Francisco, CA Miami, FL Vicon exhibiting www.3dma-10.org www.jegm.org Vicon exhibiting booth #25 and CGVR SIGGRAPH annual user group meeting The 2010 International Conference Special Interest Group on Computer on Computer Graphics and Graphics and Interactive Techniques ACSM Virtual Reality July 25 - 29, 2010 American College of Sports Medicine July 12 - 15, 2010 Los Angeles, CA June 2 – 5, 2010 Las Vegas, NV www.siggraph.org/s2010 Baltimore, MD www.world-academy-of-science.org Vicon exhibiting booth #1047 www.acsm.org/AM/Template. cfm?Section=Annual_Meeting2 GDC - Austin ASB Games Developers Conference American Society of Biomechanics SEM October 5 - 8, 2010 August 18 - 21, 2010 Society for Experiential Mechanics Austin, TX Providence, RI June 7 - 9, 2010 www.gdcaustin.com www.asbweb.org Indianapolis, Indiana Vicon exhibiting www.sem.org/CONF-AC-TOP.asp ICAD Alzheimer’s Association i-Fab CSB International Conference on 2nd Congress of the International Canadian Society for Alzheimer’s Disease 2010 Foot and Ankle Biomechanics Biomechanics Conference July 10 - 15, 2010 Community June 9 – 12, 2010 Honolulu, HI September 16 - 18, 2010 Kingston, ONT, CA www.alz.org/icad Seattle, WA www.csb-scb-2010.ca www.i-fab2010.org Vicon exhibiting booth #7

16 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

Rest of the World

ICCB ESB GDC - Europe International Conference on 17th Congress of the ESB Games Developers Conference Computational Biology July 5 - 8, 2010 August 16 - 18, 2010 May 26 - 28, 2010 Edinburgh, UK Cologne, Germany Tokyo, Japan www.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/esb2010 www.gdceurope.com www.waset.org/conferences/ 2010/tokyo/iccb ECSS BASES European College of Sport Sciences The British Association of Sport ICMS July 6 – 9, 2010 and Exercise Sciences The Third International Conference Antalya, Turkey September 6 – 8, 2010 on Modeling and Simulation www.ecss-congress.eu Glasgow, UK June 4 - 6, 2010 www.gla.ac.uk/bases Wuxi, China ISEA www.wjms.org.uk/icms2010 8th Conference of the International MEDICA Sports Engineering Association International Trade Fair with World WCE July 12 – 16, 2010 Forum for Medicine World Congress on Engineering Vienna, Austria November 17 – 20, 2010 June 30 – July 2, 2010 http://isea2010.technikum-wien.at Düsseldorf, Germany London, United Kingdom www.medica.de www.iaeng.org/wce2010 DEVELOP July 13 – 15, 2010 OBCAS Brighton, UK International Conference on www.develop-conference.com Orthopaedic Surgery, Biomechanics and Clinical WCB June 6 - 9, 2010 The 6th World Congress on London, UK Biomechanics www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/sed/ August 1 – 6, 2010 conf/obcas Singapore www.wcb2010.net Vicon exhibiting

17 The Standard Setting the Standard 2010 Edition 1

Dr Ed Biden is Professor, Info Mechanical Engineering Dean, School of Graduate Studies at University of New Brunswick, Canada.

Vicon Life Science LITERATURE UPDATE THE STANDARD Ed Biden

In reading articles for this review, I have been intrigued by a number of motion capture and analysis reports which are sports oriented and which have been done at more or less full scale within laboratory settings.

that they attached markers for anyone developing motion Screenshot to the cricket ball being thrown. analysis techniques for fast moving, Vicon BodyBuilder They acknowledge that they had large volume applications where to adjust the marker locations for you want to track things that each person tested so as not to are thrown. interfere with the grip on the ball. Three markers allow them to Sometimes when reading papers develop a coordinate system and one wishes that two groups could give enough information to be able get together and share facilities. to measure ball speed as well as Spratford, W., Mellifont, R., The first of these is Chin A, Elliott rotation just after the ball is Burkett, B. ‘The influence of B, Alderson J, Lloyd D, Foster D. released. Their modeling is done dive direction on the movement ‘The off-break and “doosra”: using BodyBuilder. characteristics for elite football kinematic variations of elite and goalkeepers’, Sports Biomechanics. sub-elite bowlers in creating ball The paper goes on to describe the 2009 8: 3, 235 – 244 describe spin in cricket bowling’, Sports comparisons between the “elite” another in lab set up which has a Biomechanics. 2009 Sep 8: 3, and “high performance” bowlers large volume. They want to assess 187-98. The details of the cricket and the measurements from the dives by soccer goal keepers. To will be of interest to those who ball show significant differences in do this they have an arrangement follow the sport, but the technology ball speed and angular velocity at where the goal keeper is in the will be of interest to almost everyone. the time of release. They don’t say “net” with soccer balls suspended Starting with a 12 camera Vicon what happens to the markers when to simulate high, low and in system running at 250 hz and a the ball bounces. When comparing between shots on both sides. The lab big enough to incorporate a the “doosra” to more conventional goal keeper being tested observes “full length cricket pitch … primarily “off-break” throws stride length a video which is at a distance from housed within the biomechanics and lower release height them. They see someone making laboratory” the authors describe were observed. a shot which would correspond a 62 marker, full body marker to one of the balls suspended on set built up of three marker rigid My limited knowledge of cricket either their dominant or non- marker holders. This is a very didn’t change much from this paper dominant sides and they then complex set-up which they describe but the experimental setup and launch off a force platform and in great detail. Nonetheless, the careful description will make this a block the static ball. The virtual most interesting part for me was paper which is a valuable resource kicks are randomized so the goal 18 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

approach includes validating the

High performance system using a GAITRite mat and Ball speed and a Vicon system. angular velocity analysis The authors are seeking to develop a two camera system which can detect someone walking and can then calculate some basic measures of walking speed, step length and so forth. They do this by using a pair of webcams which have a slow frame rate but reasonably high resolution. Their claim is that they can measure video elements (VOXELS) of about 25mm on a side. keeper cannot anticipate in which recommend a system such as the The ultimate objective is to be able direction they will need to move. one above. The experiment had to track a person, for example, The system to record this is a Vicon soccer goal keepers’ dive onto an someone walking in a nursing 612 with 8 cameras running at 120 array of three Kistler force plates facility and make measures which hz and a Kistler force platform. which measured the impact with the assess their risk of falls. The experiment used 37 markers floor. Both the height and length of the and the “Plug in Gait” marker set dives influenced the peak forces as There is a very interesting discussion developed by Vicon. did whether or not the person diving in the paper about required frame rolled on impact. In perhaps the most rates for what they propose to The experiment showed significant dramatic measurement, the act of measure since their video is only 5 differences between the dominant rolling reduced the maximum force frames per second. They demonstrate or preferred side and many of these by nearly half from over 7000N to that they can detect steps which differences were in three dimensional just about 4000N, still a significant seem to be at the very limits of the motions such as pelvic and torso multiple of body weight. The authors frequency which could be tracked rotation which would be very difficult repeat the experiments in the field with a 5 hz system. Their method to assess without 3D motion tracking. using a portable force sensor and of detecting the person walking is The authors conclude that there find similar results. The experiment of interest as well since they use are sufficient differences between is very nicely done. The in lab and in a fairly conventional approach of sides that knowing which is a goal the field component make it a good taking an image of the empty frame keepers preferred side would likely example of how to conduct laboratory and then subtracting it from the make a difference in scoring. experiments and verify them using image with the person in it and then additional data from more real trying to detect the outline of the The other paper which addressed life setting. person. The unique part of their a related issue is Schmitt KU, work is in combining camera views Schlittler M, Boesiger P., Going in a rather different direction to get 3D. The results of this rather Biomechanical loading of the is the paper by Wang F, Stone E, interesting system are verified as hip during side jumps by soccer Dai W, Skubic M, Keller J., ”Gait being reasonably accurate using a goalkeepers.”, J Sports Sci. 2009 analysis and validation using voxel 7 camera Vicon MX system. Dec 2, 1-7 in which they measure data.”, Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med the impact loads on the hip when Biol Soc. 2009 1:61, 27-30. They This is one of those papers one hits the ground after diving are seeking a method to do very which will really challenge you to block a shot on goal. They low tech gait analysis for the sort to think about what the minimum acknowledge that their single of surveillance that might be requirements are to make camera 2D measurements are appropriate in tracking elderly measurements and would make inadequate to assess fully the people to assess whether they a good teaching case. kinematics of a dive and actually are likely to suffer a fall. Their

“The unique part of their work is in combining camera views to get 3D. The results of this rather interesting system are veriﬁed using a 7 camera Vicon MX system.”

19 The Standard www.vicon.com/standard

VICON AT JEGM2010 MAY 10-15, MIAMI, FLORIDA BOOTH #25

JEGM is the combined meeting Support Sessions Do you have speciﬁc questions about of GCMAS and ESMAC. your system? Need some face time with a Support Engineer?

Join us for live demonstrations Register now for a one-on-one of our latest Bonita cameras and session with one of our Support Nexus software. If you’d like to Team and get your questions answered. Register at: schedule a meeting with a Vicon [email protected] representative please contact us Spaces are limited, so contact at [email protected] or simply us now. stop by and see us at the booth. We look forward to seeing you there.

NEW VISUAL 3D PLUG-IN

Vicon works closely with our third Current functionality between Nexus Now available to download free of and Visual 3D enables you to stream charge* from www.c-motion.com or party vendors to ensure customers real-time data through your Nexus your Vicon Online Support account. software. Now, the latest plug-in have the ﬂexibility and choice *Customers must own Visual 3D Professional or from C-Motion makes the two Visual 3D Standard with the real-time add-on. they need. applications fully compatible. As Please visit www.c-motion.com. well as streaming real-time data you can trigger data collections as well as view marker and improved analog data in Visual 3D.