VICON’S 30TH BIRTHDAY EDITION

LIFE SCIENCE ENTERTAINMENT ENGINEERING VICON STANDARD VICON STANDARD

from the start a global business and it is realised that motion capture, as it became A WALK DOWN interesting to recall that the primary means known, could also add nuance to the of communication with overseas customers performance. The first users of mocap and distributors was telegraphy (“Telex”) were pioneering CGI film facilities such MEMORY LANE running at about one word per second. as Industrial Light and Magic and Digital Domain but very soon afterwards computer From the start, the fledgling business had game developers began to use similar a small and lumpy revenue stream from techniques. Vicon benefited from an sales of Vicon systems which allowed it explosion of small game development start- to continue development of the product ups, many in the UK. In some cases, a Vicon and to increase staff from the initial five. It system was their first major investment. was largely unclear where the main growth Management meeting of Oxford Medical Systems opportunities lay. The terms “clinical gait Motion capture for animation quickly who formed Oxford Dynamics to exploit the analysis”, “motion capture”, and “CGI” had became a primary driver of new emerging technology, 1978/79. One entirely deliberate feature of this short history is that it makes no mention yet to be coined. But early Vicon customer developments in camera and software by name of any former and current employee. For a company that has always requirements included precursors of most technology to make Vicon systems larger, of today’s major markets and applications, faster, and more accurate. New high- believed that it exists only through its employees, this may be thought an odd including prosthetics and orthotics, gait resolution image sensors were developed, decision. But the fact is that there are so many people, past and present, who analysis for neuromuscular disability, cameras were designed with embedded sports performance and injury avoidance, microprocessors, digital networks replaced have made key contributions that there is simply not space to do justice to them vehicle safety and ergonomics, robotics analog video cables. Improved software all. They are constantly present in our collective memory and present actions. and aerospace. The notable absence was models calibrated to the body shape and any motion capture for film animation and motion of individual subjects allowed computer games. the flow of data through the processing pipeline from patient or performer to days for a single gait cycle, this type of Oxford Dynamics redesigned the electronics In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a growing clinical report or CG animation to be made system was used for seminal pieces of to suit rapidly-evolving minicomputers and BY JULIAN MORRIS number of hospitals were starting to in “real-time”. (Vicon raw data has always biomechanical research, including Paul’s made the revolutionary decision to turn a perform complex orthopaedic and been measured in real time.) Vicon systems AND TOM SHANNON pioneering estimates of hip joint loading bi-planar 2D measurement system into a FOUNDERS, VICON neurosurgery to improve the gait of became quicker and easier to use. which paved the way for the design of photogrammetrically-calibrated 3D children with disabilities due to congenital The name Vicon is an abbreviation of reliable total joint replacements. (John kinematic measurement system. The first conditions and perinatal trauma. They While Vicon was evolving, Oxford Metrics “Video Converter”. This gives some Paul died late last year and a short obituary Vicon systems were shipped in 1981 to needed and were starting to evolve was also growing in other ways. In 1999, indication of the state-of-the-art at the appears elsewhere in this edition.) University of West Virginia (sheep walking standardized methods of assessments, 2d3 was established to exploit recent time the first Vicon system was developed. on a treadmill), Boston Childrens’ Hospital including gait analysis. Oxford Metrics advances in computer vision, particularly This situation was clearly never going (clinical gait analysis), and Saitama decided to turn Vicon into a measurement methods using “structure-from-motion” Measurements of human motion, particularly to allow this branch of biomechanics to Rehabilitation Hospital (also clinical system that included everything that was shared with Vicon. In 2001, Oxford walking, have a long history going back to advance beyond isolated and laborious gait analysis). In all three cases, the needed to support that standardization Metrics floated on the London Stock the beginnings of photography in the 19th research projects, so a number of academic computers were housed in special rooms including software to perform biomechanical Market, becoming OMG plc. The Group has Century. By the 1970s a fairly standardised engineers, notably Winter in Waterloo, as large as some modern gait labs. analysis right through to a clinical report. made a number of corporate acquisitions, methodology had emerged. Two, three, or Furnée in Delft, and Paul, Jarrett and Considerable time was spent observing and including the merger of Vicon with Peak even four 16mm cine cameras running at Andrews in Glasgow, began to consider the In 1983, Oxford Instruments floated on the discussing the practices and requirements Performance in Denver which is today the 25 or 50 frames/second were placed to the design of more automated systems. The London Stock Market in order to fund and of the leading hospitals and clinicians location of the main Vicon office in North sides and in-line with the walking subject. Departments of Engineering Science and focus on the rapidly-growing demand for in the field. The majority, such as David America. Specialist video image capture, The film strips were sent to a lab for Orthopaedic Surgery in Oxford joined one its superconducting magnets for nuclear Sutherland and James Gage, were in the tracking, and analysis, also provide the developing and then placed one after the of these largely collaborative projects in magnetic resonance imaging. Along with US but the same standardized methods technology base for Yotta, Vicon’s partner other in a “digitising projector”. This device 1977. In 1979 Oxford Dynamics (the original several other OI businesses, Oxford Dynamics were also coming into use in Europe and company within OMG concerned with allowed the two-dimensional coordinates name of Oxford Metrics, and part of Oxford was purchased by its staff and began life other parts of the world. By 1993, Oxford the automated surveying and reporting of points on the body to be measured Instruments) decided that the technology in July 1984 as Oxford Metrics Ltd in an Metrics could deliver a Vicon system and of the condition of road networks and and transferred to a computer. Although had commercial potential and licensed asbestos-roofed shed about 100m from its install it in an empty room to allow a hospital, related infrastructure. Most recently, extremely laborious, often taking several prototype designs. Under the name Vicon, present site. As indicated above, Vicon was with appropriate training of clinical staff OMG has started a new business, OMG but without a resident engineer, to start a Life, to develop products for the rapidly- clinical gait analysis service. A significant expanding consumer wearables market, part of this breakthrough was the starting with the Autographer camera. customers around the world. From We hope you enjoy reading this special WELCOME TO VICON’S simultaneous emergence of personal Practical Planning to Establish a Gait commemorative edition and if you’d like computers with high-quality graphics. After 30 years, perhaps the most 30TH BIRTHDAY EDITION Laboratory in 1991, Orofacial Movement to be featured in a future issue, please remarkable thing about Vicon is this. OF THE STANDARD. Analysis in Infants in 2002, to A Hopping let us know at the email below or on our In the mid-1990s, just as clinical gait Despite the extraordinary engineering Success for Outdoor Capture in 2011. social media channels. analysis became standardized, an entirely developments that have been made in 2014 marks three decades of pioneering Although The Standard began as a Life new application for Vicon systems began imaging and data processing, both inside motion capture and the latest edition of Science magazine, in 2010 we expanded Editorial Team: to emerge. The generation of increasingly and outside the company, a Vicon user The Standard reflects that history: this its remit to include the many exciting Hayley Roberts & realistic computer graphics imagery (CGI) from 30 years ago would recognise all 66 page special issue showcases some of projects being developed in the Katie Johnson based on animated 3-dimensional computer the component parts of today’s Vicon the most diverse, unique and successful Engineering and Entertainment markets, models created a need to drive those system and would quickly understand Vicon customers, old and new. which has resulted in The Standard being Contact: models with realistic motion. Initially how to operate it. The fundamentals more widely read than ever before. [email protected] Since 1991, The Standard has been the need was simply to save time over of Vicon measurement are unchanged. celebrating the amazing work of our hand-drawn animation but it was quickly And the Vicon of 2044? First Vicon Analog Camera

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JSC engineers use the Vicon systems to additional flexibility and precision over NASA’S JOHNSON SPACE CENTER ensure that new space suit designs allow previous models used by the team. astronauts to interact with vehicles and their environment unhindered. Examples “Vicon was particularly helpful with this USES VICON SYSTEMS TO TEST include testing how astronauts and their partial gravity simulator test,” said Cowley. space suits will perform if their vehicle “We were able to see differences with the breaks down and they have to walk several Vicon system we wouldn’t have been able SPACE SUITS AND VEHICLES miles back to base with a limited oxygen to quantify readily with other methods of supply. Or verifying whether the design of motion capture.” spacesuits and vehicles enables astronauts to reach and operate controls and safety Testing the Cyclops satellite launcher equipment, such as fire extinguishers, Vicon systems are also being used to NASA’S JOHNSON SPACE CENTER while wearing their suits. test the new SSIKLOPS (Cyclops) small satellite launcher, which will throw small Design in motion satellites into orbit from the International Nasa’s reduced gravity plane. With Vicon systems, JSC spacesuit Space Station. engineers are able to acquire a lot more information to better analyze the motions “We put the launcher and a satellite on a of different designs, helping them frictionless floor and used our Vicon MX understand not only the gross mobility system to test the precision, speed and of the suit, but how each individual trajectory of the launcher,” said Cowley. component contributes to overall mobility. The Vicon system allows JSC to calculate the exact angle the launcher needs to

Images courtesy of Framestore and To test mobility, engineers used to have throw the satellites. Warner Bros. Pictures. subjects move in certain directions, photograph them and then take measurements, which was more time N consuming, less effective and less precise. Now they can have the subjects move in Spacesuit testing in a multi-purpose the suit and perform functional tasks to crew vehicle mockup understand which joints they use and how For a recent study, NASA needed to evaluate much that joint contributes to the motion. four prototype suits to compare their performance and select the preferred suit “The use of motion capture when testing components and designs. They needed suits is incredibly precise,” said Amy Ross, an advanced, high fidelity motion capture Johnson Space Center Spacesuit Engineer. system to evaluate the suits in action in “Testing used to take hours and data a transparent space vehicle mockup. NASA analysis would sometimes take months, engineers used a Vicon system to collect but now tests only last an hour or so and suit mobility data, test seat-suit-vehicle we can have data available much sooner.” interface clearances, and examine suit performance within a multi-purpose With Vicon systems now in use, JSC can crew vehicle (MPCV) mockup. They tested put humans first, allowing them to test range of motion for various tasks using how different designs will impact human subjects of different sizes - both suited performance in real-life environments in and unsuited, and in pressurized and ways they never could before. unpressurized conditions.

Partial gravity testing The data revealed that most of the NASA also uses Vicon systems to evaluate spacesuits tested had sufficient ranges of Although manned missions have been Center. “For example, we’d design and build suited human performance in reduced motion for selected tasks to be executed put on hold due to budget cuts, NASA is a vehicle first, and then try to fit a person gravity. To do this effectively, partial-gravity successfully. Any failures for subjects to currently preparing for manned space in it. But when we’d test them with real-life analog environments ideally need to allow complete a task were generally due to By Vicon Editorial Team exploration missions to Mars and the people in spacesuits we’d find that they unrestrained freedom of movement while problems with suit-vehicle integration, Moon in the coming years. Space vehicles, couldn’t function or move around in the accurately simulating partial-gravity kinetics. poor agility and perception with pressurized You may have already read about Vicon spacesuits and other hardware are very vehicles properly.” This could cause In previous studies, two partial-gravity gloves, or field-of-view issues when the motion capture systems being used for the complex and costly to design and build, problems not only for the mission itself, simulations were used to characterize subject was seated - rather than insufficient Oscar and BAFTA nominated, blockbuster requiring numerous iterations to meet but for the astronauts involved. So NASA’s suited human performance. The JSC Space mobility of the new spacesuits. hit Gravity, making Sandra Bullock and performance requirements and costing aim was to find a technology that would Vehicle Mockup Facility’s (SVMF’s) partial George Clooney look like they were floating tens of millions of dollars. NASA’s JSC enable human-centered design. gravity simulator (POGO) was one of them. through space dodging satellite debris. needed a solution to help them design But what you may not know is that the suits and vehicles that, when built, allow NASA chose Vicon systems based on their A Vicon MX System was used to capture same technology is used by NASA to astronauts to function effectively. quality and reliability. They currently use kinematic data in various environments. prepare for real-life space missions. Vicon’s Nexus software along with several Retroreflective markers were placed on NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Human-centered design different types of Vicon cameras, including key parts of the body and hardware. Data Houston, Texas has been using Vicon “The main issue was that we used to think the Vicon MX System. was processed with custom-made inverse systems for more than eight years to test of humans last,” said Matthew Cowley, Transparent mockup of the new Orion spacecraft. kinematic and dynamic models using the designs of space suits and vehicles. Senior Design Engineer at Johnson Space Images courtesy of Johnson Space Center, NASA. Vicon BodyBuilder, which provided

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ARCHAEOLOGISTS GET ALL THE GLORY

Erin Marie Williams CHATHAM UNIVERSITY

Image courtesy of Chatham University archaeological record around 2.6 million accelerations, and torques in order to Working with Drs. Alison Brooks, Brian years ago. Endless brain-hours have been create a complete biomechanical picture of Richmond, and Adam Gordon, we are BY ERIN MARIE WILLIAMS dedicated to trying to figure out what the tool-making and tool-using processes. comparing the unbraced and braced A ssisTANT Professor of Biology changes occurred in our lineage around kinematic strategies in order to determine that time that facilitated the making If one visits the Motion Capture and Analysis whether any patterns emerge that Tell someone you’re an archaeologist and and use of these early stone tools. Laboratory at The George Washington distinguish the two conditions. Thus far, you’ve earned their instant respect and Evolutionary biologists agree that whatever University where we gather our data, one is we have been able to demonstrate that envy. Images of Indiana Jones and buried changes occurred, likely included both likely to encounter a somewhat uncomfortable our modern upper limb anatomy does in treasure quickly come to mind. When I cognitive and anatomical components. volunteer clad in a tight tank top and biking fact offer some big biomechanical tell people what I do, study the human My colleagues and I focus on the latter. shorts, and covered in reflective orbs advantages over the forms seen in some biomechanics employed when making while engaging in a range of rather odd of our ancestors. For instance, our modern the earliest archaeological artifacts, they Humans have been evolutionary blessed behaviors. My collaborator, Dr. Neil Roach, anatomy allows us to be more efficient respond with a very loud silence. And if with highly dexterous hands and an upper and I, recruit stone toolmakers from all and more accurate than the ancestral I actually show them the artifacts I’m limb well-suited to manipulative tasks. But over North America to visit the lab in condition. And our ability to reach high referring to—simple flakes of stone and this wasn’t always the case. The human Washington, DC, in order to participate levels of extension may help us avoid broken rocks—they begin to think that fossil record shows us that 3.5 million years in ancient tool making and tool using injury and osteological degradation in religion and politics might make for more ago the shoulders, the arms, hands and activities. Many of these volunteers are the wrist. All of this could have had large appropriate conversation topics. wrists of our ancestors were quite different more accustomed to making the types of consequences that acted on the fitness than our own. Back then, our ancestors beautiful, delicate stone blades seen in art of our ancestors. Individuals that were There is no doubt that the earliest tools were more similar to modern chimpanzees in museums. We ask them to make far simpler able to expend less energy or avoid injury in the archaeological record are visually some respects. The question my colleagues stone objects by banging rocks together while engaging in important stone tool unimpressive. They are, in fact, merely and I are trying to answer, is whether the until they have removed a few flakes. behaviors would certainly have had an rocks that were intentionally broken, in changes seen in upper limb anatomy might advantage over less efficient or injury-prone the hope of removing sharp-edged flakes be linked to stone tool behaviors. More They also crack open nuts and leg bones competitors. After all, on the African of stone, or to produce a sharp edge on specifically, does our modern upper limb of large animals using rounded stone Paleolithic landscape, the ability to the rock itself. Even a pile of such tools anatomy offer any biomechanical advantages cobbles, butcher animal tissue using the quickly butcher an animal and move would quite likely go unnoticed if encountered for using and making stone tools compared tools they’ve made, and carry out other on before other carnivores arrived could anywhere but at an archaeological with the anatomical configuration of our activities that we know our early ancestors have been the difference between excavation. But these tools are our ancestors? Could the changes we see carried out using stone tools. reaching reproductive age or becoming ancestors’ foray into the world of technology. there have enabled our ancestors to more the prey of another competitor. As such, they represent an enormous efficiently or effectively engage in stone After each volunteer goes through a series evolutionary step in the hominin lineage. tool behaviors? of early tool behaviors, we place them We will never know for certain how our And they contributed to a series of in the various braces and ask them to do ancestors moved their arms and hands adaptations—hunting, increases in brain Because time machines are hard to come it all over again in each one. The braces and wrists when engaging in stone tool and body size, access to valuable food by, we use Vicon Nexus and some very are meant to mimic different aspects of behaviors. We will never know a lot of sources—that culminated in the emergence complex-looking shoulder and wrist braces the ancestral anatomical condition. For the most interesting details about the of our own species, Homo sapiens. So to investigate this question. Prior to the example, the wrist brace we use limits species that came before our own. But despite their humble appearance, it is dawn of 3-D motion analysis, we lacked a wrist extension to about 35°, which may motion capture technology has opened hard to understate the significance these way to quantify the movements of stone have been the limit seen in two of our a window into human biomechanics and broken pieces of rocks had on all of us. tool behaviors. Which meant that we could ancestors, Australopithecus anamensis the movement strategies used to create They essentially enabled our ancestors only indirectly measure efficiency and and A. afarensis. With Vicon, we are now able to capture data that the earliest artifacts in the archaeological to become human. performance by comparing variables such record. Such an ability would surely as the time it takes to make a tool or the accurately describes joint velocities, accelerations, and impress even Indiana Jones. These tools, known as Oldowan tools number of flakes that can be removed. torques in order to create a complete biomechanical (named after Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, where the famous Leakeys discovered With Vicon, we are now able to capture picture of the tool-making and tool-using processes. them), begin showing up in the human data that accurately describes joint velocities,

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pretty small back then, even with a huge studio in which to shoot.

By Vicon Editorial Team Because of this, cinematics were practically impossible to shoot. But, I did actually Why did Bungie choose Vicon as its motion shoot a NASCAR pit crew, using one talent. capture system? We had to use click tracks on our speakers, Before I came on staff, Bungie had already so he would know where to be at any given looked at a number of motion capture point in time. The talent was great. He had solutions. We chose Vicon because the rehearsed it enough to actually be able Q+A WITH hardware is the best on the market. We to hand himself a tire that he’d pick up in were looking for something that had another take! Still, there was a LOT more Troy McFarland, Bungie incredible accuracy, was fairly easy to use, work in post to get the moves to work could handle the wide variety of motions well together. and talent we’d throw its way, and could BUNGIE expand easily. Also, having a solid track Also, it used to take a really long time to record and knowing Vicon would be around clean up data. There used to be a lot more for a long time was a factor. It would have noise. On Tribes, we had about 175 moves been too risky to get a system that might in the game, total. I’ve been on shoots later not have any support a year after we got it. in my career where we got that many A takes in one day! How long have you been a Vicon customer? I’ve been a Vicon customer since 1997 Newer features, like decent real-time preview when I worked for Dynamix, the creators have changed the way we execute a of “Tribes” among other things. Back then, Bungie’s new studio has extra overhead lights and bright shoot. It helps the talent get a feel for the we had only seven Vicon 370 cameras that carpet to reflect more light to the actors face way they are puppetting less than human characters, providing a feedback loop that shot at 60fps. It took a huge warehouse Images courtesy of Lorraine McLees just to get a 16’ circular volume that could results in a much better performance. For The Standard caught up with Troy McFarland, handle only one or two talent at a time. the mocap team, we love it when we need That project was a lot of fun to work on, Bungie is a developer of kick ass games that combine to align mocap set pieces to objects in our Mocap Lead at Bungie, to discuss mocap tech, but we can do so much more now! game. Instead of having to take painstaking epic performances and projects old and new. state-of-the-art technology with uncompromising art, measurements on set in advance, we can What system do you have now and has it captivating storytelling, and deep gameplay. simply move or adjust the set pieces with a changed over the years? few markers on them until they match up We started with 16 MX40 cameras. Back to our game assets perfectly. then, the cameras were mounted on the same truss that held a large black privacy For set pieces, we’ve kept the trusty pull Sometimes they just grab poses and timing How much of your final projects include curtain. The QA department was on the up bar, and added a few more items. from the data, and exaggerate them to mocap scenes? other side of the curtain, and sometimes I created an adjustable staircase out of bring them up to our stylistic quality bar. Nearly all of the cinematic scenes that after a particularly epic performance, unistrut. We also have a platform that is Other times, it’s used as a base layer, with have people in them and a majority of the you could hear them trying to stifle their used in a fair number of shots. We have a additional changes layered on top. But, all human gameplay animation use mocap in giggles. At the time, we only had three set wire mesh wall that minimizes occlusion animations have to pass our high quality one way or another. There has been a huge pieces: a ramp, a pull up bar, and a crash with applied dynamat to keep down the bar before it makes it into the game. effort on this game to get moves exactly pad. But, they were enough to get what noise when it’s hit. the way we need them. The mocap team we needed for Halo: Reach. Has the development in motion capture was working with the gameplay team early We’re always evolving and offering more technology in the last 10-15 years made a on Destiny, to help them quickly prototype We now have a hybrid Vicon system, services to the development team. difference to the type of projects Bungie the new animation engine. We’ve helped consisting of six MX40 cameras, 16 T40 can take on? out with a lot of pre-vis as well. cameras, and 12 T40S cameras, along with Does Vicon hardware and software make It wasn’t until Reach that it made sense for two video reference cameras, and up to your job easier? Bungie to even look at motion capture. In Are there any recent or notable projects four face reference cameras and mics, all Absolutely. I’ve used other systems in the the past, systems either took up too much that you can tell us about? in its own dedicated studio. past, and it certainly has advantages over space to get a decent volume or were too Destiny! It’s our newest thing, and we’re them. It is a lot easier to do stunts with a expensive for most studios to own. With really excited about it. It’s coming out on The on-site dedicated mocap studio at our passive optical system. If a marker breaks, newer systems being able to use wider September 9th, 2014. present location is a huge step up from our it’s very fast, cheap and easy to replace angle lenses, we’ve been able to get larger old studio in Kirkland. We’ve now got room to it. And because the suit isn’t powered, we volumes in smaller places, and the price tag Considering that we have only two people store a few more props and set pieces. We’ve don’t have to worry about a dead battery to quality bar ratio has gotten better. at Bungie in Mocap, we’re a small team covered the walls with sound abatement or a torn cable messing things up. Also, we compared to many other studios out there. material that is also really bright for better don’t have to worry about rebar in our floor When I first started using mocap, there But, we get a lot done. Rachel and I deliver video reference. The floor used to be black throwing off any of the data, as we might was no real time preview, no auto labeling, enough data to keep our animation and rubber, but we’ve upgraded that to the with a magnetic system. I’ve yet to find a and no easy way to have multiple talent cinematic teams happily busy. We love brightest carpet we could find, to help more accurate system. in the same space. I don’t even think working here, and help make their creative bounce light to the talent for better face the software on the market had name visions a reality. I’ve been in the games video reference too. Speaking of which, One thing to realize is that at Bungie, spacing back then! There was no easy industry for 18 years, and I can honestly we recently installed eight incredibly bright mocap data is used in a variety of ways. way to synchronize or even trigger video or say that this is the best place I’ve worked. LED banks with custom diffusers to provide Ultimately, it is just another tool for our audio reference. And, the volume size was Bungie’s studio before the re-vamp Image courtesy of Bungie even lighting throughout the studio. incredibly talented animators to use.

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25 mm markers, sampling at 240 frames a low continual muscular activation over per second and measuring indoor with the whole turn, now called an endurance artificial subdued light. Even with our best muscular activation strategy. Other efforts of controlling the motion capture subjects had short and high muscular volume, the area was open to the public activations at specific moments during and therefore noise from passers by caused the turn, called a crisp muscular activation us more than normal data control issues! strategy. To understand the reasons for After two years of work, in August 2013, these two strategies, we might have to the first Bachelor Thesis in Physiotherapy, collect more data. Next time we would COMBINING A and in October 2013 the first Master Thesis try to use more cameras, a synchronised in Sport Performance Analysis, was finished. video reference camera from Vicon for an The detailed data analysis and the writing overview picture during the whole trial, and of additional publications are still on-going. maybe try to develop a protection system FASCINATING SPORT against snow debris for markers mounted Image courtesy of First Results on the ski. Furthermore, it would be great Basel University The results of the Physiotherapy Thesis to have a small 3-dimensional force sensor WITH INCREDIBLE (Friedli S. & Schreiber N. 2013) showed between the skiboot and the binding. that skiing with a total knee arthroplasty changes the muscle activation pattern. The results of this project may contribute Some of the reasons could be that the a tiny bit to the understanding of the TECHNOLOGY proprioception of the operated knee joint interaction between kinematics and can be changed and some of the missing muscular activation in alpine skiing, sensory feedback may be compensated especially in the knowledge of eccentric with a longer and continued muscular muscle work while skiing. activation of the thigh muscles. Furthermore, total knee arthroplasty BASEL UNIVERSITY subjects were skiing with a more extended Acknowledgment: knee joint than the ones of the control We thank the Laboratory for Movement group. The conclusion is that gentle skiing Analysis of the University Children’s for a fit person with a total joint arthroplasty Hospital of Basel (UKBB) for providing is possible; as results of Colwell (2010) the Vicon MX System, the Orthopaedic show, gentle skiing leads to joint loadings Department of the University Hospital Alpine Skiing is a fascinating outdoor sport. of just 1.5 body weight (BW), which is less Basel for supplying the Datalogger of the Therefore, it is not surprising that persons with than walking to the skilift with 2.2 BW. EMG System, Stöckli Outdoor Sports AG The results of the Sport Performance for providing the skis, the WSL Institute total joint replacements, for example a hip or knee Thesis (Friedrich L. 2013) showed that for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF arthroplasty, do not want to give up this sport. even performing the same general movement supporting the measurements with Video within a defined setup, the muscular Cameras and manpower, and the Skihalle activation pattern varies largely within Neuss for blocking a part of the indoor the control subjects. By using the slope over 4 days. A special thanks goes Wavelet-Analysis-Tool in the new prophysics to all subjects participating in the study. ProEMG software, some subjects showed

The Project – from idea to data collection with either a right or a left turn within During a tropical evening at a pre-Olympic the measurement volume of the six MX13 BY BEAT GÖPFERT sport medicine congress in Hong Kong, cameras. The cameras were placed on a Technical Director discussing issues about skiing and tripod in an insulating styrofoam box to Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) functions, protect them against the minus 5° Celsius Medical doctors are warning not to ski we decided to perform biomechanical cold air during a 12 hour measurement with total joint replacements for two measurements while skiing with a total day. Overnight, the whole system had to reasons: one is the risk of falling and knee joint replacement. Within the planning be removed, as the snowmaking machines Within four days, we collected having a fracture near the implant; of the study, technical details were discussed were running and the slopes were groomed. the other is the high impact loading on with our Vicon representative, prophysics The structure of the whole indoor slope over 200 runs, measuring the the implant during skiing, caused by in Zürich, who offered excellent advice. with the short distance between slope, kinematics with the Plug-in-gait vibrations, bumps, or sharp turns. Over Finally, everything was set and the ethical chair lift, and preparation room was a big the last two decades, skiing has changed committee approved the study protocol. benefit and made it possible to collect a full-body marker setup with a lot; the carving ski technique was At the end of May 2011, we began trial every five minutes during one session. 25 mm markers and the surface developed, artificial snow is widely used, conducting our measurements on an and the equipment for the preparation of indoor slope in Neuss in the Lower Rhine Within four days, we collected over 200 electromyogram of 14 muscles the slopes and transportation for the skiers region in north-western Germany. The runs, measuring the kinematics with on both legs. has become much more efficient. Skiing stable conditions of an indoor slope the Plug-in-gait full-body marker setup is quite often “a rhythmic gliding down a guaranteed comparable results over the with 25 mm markers and the surface smooth carpet” experience, which makes whole test duration for the five total knee electromyogram of 14 muscles on both legs. it easier and therefore more attractive for arthroplasty and ten control subjects. people with a total joint replacement. The size of the indoor slope allowed two The data analysis, especially the tracking of Images courtesy of symmetrical eight gate slalom courses the markers, took a lot of time, even using Basel University

10 11 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON STANDARD

Motion capture is an ideal solution to controlling the environment, especially since the development of outdoor capable cameras.

CAPTURING BY KARL ABSON INTERACTION Lecturer in Creative Technology In many cases it is not possible to simply BETWEEN HUMAN use a real animal in film production and as such their essence must be AND ANIMAL captured and re-created digitally. Traditionally, gathering of reference material such as photographs and video Image courtesy of Bradford University has been the standard approach. This has led to CG hero characters which fool the UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD audience completely. This is not however the case one hundred percent of the time. horses are prey animals and their first capture studios around the world. Students Even with high quality reference material, reaction to anything unfamiliar is to run. use this facility both in and out of taught it is possible for even seasoned animators Through psychology, however, we can modules and actively receive hands-on to produce results which are untrue to find a solution to this problem. Our horse, experience with the equipment to capture the animal’s abilities. Marie, was encouraged to investigate movement for games, animated and visual Animals are a big part of our world and the equipment before shooting. After effects works. Our research actively Overcoming the uncanny valley requires introducing the equipment she quickly informs teaching to ensure students learn feature heavily in our creative works. knowledge of both the subject and the developed a liking to the Vicon cameras! the most up-to-date skills applicable to the Multiple horses for example, recently took techniques used to recreate it digitally. world they will move into. Students also Without such a synergy of knowledge a Image courtesy of Our experience of working with the see real world examples to help give centre stage in the major role of Joey, true to life performance cannot be assured. Bradford University equipment was extremely positive. System context to the tools they are learning an English plough horse in Steven setup was completed in no time at all and and how they should be applied correctly. Our work at the University is an attempt capture took place without incident. This Spielberg’s War Horse. to build an animal friendly, humane was despite six meters worth of snow and Learning tools in the classroom is a good approach which is also cost effective. the cold temperatures found on location. starting point; however students must Working with animals can be difficult and be able to apply them in new exciting dangerous; the animal does not know We captured many great takes and when ways. Innovative research projects are the the difference between visual effects applied to the model we had created, opportunity to learn such things. How do pyrotechnics and that of a real explosion this delivered an amazing level of detail. you attach motion capture markers to a which has danger. Motion capture is an Blade 2 also gave us a great experience. horse? This study gave an opportunity to ideal solution to controlling the environment, It was possible to acquire solved data with answer such questions, useful for later especially since the development of minimal manual intervention even in real employment, as well as practical experience, outdoor capable cameras. time conditions. Many smiles could be carrying out day-to-day tasks such as found in the office the first time our CG setting up equipment. The result is a Working with motion capture and animals horse crossed the screen. student with practical skills but who can proved to be an exciting combination. actively think creatively to solve problems. The early part of our study involved Going forward, we are working with Vicon studying horse anatomy and movement. to make our model and data available to We painted Guiness, a horse belonging to the community. We aim to continue this one of our team members. Through this work to benefit both our students and the fun process we were able to build an wider industry. The University is very much anatomically correct approximation of focused on good employability and many of the skeleton, decide on marker placement our teaching staff are actively working on and observe and address possible real world problems and creating solutions. problems such as skin sliding. From the students’ point of view, this is important, as standing out through Capture in terms of our study involved up-to-date skills and show-reels is a first moving equipment to the subject in question priority. The University holds an up-to-date and creating an environment which closely 16 camera motion capture studio and Image courtesy of Sabrina Steinert resembled normality. Animals such as regularly works with Vicon and motion

12 13 VICON LIFE SCIENCES VICON LIFE SCIENCES

THE EARLY YEARS SEEING AND HEARING MOTION

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

I am proud to say that there wasn’t a with that of walking on a treadmill (Fig 3). musical gesture research interests single ‘dry joint’, and I was told that if the We found some interesting differences, BY Dr. KIA NG include: musical instrument Dr. Kia C. Ng Director and Co-Founder of the medical research thing didn’t work out, which were reported at a meeting in Canada. Interdisciplinary Centre for performance, conducting, virtual/ BSc (Hons), PhD, FBCS, FRSA, BY PROF. MIKE WHITTLE I could always get a job doing soldering! Scientific Research in Music augmented interfaces, and others. FIoD, CITP, CEng, CSci The system was undeniably ‘clunky’, but Long before Vicon became a commercial We used retro-reflective markers, larger it worked well enough to perform a few Musicians often use mirrors to study Information about gesture and posture Dr. Kia Ng is a senior lecturer at the product, the analysis of body movement but otherwise similar to the ones in use research studies, with a particular emphasis themselves practicing. More recently can be communicated to the users in University of Leeds where he is Director was achieved using ciné film, each frame today, but rapidly discovered that using on sagittal plane knee moments, and also we have seen the increased use of video different ways. It may be visualized, and Co-Founder of the Interdisciplinary of film being hand-digitised on an analyzing floodlights to illuminate them wasn’t going to perform some clinical gait analysis. We recording in music education as a practice through graphical representation, or Centre for Scientific Research in Music projector - an effective but mind-numbingly to work. A moving marker ‘smeared’ its started using the system with two cameras, and teaching tool. For the purpose of alternatively, it may be sonified, by (ICSRiM). Kia’s research, links together slow procedure! The use of television for image, becoming dimmer than a stationary soon progressing to three. analyzing a performance, these tools are mapping selected gestural features to work in the School of Computing and the this purpose was pioneered by David one, so that it dropped below the detection not ideal since they offer a limited 2D audio. Sonification can be useful in School of Music on interactive multimedia, Winter, at Waterloo in Canada, in 1972. threshold and disappeared. We were Realising that it had potential, Julian perspective view. Using 3D motion capture instrumental training for a number of computer vision, computer music and AI. However, his system had a fairly low unable to find a commercially available Morris, who had previously worked at technology, it is possible to overcome this reasons. For example, when a musician resolution, and was only two-dimensional, strobe light which could be synchronised OOEC, developed a commercial version limitation by visualizing the instrument is practicing they may not be able to as it used a single camera. The markers were to the television framescan, so Alan of the system in 1984, and named it ‘Vicon’. and the performer in a 3D environment. utilize a visual display, since they need half ping-pong balls, stuck on to the skin! Turner-Smith designed and built some It was initially produced by a division of Visualization such as this can serve as a to concentrate on the score. The ear visible-light strobes (Fig 1). These worked Oxford Instruments Ltd. In the university, “3D Augmented Mirror” to help students may, in some cases, be more suitable A much more practical system was well, and didn’t appear to bother the we were lucky enough to get some improve their technique and develop for studying gesture and posture, since developed by Mick Jarrett in 1976, as subjects, although they made a rather government ‘end of year’ money, and self-awareness. It assists teachers to it can recognise qualities such as a PhD project in the University of loud buzzing noise! purchased one of the first Vicon systems, identify and explain problems to students. periodicity and speed better than the eye. Strathclyde, Scotland. Brian Andrews which ran on a DEC PDP 11/23 minicomputer. further developed this system, and used From the outset, we aimed to produce a We did some good work with this, although By analyzing and processing 3D motion At ICSRiM, we have been using a 12-camera it to make simultaneous measurements true three-dimensional (3-D) system, in we found that the calibration scheme capture data it is possible to obtain Vicon system for several large-scale from the front and side of his subjects. contrast to the biplanar system used which shipped with it was not as accurate comprehensive information about a collaborative projects including the in Strathclyde. We used ‘direct linear as the DLT, so we stayed with that. We also performance. For example, in the case i-Maestro EC IST FP6 project on technology- A tripartite agreement led to a further transformation’ (DLT), an open-source increased the number of cameras to four. of a string player, we can analyze the enhanced education, and CASPAR EC IST redesign in 1979, one system being computer program for 3-D calibration different characteristics of bow movements FP6 project on digital preservation. produced for each of three universities: and reconstruction. The calibration We continued using this system until and the relationships between the bow, the i-Maestro was a collaborative research Strathclyde, Dundee and Oxford. Malcolm object was a large steel frame with markers I moved to the University of Tennessee instrument and the body. This information project co-funded by the European Herring designed the four large circuit on it, mounted on wheels which could in 1989. There, I developed a gait laboratory can be extremely useful for both student Commission with partners from five European boards, which fitted into a DEC PDP 11/45 be retracted, to lower it onto pads in the using the latest Vicon equipment, which and teacher. It can be used in real time to countries and coordinated by Dr. Kia Ng. minicomputer. The assembly and testing floor, permitting registration with our has since been updated from time to time. provide instantaneous feedback about the The project covers both musical theory of the first system was done at the two force platforms (Fig 2). I borrowed I retired in 2005, but the laboratory continues performance and may also be used to make and practice issues, driven by pedagogical University of Oxford, in the Oxford a theodolite from the geography to be used for clinical and research studies recordings for in-depth study after the requirements and analysis, with interactive Orthopaedic Engineering Centre (OOEC), department to measure the 3-D by my successor, David Levine. performance has taken place. multimedia technologies. i-Maesto has where I had recently started work. locations of the markers on the frame. been one of the key research projects I spent three weeks soldering the Learning to play an instrument is a physical that explored 3D motion in the context of components onto the boards - an One of the first studies we did was to activity. If a student develops a bad posture musical performance, developed software unusual occupation for a doctor! compare the gait of overground walking early on this can be potentially damaging tools such as the 3D Augmented Mirror later in his/her musical career. Gestural (AMIR) to support gesture and posture playing style and techniques also have in music practice training. AMIR can be huge impact on musical expression and used to capture and analyze a performance Images courtesy of Dr. Kia Ng, expressivity, and represent a type of in detail and has a range of features to University of Leeds intangible heritage that challenges assist both teachers and students in recording and preservation approaches. numerous ways. In these contexts, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Research in Music 7 (ICSRiM, www.icsrim.org.uk), University of Leeds, has been exploring a range of Discover More technology-enhanced tools with 3D Dr. Kia Ng’s website: motion analysis to: (i) support learning www.kcng.org and teaching by raising awareness of body posture and performance gesture, and (ii) FIG 1 FIG 2 FIG 3 investigate musical gesture preservation Strobe light, television Steel frame with calibration markers Setup for comparing overground camera and lens (shown by arrows) and treadmill walking issues. Focusing on performing arts, our

14 15 VICON STANDARD VICON STANDARD

The next couple of years will be pivotal as we become familiar with products and devices that have been born out of research undertaken in the first 30 years IT’S NOT ALL DRONES of Vicon’s history and, I for one, hope that the next 30 years AND LAWNMOWER MEN are just as interesting.

VICON

From the very outset of the company’s history, engineering applications have been part of Vicon’s business.

engineering applications really started, as Only now, with the proliferation of consumer are augmenting reality to give manufacturing harking back to the original use of Vicon the requirement for real-time streaming grade VR equipment and powerful graphics instructions to workers whilst they are systems for gait analysis and biomechanics. By Warren Lester of 3D data became necessary. The most cards and PCs, is VR, once again, coming to undertaking the assembly of goods on a PRODUCT MANAGER - ENGINEERING common application was in the field of the fore. People are starting to believe that production line, thereby reducing the This growth will continue, as robots, in human factors and ergonomics, in particular VR will become a technology that is used training requirement yet increasing whatever form, cannot become part of In the beginning, customers’ use of with vehicle manufacturers studying within everyday life sometime this year effectiveness. This again is an application everyday life until some form of movement analysis or motion capture ingress and egress from cars. Automotive or next. area that we will see grow outwards from equivalence with their human, animal or for engineering was very few and far and Aerospace customers were also the early adopters in the aerospace and manned counterparts is proven and our between, but each application of the starting to look at the process, engineering In contrast, with the application of motion automotive industries into the wider market. understanding of their motion is complete. technology was very interesting and and maintenance of their products. It was capture within ergonomics – where models Governments are now realising the With all this in mind, there are interesting helped bring the customer’s research at this time, in 2002 that Pratt and Whitney and methods have not significantly importance of this; in a post-recession times ahead and the use of tracking or to the fore. Be that for tracking crash started using motion capture to improve changed since their introduction in Jack, world, manufacturers need to invest in new motion capture can only increase within test dummies, astronauts, or indeed and validate engine maintenance. This was Safework and Delmia since the ‘80s and ways to remain competitive and meet the engineering. The next couple of years will drivers getting into and out of vehicles, really the first of many Virtual Reality type ‘90s, Virtual Reality has over the past 12 demand for innovation. For example, in the be pivotal as we become familiar with Vicon plays a part in the way a large applications using Vicon. It enabled the years shown massive changes. This is UK at least two such government initiatives products and devices that have been variety of day-to-day products and user to become immersed within the CAD mainly due to the technology that exist: one for research in technologies that born out of research undertaken in the technologies have evolved in the last model and allowed them to undertake facilitates it with ubiquitous powerful help move manufacturers towards zero first 30 years of Vicon’s history and, I for 30 years to where they are today. various maintenance tasks which helped graphics cards, high resolution mobile prototyping; and the second being a one, hope that the next 30 years are just with the evaluation of the design without displays and DLP or LED projectors. mandate to ensure that all publicly funded as interesting. One of the earliest of such systems was having to build physical prototypes. A slew construction industry is “paperless” by one used by MIRA (Motor Industry of similar applications followed as the Immersive environments as they are more 2016. Both are most definitely supportive Research Association) in 1987/8. The popularity of Virtual Reality increased. widely known today (VR has a bad name of VR and AR technologies. focus of this research was to assess the However, due to several factors – both that is only now being shaken off), will performance of different types of related to the tracking and factors beyond continue to evolve at a rate of knots and Another application that we have seen Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATD), our control, such as the quality of graphics will become more accessible to a wider significant growth in over the last decade, different types of seats and varying seat and the performance of head-mounted group of people for a larger range of is that of robotics research. Robots have a belt geometries. It captured points on the displays, Virtual Reality at this time did not applications from manufacturing, very wide range of applications, not only in ATD at 200 frames per second with only really live up to the expectations that were architecture and design, through to manufacturing industries, but also nuclear three cameras. Before that, crash test portrayed in movies, even those from the rehabilitation and serious games for training. energy plant construction (and destruction), research had been largely qualitative. previous decade such as The Lawnmower medicine, “Blue light services” and of Man. Even 10 years after the advent of the Interestingly, another buzz phrase course military. Research in biologically With the exception of these early adopters, CAVE at the University of Illinois in 1995, “Augmented Reality” is starting to have inspired robots - biomimetics being the it was not until the late ‘90s and early VR was failing to obtain significant traction an influence over the manufacturing of trend du jour in an attempt to understand ‘00s that the use of motion capture for in areas other than academic research. products. For instance, some customers Image courtesy of AWE the motion of biological structures –

16 17 VICON ENGINEERING VICON STANDARD

VICON MOVES GM DESIGN INTO THE DRIVER’S SEAT REAL-TIME, 3D AND FULL SIZE

GENERAL MOTORS

Our motion capture technology, backed by the immersive virtual environment provided by RTT, combined for an advanced solution By Vicon Editorial Team that solved GM’s challenges and offered new advantages. The 3D tracking system’s Getting it right is paramount at General capabilities were essential – particularly Motors’ design studios. A lot depends on its quick and easy perspective changes. putting their engineers and designers in As we humans are unable to perceive 3D the driver’s seat, literally. Capturing and from stereoscopy alone, head tracking is testing exactly what a driver will see and imperative to providing a true immersive experience is critical to evaluating its experience. Traditional virtual reality automotive product designs. set-ups suffer from high latency and poor accuracy, which prevent the required When Steven Powell, Virtual Reality Studio suspension of disbelief for the best results. Manager for GM, was faced with a nearly decade-old inertial tracking system that “Gone are the days of grabbing the was showing signs of age, he asked what geometry and physically moving it around was new. What was better, faster and to change the perspective,” said Powell. could help the team at GM’s Virtual Reality “Now I can look up at the front of the car Studios do their jobs better? He recognized and it grabs the hoodline. I can zoom up that gaining a competitive advantage and rotate to see the sheet metal lines means reducing costs and improving time of the hood; it’s pretty impressive.” The to market; benefits that a state-of-the-art high-resolution visual quality and modular virtual reality system can help deliver. Easy configuration of the display system make and affordable, VR can provide the richness it easy to install and configure, and of physical prototyping – but only when the advanced calibration is simpler and faster. quality of interaction between the real and virtual world is intuitive. Finally, the Vicon system is virtually plug-and-play, requiring very limited After hearing about Vicon’s reputation in onsite training. The key is for designers the market and seeing the Apex system and engineers, like the team at GM, to in action, a few demos and conversations be up and running immediately, intuitively was all it took to see the difference it using the system and focusing on design - could make within their studio. rather than technology challenges.

“We had seen a demo of Vicon’s optical tracking system at Siggraph and we were intrigued. There are similar systems on the market but few offered the same level of quality and capabilities, and none at the same price point.”

18 19 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON LIFE SCIENCES

SECURING YOUR DREAM FINDING THE PERFECT JOB IN INDUSTRY GOLF SWING TAKING OPPORTUNITIES WHEN THEY ARISE EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

THE IMAGINARIUM

Bradford is one of the few universities in a year, I still manage to learn something BY REBECCA-LOUISE the country to not only have a fully functional new almost every day, and passion and LEYBOURNE motion capture system, but to teach it on obsession with the technology I use and M oTION Capture Tracker a module that allows students to have a now help develop, is still as strong as ever. hands-on experience in the studio, either I still keep in touch with my University, and The last time I was featured in Vicon’s The as an actor in a suit, or behind the computer urge students to take advantage of the Standard I was quoted as a student at the capturing data, then to post process and opportunity they are being offered by having University of Bradford. Now I am employed retarget movement onto a character in access to the mocap system and gain studio in the VFX industry as a Motion Capture MotionBuilder. As the industry develops, experience, before taking their first steps Tracker at The Imaginarium Studios, a performance capture is becoming more into the industry. London based performance capture studio, advanced and allows the next generation co-founded by actor/director Andy Serkis of films and games to break new boundaries and film producer Jonathan Cavendish. of realism. Having access and being able the lower trunk segment was the largest The wrist joint was also added to the With countless amazing experiences and to operate a unique technology is a huge variable associated with clubhead speed. multi-segment upper body from studies several high profile projects already credited benefit to first time applicants trying to get This supported previous research that the one and two, and differences were found to my CV, I look back at how being able to into the industry, proving they can handle BY CHRISTOPHER JOYCE upper trunk should be modeled as a multi- in the swing patterns. Previous research have practical experience with Bradford the pipeline and be productive right away. segment model, and it allows a greater had revealed no changes in swing patterns University’s 16 Vicon T20 system not only Even in other areas of games and animation, My PhD consists of five unique studies, understanding of the sequential contribution when using different drivers, although inspired my career path but also played an I still see so many animation applications, which have used Vicon motion analysis of each segment in the golf swing. the use of the multi-segment upper body important part in helping me get my first especially in the games industry, with to understand the technique (upper body model and the inclusion of an outdoor job in industry. experience of using motion capture data as movements) variables in the golf swing, The third study used the Vicon system to familiarization protocol may have allowed a desired skillset, so even just testing the and also equipment variables (driver shaft) understand the dynamic performance of for differences to be found. The results During my time at Bradford I studied an waters of the technology may prove to give to analyse how the golf club performs the golf club during the golf swing. Current of this study show that golfers do adapt undergraduate degree in BSc Computer you an advantage over other applicants. under dynamic conditions (the golf swing). methods by golf club-fitters and teaching their swing patterns when using different Animation and Special Effects, followed My own experience meant that when I I’m also a registered provider for the professionals use static methods which golf clubs, and also a greater understanding up by a MSc in the same field to progress went for my interview at The Imaginarium I Australian PGA, and work with elite golfers’ have shown little or no correlation to shot of how elite golfers modify the launch further. Bradford’s lecturers, modules and had the advantage of already being able to trainee programs and present the latest outcomes of the golf ball. Using coordinate parameters of the golf ball, i.e. launch final projects are catered to allow students operate the Vicon hardware and software research, conditioning and injury prevention data from equi-spaced markers along the angle and spin. to graduate with a mixture of industry the studio used. As I was lucky enough to methods. The research produced from club shaft, and mathematical point line specific skills, using industry standard be hired, this meant on my first day I was these studies have been the result of algorithms, the deflection or “kick-point” The inclusion of a wrist segment for study software and technology targeted to able to assist in the running of the system a collaborative research team from the was revealed. This point on the golf five was shown to have a large contribution ultimate career goals. within a few hours and have now gained engineering and mathematics schools shaft was shown to change its position to clubhead speed. It was reported that experience as a confident systems operator, at Edith Cowan University, and also the throughout the golf swing, and was faster clubhead speed was associated with I took the Motion Capture module in my or with a co-pilot, independently driving involvement of teaching professionals different to that reported statically. The a more delayed, or “un-cocking” of the wrist second year of my undergrad and have the system and capturing data during and club-fitters from Royal Fremantle results from this study allowed investigation in the downswing. It was also reported never looked back. I knew from the first commercial shoots and R&D. Although Andy Serkis and Actor Chipo and Lake Karrinyup Country Clubs, in into how the changing of the kick-point that the wrist movement patterns (point lesson that this was a technology that I during my first few weeks I had to learn Chung at The Imaginarium Western Australia. altered the launch parameters of the golf of release) was shown to be different wanted to learn and work with on a daily the specific pipelines and in-house scripts ball at the point of impact. Study four when using different drivers (high vs low basis, and I made it my goal from then on that The Imaginarium uses on stage and Previous research into understanding how revealed that by using the methods of kick-point shafts). to make it happen. After learning the basics in post, my University experience allowed My own experience meant that the upper body moves in the golf swing study three, dynamically, the launch of the pipeline, I was then able to use the me to quickly become an efficient part of when I went for my interview have modeled the upper body using the parameters of the golf ball were linked to N system as part of my final undergraduate the capture team, in comparison to those shoulders and pelvis only. The first two the performance of the golf shaft, which project and finally in my master’s year, who would need to learn the pipelines from at The Imaginarium I had the studies aimed to model the upper body as has previously not been investigated. Info rearranged the studio for the University’s scratch, ultimately reducing my training advantage of already being able a multi-trunk segment, which allowed My final PhD study investigated how elite Christopher Joyce is a PhD student first ever optical facial shoot, in a study time and proving me a cost-effective analysis of the “lower trunk”. The validated male golfers modified their golf swing at Edith Cowan University. of the current techniques of capturing member of staff for the studio. Now, having to operate the Vicon hardware model was then applied to a group of elite pattern when hitting with drivers fitted facial animation. worked at The Imaginarium Studios for over and software the studio used. male golfers and it was discovered that with different shaft properties (kick-points).

20 21 VICON STANDARD VICON STANDARD

SMALL STEPS, BIG LEAPS

VICON

more work!”? The kind of line that the field had progressed to a point where “Magic”. I think this is what great technology assessments of gait patterns for children “I think this is what great everyone’s parents have close at hand. the cameras collected continuous data; should do. When you’re able to see a with conditions like cerebral palsy in By Derek Potter As a child growing up in Canada this story however to do anything with this information, jump forward, rather than a small step, it hospitals and sport performance research technology should do. When PRODUCT MANAGER - LIFE SCIENCES inevitably involves how far one’s parents researchers still needed to write their own should seem like magic. The gait lab that I in university biomechanics labs. The life you’re able to see a jump had to walk to school in the snow and cold. bits of processing code. The amount of managed at the time did not have a Vicon science market is still the largest market Vicon has been at the top of the motion FYI, for those not from Canada, this distance time spent working on getting to the data system and I couldn’t help thinking about for Vicon, comprising more than fifty forward, rather than a small capture business for thirty years now; and was always further than the distance that was often more than the time spent how much time it could save the researchers percent of our annual business. A fact that step, it should seem like magic.” that’s no small feat. I’m proud to say that you were expected to walk. Well, I don’t analysing the data. /technicians (myself included). This I (tongue in cheek) occasionally remind I’ve been working for the company for a care how cliché it is to say, because it is thought did not come from a sense of my colleagues about. Working in an area decade and I’m amazed at just how much true. Motion capture was harder when I The first time I saw a Vicon system working laziness, but rather at how much could be that you feel actually provides a benefit to has changed and progressed in the field in was in school. I remember long hours in I was astounded at what it could do. accomplished if less time were required to others is tremendously satisfying. Whether this last third. my undergraduate days “hand digitizing” Compared to what I had been working get to the point where outcome assessments this is through the assessment of gait, the video one frame at a time. Carefully clicking with at that time, the time to go from or research conclusions could begin. I’ve furthering of research, or helping athletes that technical ‘know how’ ceases to be a How cliché would it be to start an article on each landmark before advancing to starting collection, to seeing meaningful tried to carry this thought with me in my train for the Olympics. The entertainment barrier to its use. This type of progression is like this by telling you that “In my day, motion the next frame and repeating the process. data in front of you, was drastically current role as a Product Manager at division at Vicon was in full swing by the something that we’ve all seen in PCs, smart capture was a lot harder and required far Years later when I was finishing grad school, reduced. A single word sprung to mind, Vicon and had hoped that I would have time I started and I must admit that upon phones and, most recently, in tablets. This the opportunity to be part of technology arriving at the company I still considered is why a lot of our future focus is aimed jumping forward, not just stepping forward. myself a researcher working in industry. at making our software more automatic This meant that I was a bit of a snob when and intelligent. We have a large number In 2004 I was fortunate enough to join it came to applauding the developments in of concepts we think will elevate the Vicon during a period of rapid development the other markets. As a biomechanist, I was technology, by dropping the technical bar. and expansion. The company grew using motion capture for its true purpose These include, systems that can recognize significantly during my first few years, and wasn’t particularly interested in what a degrading calibration and repairs itself expanding into new markets, new those in movies and video games industries automatically, and operations that recognize technologies and new territories. This were doing, (although when speaking when a subject enters the volume and was the year that Vicon first launched our to my friends back home I didn’t mind auto-calibrates them. I regularly receive original line of MX cameras. These were mentioning that my company was feature requests for a feature that “Writes the industry’s first cameras to utilize fully responsible for the great VFX in the my Thesis” or “Auto-Publishes my Paper”. independent on-board processing. This latest blockbuster movie). Over the past These last two are probably a little first was only one of many ‘firsts’ that I ten years, however, I’ve been shocked at further off….. have been able to be a part of during my the number of wonderful benefits that time with Vicon. 2004 was also the year life science has been given through Most technology and software businesses Vicon launched its flagship application development work in other markets, follow a natural cycle that includes in life sciences – Vicon Nexus. As Nexus thus forcing me to re-examine my views. research, internal development, new matured as a software platform, other firsts This cross-pollination effect is something technology platform introductions and followed such as real-time video vector in that I feel is unique to Vicon and one platform maturation periods. The cycle 2006. Video vector is a wonderful example of the reasons that so much innovation then repeats itself. After a significant of a feature that some assessed as showier can be produced by what is essentially a amount of investment and development, as opposed to functional. Fast forward to relatively small company. this year is set to be the largest step today’s world of clinical motion capture and forward in life science that Vicon has had we find that many now consider this an Motion capture is now starting to mature since my first year with the company. We invaluable asset and a standard component past its adolescent stage, and like most are going to be making significant steps of an assessment. Being part of shifts technologies, I see it becoming more forward with the launch of the much like this is what being part of Vicon is ubiquitous. We at Vicon have been witnessing anticipated Nexus 2.0 platform. It’s really about and it’s why I’m still with the the market slowly expanding into new difficult to express just how excited I company after ten years. areas; and this expansion is accelerating. am about this introduction, as I truly I feel that positive growth will see motion feel this will be a jump rather than a The life science market that I shepherd capture start to ‘disappear’ into the small step forward for Vicon and our was the first market where motion capture background. What I mean by this, is that users. I hope you, the Vicon community, technology truly gained traction: clinical mature technology becomes so easy to use are looking forward to this as well.

22 23 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON STANDARD

With this big change in venue and setup we were able to now offer a much better BY ALEX COUNSELL Principal Technician for the School service to our students, and be able to

Richard Perrin Richard of Creative Technologies embed motion capture in our teaching. The first use was in a unit for our BSc Computer We started with the manuals that shipped Animation course, in which our students with the system and then shortly after, design and create characters from scratch Alex Muir a Vicon engineer, came to visit and drive them with motion captured data. us and showed us how to set up the cameras To allow them to do this, an initial lecture is and use IQ for the first time. As soon as given about mocap and the studio process. I started learning more about motion The students are then given a live demo of WORLD capture I realized it was something we volume calibration, actor and prop marker had to develop further for our students, setup, ROMs and calibration, and we then Motion capture set-up at Mocap data from Vicon Blade. and what a great facility it could be. show the real-time link between Blade Portsmouth University Image courtesy of Portsmouth University and MotionBuilder driving characters. This RECORDS + In 2006 we moved premises, and due to also includes a virtual camera rig live in the increased use of the mocap system, MotionBuidler. We then set up a week we managed to get a larger dedicated where students can come and direct an room, but still only had our six V-Cams. actor, with a prop, from a shot list that they AAA TITLES The locale was less than glamorous, but submit and they are allowed to choose add to our system, totalling 20 cameras, had some VIPs on set…Vicon’s own Bob it was a great start for a mocap studio at one minute of movement data for their and over the course of two weeks, the Dimmock and Adele Burdock came to add Portsmouth University. character. We then clean their data and stage was built, including custom facial words of wisdom and support (plus to make deliver it to them in the format of choice. cameras, sets and props. sure we were doing everything correctly!). Due to the popularity of the facility, it was As the unit regularly has 60 plus students, becoming obvious that one person would this week is very busy and the clean-up One of the more tricky aspects of the One of the highlights of the shoot was UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH not be able to run the studio alone. In 2007 can take a couple of weeks to process film was its setting in the Carpathian setting a new world record! Our Actor we decided that the best people to run it all of the students’ data. Mountains, so we had to devise a way of Martin Daniels, who is playing the Pipe would be the students themselves, and capturing our actors on varying inclines Catcher character in the film, was, at 74, advertised for our first team. The response For the first time this academic year, we during their performances. We designed recognized as the oldest man ever motion from our students was overwhelming and are delivering a 3rd year unit, where students a series of adjustable ramps that would captured. This was not adjudicated by we shortlisted and hired! One of our first learn to process motion capture data in achieve this, which could be set up and Guinness unfortunately, but by Demian Our first foray into motion capture started in student team members, Geoff Samuel, Blade, and are assessed on the quality of reconfigured quickly between shots. They Gordon of the Motion Capture Society. has become one of our most successful their tracking and cleanup, plus solving were used for mountainsides, underground Martin now has his picture in their 2005 with a 6 camera V-Cam system. It had students. During his time with us he landed (using the Production Skeleton), exporting, caverns and even the rock face of a world record section! been installed by Virtalis as part of our new a summer placement in Audiomotion and then retargeting and some basic waterfall for our actors to climb up. Studios in Oxford. When he graduated, motion editing in MotionBuilder. The There was only one injury during the VR Room and we had no experience in using he went to work as a Pipeline Software sequence they have to clean, was shot Some other sets included the interior of shoot; one of our actresses tripped in the Vicon hardware or software before that, so a Developer at MPC, and has recently specifically for the unit and consists of Stina’s house with a front door, cooker, dining dressing room, and managed to dislocate joined Weta Digital as a Mocap Pipeline two actors performing a sword fight, table and mantelpiece, there were forests, her thumb in two places! Not even on set. steep learning curve sat ahead of us. Developer and got his first film credit on with varying stages of ranged and close watchtowers and even a fairground. All No mocap shoot would be complete the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. interaction, lasting around a minute and a layouts were designed before the shoot, without a wealth of broken markers, plus half. We used professional stage combat and all actors marks were placed using roll upon roll of gaffa tape, numerous “Working at the Mocap Studio was an actors from Captivate Ltd. tape. A quick turnaround was also required bottles of super glue, and enough shoe amazing experience, one that helped between the shots, so our team of student deodorant to run a bowling alley! shape my career into what it is today. The We have learnt so much from running our volunteers practiced the set changes challenges that myself and my student studio for the last nine years, and aside during our rehearsals. These lasted two Since the shoot, we have developed a team faced were real-world production from teaching, we needed an in-house weeks and gave the actors time to get robust pipeline to get the data onto our problems for clients who were often new project to push our ability to its limit. This used to the suits, head cams, set layouts character rigs. All cleaning and solving is to motion capture and working towards is where the Stina & the Wolf project came in. and props to ensure that the real shoot done in Blade, then exported via FBX to tight deadlines. It’s this environment, which went as smoothly as possible. MotionBuilder for some scale adjustments echoes the production world so well, that In 2011 one of our lecturers, Paul Charisse, and motion editing (if required). There is prepared me so well for my move into the came to me with the idea of making a On August 2nd 2011, the shoot began, and no retargeting required as all of our actors industry.” (Geoff Samuel, Motion Capture feature length CGI film at the university, over the course of the next five weeks the have digital doubles so far. Then the final Pipeline Developer at Weta Digital and using students and staff to create a ‘AAA’ entirety of the screenplay was shot. We FBX motions are imported into Softimage BSc Computer Animation Graduate, 2009) quality film, similar to the likes of Avatar shot every day from 10am until 5pm, capturing where a script fits our enveloped rigs to and Tin Tin. It was decided that we would a maximum of 6 actors at once, including the data, and attaches a complex facial Over the next couple of years we acquired use motion capture to drive the characters, using four of our homemade headcams. rig and hand system for our animators to two more V-Cams and pushed the system including facial capture. push through to final. to its absolute limit capturing three actors. Every take included on set audio, two In 2009 we were awarded funds to upgrade Once I had read the screenplay, the job of reference cameras and up to 4 streams of 7 the suite to eight T10 cameras and our first building a custom mocap stage began. We facial video. At the end of each day, all of experience with Blade started. In 2010 we quickly realized that the 12 cameras that the takes were set up for batch processing, Discover More moved premises, providing us with a larger we had would not be able to cope with the so we could review first thing in the morning Project trailer: volume and we also upgraded the system size of the new volume and the number of while the actors were preparing. This way vimeo.com/83482109 to 12 T10 cameras, a big move up for us. actors we intended to shoot. Vicon helped if we needed any re-shoots we could www.stinaandthewolf.net us with eight additional T160 cameras to schedule them in. During the shoot, we

24 25 VICON STANDARD VICON STANDARD

VICON BOLSTERS COMMITMENT TO CUSTOMERS IN LATIN AMERICA

VICON

Vicon has enjoyed a long and successful history in Latin America. Our presence in the region began with A COUPLE OF gait analysis systems in Brazil in the mid-1990s. ANNIVERSARIES

Byy Am August VICON SALES ENGINEER, LATIN AMERICA Digital Frontier is one of Asia’s Today, it has expanded to include systems largest motion capture studios. in 13 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, spanning all three of Vicon’s major markets. Wacoal, and Fujikura, and in China, ANTA able to check the aesthetics, but can Sports, Qiaodan Sports and Li Ning. And understand the different vehicle systems Research in biomechanics, sports science BY Alex Muir they’re not just capturing the usual sports without having to build the physical car. and kinesiology, is an area where the use ASIA PACIFIC SALES MANAGER like Basketball and running - the Australian of motion capture is rapidly expanding. Institute of Sport completed a study on the The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capture Vicon currently boasts over 40 life science In March 2004, I started what has sport of Racewalking! application didn’t exist 10 years ago. research customers in the Latin America become my 10 year journey with Vicon. Today, we have many customers, like Chiba region. After the very successful hosting of Beginning in the Oxford office, and moving Real-Time Expansion in Entertainment University (Japan) who are researching the the International Society of Biomechanics CASE STUDIES on to open our first office in the Asia The last 10 years have seen some great best way to fly into the Fukushima Nuclear (ISB) conference in Natal, Brazil in 2013, Pacific region eight years ago. This 30th advances in gaming, and motion capture Zone to conduct experiments and measure and with both the Olympics and World Wagner de Gadoy, formerly of the AACD The Vicon Polygon program is used to birthday edition of The Standard is a has had to keep up with that progress. radiation using UAVs. Another customer, Cup coming to Brazil in the next few years, clinic is Sao Paulo and currently working create a custom gait report for each great place to look back at the success We have seen several Japanese customers DJI Innovations (China), is bringing UAV Vicon expect to see great advancements with the Albert Einstein Hospital in the patient. Between three-five patients and growth of Vicon in this region. purchase 100 cameras and our first big technology to the consumer with their in the life sciences fields in Brazil and same city, noted that his first Vicon have their gait data captured every Chinese games company, Snail Games, Phantom Series UAVs. Expect to see one surrounding countries over the next five years. system, a 370 Workstation in the 1990s morning in the lab and, thanks to the Advances in Life Science purchased in 2013. flying above you soon! UAV technology “Proved to be extremely robust. The ease of use of the Vicon system and the Our most established market in this region isn’t only robotics; researchers at Nanyang The visual effects market has also seen continuous aid of Vicon’s support service clean data provided, all of the patients´ is biomechanics and gait, and we continue Our customers include Digital Frontier, Technological University (Singapore) great growth over the past few years. was essential for the development of data are processed each afternoon so that to see this market grow. For example Konami, Sega and Square Enix. Consoles are using intelligent systems and Vicon There are currently more than 10 animation gait analysis as [an] indispensable instrument the doctor can expect the new batch of in Thailand, we have grown from one are banned in China so most of the gaming to measure and control the flight of related systems operating in Mexico alone, in the rehabilitation processes.” This early Polygon reports on his desk every evening. customer, Mahidol University, to four is PC based. The advances in motion Rhinoceros Beetles. ranging in applications from teaching tools success helped lead to the choice of universities and hospitals offering clinical capture have meant that Animal Logic at the Universidad del Valle de Mexico purchasing a new Vicon MXF40 system at gait services throughout the country. In (Australia) was able to drive a virtual talk The last 10 years have seen some great to professional studios like Gyroscopic the Albert Einstein Movement Laboratory The Universidade Federal de Santa Japan, the Saga University Hospital has show host in real-time and Next Media advances in motion capture technology in Guadalajara. in 2008 that is still functioning today. Catarina was the first to implement a 14 Vicon cameras and 25 force platforms; Animation (Taiwan) was able to produce and the applications our customers have Vicon motion capture system in Brazil they need to deliver the gait analysis animations of the days’ news stories been developing. I can’t wait to see what All of this amazing growth would not have for VFX education, while the newest report in 15 minutes and 25 force platforms for their customers to watch on their the next 10 years bring. been possible without Vicon´s dedicated The MOVISYS laboratory run by Dr. Camilo animation centric system at Universidad means they always get good foot strikes! homeward commute. group of distributors and partners in the Turriago in Bogotá Colombia has an eight Federal de Gioas boasts 32 of the four Latin American region. For a list of current camera T40S system, which was installed megapixel T40S cameras with three of We have also seen Asia’s top sporting Engineering for automation resellers and more information, please visit in 2010. The lab currently processes the new Cara facial capture units. companies adopt and expand their Vicon Ford Australia is using a Vicon system to the Vicon website at vicon.com or contact between 15-25 patients weekly from across motion capture systems: in Japan, Asics, virtually design a vehicle. They are not only me directly [email protected]. Colombia and neighboring countries.

26 27 VICON STANDARD VICON STANDARD

A BRIEF HISTORY OF VICON

Becoming a global leader in the field of motion capture Vicon has won many awards over the years, and we’re proud of them all. CG World Innovation Award 2000; The Queen’s Award doesn’t happen overnight. Since the early 1980s, all the for Enterprise 2001; Scientific and Technical Academy Award® 2002; iF Product Design Award 2008; and Best New Product at brilliant people who work with us have had an impact the BCS and Computing Awards 2009. on the award winning systems you use today. 1985 1995 2015 2010 1990 2005 2000 Early 1980s

First Vicon RSX system installed at University of West Virginia, USA Second generation Vicon Vicon 370E launched for use in game system launched – Vicon VX Newington Children’s Hospital development and film production become first US Clinical Gait with choice of four camera types 24 camera Analysis customer First Windows 3.1 software, Vicon Vicon 8 Clinical Manager, introduced House of Moves use Vicon introduced – 370E system to capture the world’s first ground-breaking VFX mocap system in Titanic developed just for animation Sony Pictures Imageworks is the world’s first studio to use over 200 Vicon cameras for the Monster Bonita 1.0 megapixel House movie project camera expands the Launch of the world’s first four Bonita camera range megapixel motion capture Vicon develops the world’s first camera, the MX40 custom-built motion capture Launch of Bonita video sensor, the Vicon Vegas cameras – first reference video camera designed specifically for motion capture

Cara is launched as the first out-of-the-box 3D facial motion capture system.

Vicon celebrates Launch of the Bonita 0.3 megapixel 30 years of pioneering motion capture camera motion capture Vicon becomes subsidiary of Launch of the world’s OMG plc, as company IPOs on first 16 megapixel London Stock Exchange motion capture camera, the T160 Launch of the Vicon expands US world’s first office to support one megapixel growing animation market motion capture camera, the Vicon DynaCal large Vicon MCam 200fps 500 line volume dynamic calibration motion capture system introduced First Vicon system installed in Japan at Seven camera Vicon 370 camera introduced Saitama Rehabilitation Center, Tokyo launched with 50/60fps 525/625 line cameras Vicon opens US office to support growing number of North American customers

Vicon RSX Vicon VX Vicon 370E DynaCal Vicon MCam MX40 T160 Bonita Cara Vicon 30

28 29 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON LIFE SCIENCE

character to that of an obese person. represents an intersection across digital perceptually believable when applied Image courtesy of Satish to an obese character. This could then Shewhorak featuring deformed Using the locomotion trendlines I had entertainment and life science interests, Softimage character models previously analysed and hypothesised, the School of Social Sciences & Law have prove to be a useful tool for animators GAIT ANALYSIS BRINGING I then scripted motion modifiers to also generously allowed my use of their with only a single character and motion DIVERSE VIRTUAL exaggerate fourteen gait variables of the Biomechanics Lab which has a six-camera captured walk to believably create a lean walk to appear obese. Vicon System 370 better suited for my crowd of diverse looking and moving CHARACTERS TO LIFE purposes. Not only can the Vicon System, characters. Beyond the scope of my As the first sample set was limited, I have capture at a frame rate four times higher, research I would also be interested in been deploying perceptual surveys to but importantly it allows the exporting capturing, analysing and modifying walks determine the most dominant gait variables of rotational limb data and an efficient of other demographics such as women, to focus future analysis and application to, retargeting solution to virtual characters older members of public and people from however early results appear promising. within MotionBuilder. different ethnic backgrounds. TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY The research project is a result of the As my PhD research draws to a close in James Caldwell Scholarship, provided by 2014, I am conducting a second, larger N a former Professor at Teesside University. round of data collection as this will Info My research is being supervised by Dr. undoubtedly provide a richer, more detailed Satish Shewhorak is a PhD candidate at Wen Tang and Dr. Fred Charles within the gait analysis to apply to my appearance Teesside University, and the first recipient School of Computing which has its own and motion modifier. Ultimately, I will test of the James Caldwell Scholarship. motion capture lab used for games and whether the obesity related gait variables animation students. However as my research I have analysed and replicated are

OXFORD GAIT LABORATORY

To improve the believability of diverse virtual characters’ UPGRADE TO FIFTH VICON SYSTEM appearance and locomotion, a solution is being sought at the intersection between life sciences and digital entertainment.

The Oxford Gait Lab recently upgraded its existing Vicon motion capture system to a T-Series system I aimed to analyse the walks of people of fitting clothes that they feel comfortable increasing body fat percentage, identify switching to. A combination of on-skin with Bonita Video cameras. prominent changing aspects of gait and marker placement, and light but firm BY SATISH SHEWHORAK to reapply it to a lean virtual character to marker tape over clothes, became an make him walk like an obese character. effective application of the validated Current research shows that it is already To understand the relationship between Vicon Plugin Gait Marker Set, maintaining isn’t required to do as many trials, which possible to create procedurally differentiated appearance and walking style, I measured comfortable movement whilst reducing is really important for patients with characters of varying body shape and participants’ body fat percentages using marker sliding. limitations in their walking,’ said walking style. an InBody720 bioelectrical impedance By Vicon Editorial Team Dr. Julie Stebbins, Clinical Scientist and machine. Weight was recorded using Participants were then asked to walk at Operational Lead for the service. This is important as audiences are capable standard scales and nine other body five increasing but self-selected speeds Based at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre of detecting cloned characters that break metrics were measured using a tape and a fixed 1.2m/s, whereupon any occlusions, (Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust), it “Not only that, the data quality from their suspension of disbelief. The problem measure against structural landmarks in typically at the waist, were cleaned up. was one of Vicon’s first customers, originally both T-Series and Bonita Video is that still exists is that there is little research consultation with ISAK certified sports using the system for research purposes in improved, compared to previous cameras,” in how to relate motion diversification to science technicians. From this I could Vicon Nexus allowed me to export not the early ‘80s and going on to offer a gait Stebbins continued. appearance diversification. also derive comparative metrics such only the absolute positional data of analysis service from 1996. as Waist-to-Hip Ratios and BMI levels. each marker but to also export the local As well as increased capture volume and My PhD research looks to not only improve rotational data of each interpreted limb. The Oxford Gait Lab sees an average improved data quality, the system upgrade the diversity of characters’ motions but I then took the participants through From here I could perform gait analysis of 400 patients a year and is currently will enable the new upper limb service to also their believability in relation to their the motion capture process. Whilst a on changes in position and magnitude of setting up a new clinical service for upper have a more efficient and flexible method related body morphology. compression suit was suitable for the eight variables over increasing body fat limb motion analysis, which will analyze for capturing data. leaner participants, for heavier set people percentages. This provided regression children with Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy Whilst there is research published on this became more of a challenge. For formulas that could then be reapplied and Brachial Plexus Palsy. The Oxford “The fact the Oxford Gait Lab has been a how to create configurable and diverse those that could squeeze into the suit, as part of a virtual character modifier. Gait Lab also uses their Vicon system customer for 30 years is testament to the locomotion using inverse kinematics and some found that it made them walk This scripted mechanism was developed for teaching and research purposes. quality and technological advancements spacetime optimization, these physical uncomfortably or self-consciously. Other within Softimage using JavaScript with of Vicon products over the years. We have simulations can lack the rich detail and participants simply could not fit the suit the first aspect featuring an appearance “Upgrading our system meant that we a great working relationship with the team Image courtesy of Nuffield nuance of actual motion captured walks. and marker tape fixed to loose clothing deformer. Using reference photography could capture more markers over a larger and look forward to seeing the successful Othorpaedic Centre For that reason I decided to use motion could also feel restrictive. I requested that and standard shape deformation tools, area, effectively increasing the length of launch of the new Upper Limb Clinic.” capture as the basis of my research. participants bring gym gear or any tight I increased the appearance of a lean our capture area. This means the patient Imogen Moorhouse, CEO, Vicon.

30 31 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON STANDARD

Today everything is different, It was a thing of persistence, to work and work Lemon Films, the biggest film production until we saw results we could demonstrate company in Mexico, took a step forward more than two hundred to the rest of the industry in Mexico. with motion capture solutions when in computer graphics students 2013 they shot the first full-CGI creature QUE VIVA It has been five years since the first mocap for the feature film, Km 21 Part 2. In this have graduated with set-up was acquired. Nowadays, UVM case we provided a 24 Bonita camera MOTION CAPTURE! Vicon/Blade motion capture has purchased another four Vicon mocap set-up for the film and six experienced systems (Bonita), for Toluca, Puebla, San students for free. experience, the same students Rafael and Tlalpan campuses, respectively. that are empowering the Other universities have also taken the Km 31 Part 2 is the latest milestone for decision to implement the technology for motion capture solutions in Mexico. In UNIVERSIDAD DEL VALLE DE MEXICO entertainment industry. their CG academic programs. For instance, terms of the technical approach, a full Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios facial capture was made and more than Superiores de Monterrey (T20 Cameras), eight live minutes of full body motion. Universidad Anahuac (Bonita) and Universidad del Valle de Puebla (Bonita). It has not been a walk in the park, the road has been filled with challenges, what began As well as teaching the 3D Animation as an experimental academic technology, pipelines for integrating mocap data into has changed the way a whole industry 3ds max, Maya or Unity in those laboratories, looks up to the use of new technologies I have also designed and installed many of for improvement and growth. the new systems across Mexico. It is wonderful how the private studios and The biggest challenge for motion capture companies have begun to purchase their technology in Mexico has been to struggle own motion capture systems. Thanks to against the public opinion of the Mexican the skilled students that are trained on the entertainment industry. During the 1998 industry leading hardware and software, FIFA World cup, TV Azteca, a Mexican they are becoming the game changers of television broadcast company, experienced the motion capture industry in Mexico. the misfortune of working with a motion capture solution based on Dreamteam’s Without a doubt, this is a clear example Typhoon, which just lead users to think that of how underdeveloped countries have motion capture was difficult, complicated to adopt new technologies in their and low quality. favor, easing the learning task through the academic institutions and the Today everything is different, more than monetary investment for private two hundred computer graphics students companies; it has to be a complimentary have graduated with Vicon/Blade motion work between both agencies. capture experience, the same students that are empowering the entertainment industry. Motion capture in Mexico is on a leash, in the coming years we will see more positive Thanks to this situation, many lead studios results and greater projects, more and more and companies are trusting in motion capture universities are acquiring motion capture Just five years ago, there was no presence of motion capture technology technology; they believe mocap represents set-ups in their pursuit of motion capture a solid, affordable and efficient choice. technology as an academic standard. in Mexico. Today, it has become one of the most wanted solutions for Videogame Development, Feature Film VFX & Academic Programs Image courtesy of Ana Zaha From a success point of view, many Que viva motion capture! Mexican studios like Ollin VFX (Tron: at Universities. Legacy, Pirates of the Caribbean, House of Cards), EpicsFX (Superman, The Golden As a graduate from an engineering computer Around the same time, I also began linking Compass, Narnia) have reached out for science program, I also have a master’s together film production and videogame support from us, which we’ve been able to supply free of charge through the linkage Bosy Carl Leonel degree in 3D Animation, and worked closely studios with the university so they could Vilchis Zapata for Autodesk Inc. as a certified instructor have access to mocap technology, free of between Mexican universities. for the main 3D content creation tools. charge, with the sole purpose of activating In 2009, Universidad del Valle de Mexico the industry and giving the students the Among the most interesting cases that (UVM) was the first international university Now, I’m a Mocap TD and a consultant for chance to work closely with the professionals. we have tackled, capturing the locomotive in Mexico to purchase a motion capture academic institutions that want to implement motion of a horse for an epic European set-up (T10 Cameras), which helped motion capture technologies in academic Given that there was only one mocap film, definitely stands out. As well as the establish Mexico’s first computer graphics, programs. set-up in the whole country, it took several case of Futuro Movil, a Mexican videogame VFX and videogame academic program. years for the process to stabilize, to find development studio project where we had In the beginning, I knew there was only the balance between the content of the to capture a pole dancer. The challenge Although I didn’t have any prior experience one way to do things right, and that was academic programs and the possibilities here was to get the job done without a with this technology, nor was there an to emulate and follow the professional of the technology. motion capture suit and just the markers established workflow for teaching motion workflows that Hollywood studios have attached to the body. capture in Mexico, I got my hands to work set for working with motion capture Image courtesy of Universidad to make it a reality. technology in the past fifteen years. del Valle de México

32 33 VICON ENGINEERING VICON STANDARD

to support and enhance the training programme of the Welsh Rugby team. WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP, For all of our projects, the robustness and ENHANCING CAPABILITY precision of the virtual world is paramount. In supporting the rugby practice simulation, we created a virtual Millennium Stadium where a player was immersed in a virtual environment and tasked with ‘throwing’ a physical rugby ball towards a virtual target. VIRTUAL ENGINEERING CENTRE The Vicon Bonita system tracked the ball at a frequency of 240 Hz. The ability to Rugby throwing project at VEC. Image courtesy of Joss Petit allow the player to visualize the scenario from different viewpoints while providing pin-point accurate data about the position and orientation of the ball, was an essential displays, the visualization system supports requirement of the client’s that the system real-time interactive collaborative VR managed with ease. BY IAIN CANT sessions between multiple users. Project Engineer - Digital Design and Visualisation Ford commented, “The VEC frequently “We have upgraded the system twice informs me of the importance of their Working in partnership with leading within its three-and-a-half year life since ability to create both realistic and manufacturers and technology partners, installation in the summer of 2010, two intuitive virtual environments, if they are the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) pioneers years after its original conception. Recently, to be credible to the users and adopted new technologies and transforms emergent this included the addition of four Bonita into an organization’s ‘standard’ processes research from academia, to deliver ‘best in cameras and a software upgrade to Tracker and workflow. They attribute much of this class’ solutions that support business 2.0, providing an extremely robust tracking to the performance and robustness of the growth. One such technology partner volume, essential for the VEC’s virtual and Vicon Bonita system, which facilitates is world-leading Virtual Reality and augmented reality applications.” intuitive, virtually latency free interaction.” Advanced Visualisation company, Virtalis. Virtalis’s Visionary Render software toolkit, The proven quality and reliability of the Julian Ford, Business Development a relatively recent enhancement to the existing Vicon tracking system has resulted Manager at Virtalis commented, “In 2008, system, also permits real-time immersive in the VEC team replicating the installation the University of Liverpool approached collaboration between disparate VR for our new Robotics Autonomy Simulation Virtalis with a brief to develop, install systems. We expect to be carrying out Laboratory (RASL). RASL will provide a and maintain the infrastructure for an more sessions of this nature, removing networked, fully tracked simulation and immersive Visualisation Virtual Laboratory the necessity for all parties to travel to a visualization facility that bridges the as part of its new VEC initiative. With single venue in order to partake in a design gap between advanced robotics in the already well-established links, we were review, for example. laboratory and the real world. keen to ensure that the system was both realistic and intuitive to use. It was The VEC’s multi-disciplinary team includes After careful evaluation of other available essential that the solution we provided expertise across autonomous and tracking technologies coupled with the to the VEC incorporated leading edge intelligent systems, digital design and confidence we have gained over the last technologies, while the system architecture manufacturing, and engineering reliability; three years delivering successful projects, allowed for scalability with a high degree however, it is the unique method of the it was a straightforward decision for the of ‘future-proofing’. application of advanced modeling, simulation VEC to continue working with the Vicon and visualization that sets us apart. We technology, once again, sourced from and “The specification of the 6-DOF real-time create bespoke Virtual Reality laboratories, supported by Virtalis. tracking system was particularly important which allow our clients to explore their to the VEC. Absolute accuracy and designs and understand the environments low latency were critical factors for in which their teams are working. The role The proven quality and reliability consideration to meet the requirements of the VEC is to enhance an organization’s of their engineering clients. We initially capability to address their industry of the existing Vicon tracking installed a Vicon tracking system challenges, for example; the requirement Image courtesy of the VEC system has resulted in the VEC comprising 12 Bonita Infrared cameras, to change the aerodynamic characteristics the data from which is collated and of a truck in order to improve its efficiency team replicating the installation disseminated by Vicon’s ‘Tracker’ software. and reduce emissions or improve the for our new Robotics Autonomy The cameras were strategically located design of an aeroplane wing through around the periphery of and in front of understanding the ergonomic considerations Simulation Laboratory (RASL). Operating across a range of sectors, we are a University the six meter wide screen, to the rear of required for ease of access for maintenance. of Liverpool, School of Engineering industry focused which are located two, Christie Digital stereoscopic Mirage projectors, the images The VEC’s projects are challenging and initiative, working in partnership with the Science and from which are blended to create one large, as diverse as supporting the design and Technology Facilities Council’s Hartree Centre, based contiguous high resolution, high brightness manufacture of the next Bentley car model image. Together, with two tracked users within reduced development timescales, to at Sci-Tech Daresbury wearing NVIS ST50 head-mounted evaluating the use of virtual environments

34 35 VICON LIFE SCIENCE VICON STANDARD

purchased in 1999 that is still operational (though sitting in a closet), our school now BY Jacqueline Alderson proudly houses three Vicon systems; a 12 A brief Atessocia Professor camera Vicon MX3+ system in a dedicated Sports Biomechanics Lab, an eight camera The ominous looking tome was the PhD Vicon MX3+ in a Clinical Gait Analysis Lab thesis of then candidate, and now recently and a 14 camera T-Series S Edition outdoor history retired Executive Dean of the College of capable motion capture system. With 100 Health Sciences at the University of Notre licensed dongles floating around SSEH, Dame (Australia), Professor Helen Parker. there is little doubt that past and present staff, and the 37 PhDs, five Masters and Sometime during 1986, Emeritus Professor 42 Honours students who have completed of UWA Parker recollects that, together with former research degrees using a Vicon system, Sidestepping research at UWA Bowling analysis outside at UWA SSEH faculty members Drs. Graeme Wood are more than grateful for access to the and Richard Lockwood, they “successfully state-of-the-art systems we currently applied to the university equipment fund house. Unfortunately, we don’t have for monies to purchase a ‘part-system’ – enough space to mention and thank the BIOMECHANICS, inclusive of two cameras, data input and many people who have worked with us at management software modules to collect UWA over the years, but here are just a clinical gait, rehabilitation biomechanics working in this area, sports injury MOTOR CONTROL AND the raw files from each camera.” No-one few examples from a wide range of areas and injury prevention. One of the first prevention remains a leading research LEARNING GROUP could have imagined this small purchase where we’ve managed to push our initiatives of Prof. Lloyd in the mid-1990s, focus of the school. would form the beginnings of a 28 year systems to their very limits. was the establishment, in partnership relationship between what would become with Princess Margaret Hospital, of However, like all successful partnerships A four inch thick PhD thesis, in the area of Motor Control, the world’s leading motion capture company Since 1996, when Professors Lloyd, Western Australia’s first Clinical Gait involving leading edge technologies, and UWA. Alderson, Elliott & Foster undertook the Service. This service, in addition to the there have of course been a few hiccups Development and Learning, is the earliest record of a Vicon very first upper limb 3D cricket bowling construction of the school’s Clinical Gait along the way. When a software update motion capture system being used in the School of Sport analysis on the controversial spin bowler Lab in the early 1990s, now sees clinical unexpectedly interferes with our code, Muttiah Muralitharan, the school has been biomechanics as an important bow to an or when an upgrade or new piece of Science, Exercise & Health (SSEH) at the University of at the forefront of using customized already large research group. Research in equipment hasn’t quite operated as we Western Australia (UWA). models and Vicon systems to advance this domain includes; cerebral palsy thought it might. Conversely, when the sports biomechanics analysis. Indeed, our (current staff members Drs. Siobhan Reid Vicon support crew, field yet another Vicon use in cricket research is extensive & Catherine Elliott; Drs. Noula Gibson & support question or complaint from one and includes; improving biomechanical Sian Williams), burn rehabilitation (Dr. of our students (the same question they modeling of the elbow, shoulder and lumbar Tiffany Grisbrook), acquired brain injury, answered five years earlier), or when we regions (Drs. Amity Campbell, Aaron Chin, deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s jump up and down about an equipment Kane Middleton, Marc Portus), identifying disease (Prof. Christopher Lind), amputee failure, or a less than adequate result when how lumbar loads relate to injury in gait, osteoarthritis (Dr. Tamika Heiden), we’ve used it for something it was not adolescent cricketers (Dr. Helen Bayne), meniscectomy (Dr. Daina Sturnieks), designed for (attempting to use our first describing the kinematics of spin and wrist knee and hip replacement (Dr. Brendan MX system outside at night, around the 1986-87 Vicon Data Capture - spin bowlers, errors in the assessment of Joss & Professor Timothy Ackland) and water polo pool, comes to mind here). Yet, Image courtesy of Professor Helen Parker illegal bowling actions and investigating autologous chondrocyte implant research when we’ve needed support at UWA, and the effect of pitch length on bowling (Dr. Jay Ebert). when Vicon have needed input from Following Prof. Parker’s initial foray, the technique to name just a few. end-users, the strength of that 28 year time and labor costs associated with Finally, it goes without saying that one of relationship has shone through. Indeed, we data collection and processing using the In other sports we’ve used our systems the most prolific research streams in the like to think the three UWA trained post part-system, meant it was used by only a to analyze the tennis serve in and out of school involves lower limb injury prevention; PhD support engineers currently employed small number of students over the next wheelchairs (Dr. Machar Reid), assessed in particular that of knee loading and by Vicon are testament to that relationship. decade. While 3D sports biomechanics technique changes across the junior anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury analysis was being conducted using development pathway (Dr. David Whiteside), risk. Original work in this area at SSEH So, on your 30th birthday, all past and other systems (Peak), it was not yet described the tumbling technique of was undertaken by Profs. Lloyd and present UWA staff and students would possible with the Vicon system. In late gymnasts, the kicking actions of Australian Thor Besier whose research laid the like to thank the Vicon team, from Support 1995, Dr. David Lloyd (currently Professor, Rules footballers and soccer players, flicking foundation for numerous students to Engineers to Product Development, for Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, actions in field hockey and the mechanics build upon; identification and modification their unwavering support and commitment Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University) of the golf drive. of sidestepping technique (Dr. Alasdair to the School of Sport Science Exercise & was appointed to SSEH and charged with Dempsey), assessing the success of Heath over the past 28 years. We would leading the biomechanics group in the And it’s not just sports where we use our training interventions (Dr. Jodie Cochrane) also like to take this opportunity to wish area of 3D motion analysis using Vicon. systems. The UWA team have also assessed and the effect of vision and gaze you a very happy birthday. We look forward lumbar loads in male ballet dancers (Dr. (perception) in reducing knee loading to watching what comes next from the In 1996, with the support of the then Head Luke Hopper), captured an acrobatic silks patterns (Drs. Marcus Lee and Brendan Oxford-based research and development Biomechanist and now retired Winthrop routine two storeys from the ground, Lay). This research area is now being group, as well as continuing the strong Professor Bruce Elliott, and thanks to a described the techniques and shoulder progressed by current staff member Dr. relationship between Vicon and UWA, number of initial small grants from research loads of professional violinists and cellists, Cyril J. Donnelly who is capitalizing on pushing the boundaries of research with and charitable foundation partners (Princess with current staff member Dr. Jonas the extensive and ever growing database a fantastic bunch of people, for the next Margaret Hospital, Sarich Foundation), Rubenson venturing into the evolutionary of Vicon data collected in the School, by 30 years. the school undertook what was the first biologists’ realm of ostrich, lizard and using it in simulation research (OpenSim) of many hardware and software upgrades kangaroo locomotion (Dr. Chris Clemente). to inform injury prevention training Happy birthday! over the following 18 year period. Not Spin bowler, Muttiah Of course, no review would be complete programs. With three PhDs, one Masters Muralitharan, at UWA including the six camera Vicon 370 system without mention of work in the arena of and two Honours students currently

36 37 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON LIFE SCIENCE

FIVE MINUTES WITH TONY LOMONACO, UBISOFT TORONTO

Over the past 15 years or so, what that frees our talent’s performance while impact do you think the advances in producing more realistic movement capture 3D sketch example Active-motion creation in VR technology have had on your ability to for our games with greater automation, By Vicon Editorial Team provide content for your clients? requiring less post work by our teams. Games today demand an extremely high I also envision the software evolving over Why did you choose a Vicon system back level of realism. They rival blockbuster the next few years to enable greater in 2012? What stood out or impressed you movies, in terms of the level of quality flexibility and customization for our SKETCH IT, GRAB IT AND about the tech? and the sophistication of the performance growing performance capture needs. Vicon has a name that truly shines in the capture needed for the cinematics and A great example would be that we now performance capture industry. At Ubisoft animation. We are taking a more cinematic require different camera configurations WALK THROUGH IT Toronto, our games demand the highest approach to our performance capture that are highly specific to the project quality performance capture and we knew process, and this is something that’s we are shooting, and we envision that a Vicon system would best capture the evolved in just the last few years. Today, software will be able to help us adapt subtleties and emotion of the performances we borrow heavily from film industry more quickly to the specific requirements for our games. processes to help create more immersive of any given project by enabling presets TECHNION ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIAL and realistic narrative experiences in our that instantly aim and focus the cameras The Vicon system speaks for itself with the games. We achieve a level of quality today at the angles required for our shoots. DESIGN & BRMLab MECHANICAL ENGINEERING quality of the results it delivers. I’ve been that we could only dream of just a few using Vicon products for years and have short years ago. What do you think the industry will In design, motion capture is mostly used for the come to know and expect a high level of look like in the next 10 years? quality. We shoot projects that are created What developments do you hope to Performance capture technologies will exploration and evaluation of objects in the late phase at Ubisoft studios around the world, why see in the next few years? continually develop to fulfil a growing of the design process. However, it may be leveraged take a chance? We went with a system We are working hard at Ubisoft Toronto to demand for more hyper-realistic motion, with a proven track record, one that we invest heavily in facial performance capture not only for body capture, but also for in the early conceptual design stage as well. can trust. The fact that our Montreal techniques and application, and we are making facial and finger capture. This will allow performance capture studio also uses a great progress, but we still have work to do. us to blur the lines between reality and Vicon system means we can share tools, This is an area I am personally passionate fiction giving our audience a more considering free form sketching needs activated during the creation process. processes and experiences, and therefore about developing at our studio. I’d also love immersive experience across all as guidelines for the system. Our new To select an existing object for editing collaborate with each other more effectively. to see greater innovation for finger capture Ubisoft games. BY Ms. OLGA SHAIN design system allows the user to create one simply has to get closer and, naturally, Graduate Student Researcher 3D sketches with free hand motions in grab it. In order to make the system easy full body scale. The system is developed to assemble, the amount of markers for the The design process, in general, begins using BRMLab facilities. motion capture is reduced to the essential with a conceptual design stage in which minimum to define two subjects: the VR new ideas are born. During this stage free ‘3D doodles’ are created by the swing of glasses and the active hand. The markers sketches are made and are characterized a hand, following its exact location in space for each subject are specifically configured by their speed of creation and ambiguousness, (see ‘3D sketches examples’ figure). The to allow for a stable recognition by the as well as imprecise representation. hand acts as a tip of a pencil and the body motion capture system. Being part of as a vessel enabling the exploration of the the design process, the raw data of the Even today, paper and pencil are considered available space. The hand and the head system can be saved and imported to to be the preferred media for free positions are tracked by the Vicon cameras other existing CAD software for further sketching. Although there are many while virtual reality glasses are used to detailed design stages. advantages to sketching with paper visualize the 3D sketch. Through the VR and pencil, there are several inherent glasses, the user is immersed into the scene The system was developed as part of a disadvantages, such as the two-dimensional of the creation and may ‘walk through’ research thesis towards a Masters degree attribute of the paper and its limited size. the sketch. Dedicated software constructs in Industrial Design studies (Architecture These disadvantages could be addressed a graphical representation of the ‘3D and Town Planning faculty). The research by a system that supports easy and intuitive Doodles’ as part of a 3D Virtual Reality also includes user studies that investigate free form creation using a 3D space with scene. This is based on the positions of user interactions with the current system. a 1:1 ratio between the sketch and human markers attached to the hand and the Many interesting insights are yet to come. body proportions, and an option for scale. head (see marker position in ‘active-motion Human centered design disciplines, creation in VR’ figure). Thesis advisors: Prof. Noemi Bitterman such as architecture and industrial design, (Industrial Design), Prof. Alon Wolf may gain the most of such a system. The The software implements the most (Mechanical Engineering). Contact Details: system described below has been developed common editing functions, such as delete, [email protected] Ubisoft Toronto main stage Capture session at Ubisoft Toronto specifically to aid conceptual design, rotate, move and scale, which may be

38 39 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON STANDARD

THE MAGIC OF MOTION CAPTURE IN K-12 EDUCATION

STRING THEORY SCHOOLS K

String Theory Schools, headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, offers students an innovative STEM + Arts curriculum at our new flagship high school. 12 Image courtesy of String Theory School

what defines String Theory Schools. studio has a marley dance floor), and small String Theory High School HDMI output from the capture station Future uses of the setup are to use NI Students are prepared to become the enough to use smaller 6.4mm markers next door. Labview to interface with the cars with By Jason Corosanite thoughtful, creative, and innovative for finer placement. After going through utilizes motion capture the Bonita system providing accurate CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER citizens the world needs. Their eyes light two days of training with Vicon support throughout its curriculum. For engineering and robotics track students, feedback of the cars velocity and position. up in exhilaration. Squeals fill the air as if a engineers, 9th grade students were able they have the ability to use Vicon Tracker. It’s amazing to think that this is all being String Theory recently purchased the teen rockstar has just taken center stage. to accurately apply markers to actors, From 3D character design to One of the more creative things students done by 9th grade high school students. former GlaxoSmithKline North American But there is no idol to be seen, no guitar calibrate the system, and map the solved engineering and robotics, are doing with this is to track iPad I think that speaks to how easy the system headquarters in Center City Philadelphia riff ringing out. What’s happening at our skeleton to a rigged character in controlled race cars in an Anki DRIVE™ is to use! Real time pre-visualization with for its new high school. charter school is far more intriguing: MotionBuilder. Students in the 3D students have an opportunity system. Anki DRIVE™ uses Artificial rendered scenes means that what students students enter the motion capture studio Character Design track at the school are to use industry leading Intelligence (AI) to deliver the first video are doing has immediate value for learning Students have an opportunity to choose for the first time. We had the choice of currently working with Ballet majors on game in the real world. Each car has the system as well as for live productions a major from one of the following areas: several systems but what made us choose an iPad app. The first step of which is to technology. been engineered to think, it knows where and game development. Philadelphia has a Classical Ballet, Vocal Music, Instrumental the Vicon Bonita 10 camera was the ease capture positions and movements that it is, makes decisions and drives itself. very active film industry and typically has Music, Theatre, Television & Broadcast Arts, of use and ability to use the system for will be mapped to characters the students Students placed a set of three markers one to two major motion pictures shot per Life Science/Biotechnology, Engineering/ both entertainment and engineering themselves create. Later this spring, they (the minimum needed) on each of the year in the city. String Theory Schools has Robotics, or 3D Character Design/Animation. projects. We wanted the entire school to will be working with Theatre majors on cars and calibrate the system to ignore offered up their motion capture studio The idea was to take the best of what have use of the studio so it had to be easy a production of “Beauty and the Beast.” the printed racetrack used with Anki Drive. for free to companies doing VFX work Philadelphia has to offer in the arts, and to use. Students are designing a 3D village for the Reflective surfaces can play havoc with on these projects as well as independent combine it with its rich science heritage. show in Maya that will serve as a digital IR cameras but the Blade software has game producers who would normally not The school currently enrolls 250 9th grade The motion capture space is configured backdrop for the production. The school’s a built-in auto-threshold feature to zero be able to afford their own system. students but will ultimately house a total with 12 Bonita 10 cameras mounted on a theater is adjacent to the mocap studio and out random data or reflections. Students of 1400 once those students move up to free-standing truss system. The capture students plan to use the pre-visualization are able to accurately observe the cars as 12th grade. space is 20’ x 20’ with a camera height of feature of Blade to render characters that they speed around the track. Anki recently 10 feet. This is an ideal capture volume for appear as a live digital backdrop during the released an SDK for the system. The integration of science, technology, the school offering a large enough space actual performance. The theatre has a 21 ft engineering, arts, and math (S.T.E.A.M.) is for dance with multiple individuals (the rear-projection screen that can receive an

40 41 VICON STANDARD VICON STANDARD

Gluteus maximus and medialis, tibialis anterior, rectus femoris, soleus and many muscles of the upper limb are all likely candidates for subdivision. But why should a muscle be constructed in this way?

of musculoskeletal modelling (given its much greater neuromuscular flexibility undeniable weaknesses: poor control enabling it to perform a single task with a algorithms, lack of validation, lack of large variation in angular trajectories of its By Adam Shortland PhD clinical interpretability) and then up pop joints. Moreover, the upper limb is required some folks from LaTrobe University, to perform a greater number of tasks of Some people have more flesh Melbourne (SemCiw et al Gait Posture. varying complexity. It seems sensible, and bone than others. 2014 Feb;39(2):822-6) that are going to then, that we might analyze upper limb Calculated joint kinetics depend on the tell you a muscle that has served you well movement in a different way to lower estimated mass and mass distribution of personally, and has been at the heart of limb movement in walking. The paper the limb segments (the body segment many a daytime fantasy, and if you’re lucky, from Klotz et al (Gait Posture. 2013 parameters, BSPs). In a recent study, a night-time reality, is in fact two muscles. May;38(1):148-52) does just this. In a group Kiernan et al (J Biomech. 2014 Jan of adult patients with hemiplegic cerebral 3;47(1):284-8) conducted a sensitivity In this paper, the authors use fine-wire palsy, they measured the range of motion analysis of kinetic data to different models EMG during the collection of gait data from at the elbow and shoulder across a range of mass distribution from published studies posterior and anterior segments of the of tasks representative of activities of in typically-developing (TD) children. They gluteus minimus, that stoic hidden stabiliser daily living. They found correlations applied these anthropometric models to of the hip. They found different activation between the range of motion measures children with cerebral palsy (CP), measuring levels in each segment and suggested that and performance on an upper limb the lower limb segment lengths in their the posterior segment, which is most active functional questionnaire, particularly subjects. According to their analysis, the during early stance, stabilizes the hip in in the distal extremity and particularly estimated body segment parameters were this phase, while the cocontraction of in supination/pronation of the forearm. different in controls and pathological these segments allows greater stabilization The paper highlights the potential of subjects, and different between in late stance when the contact forces are movement analysis of the upper limb in anthropometric models. However, the mean acting more anteriorly. clinical practice. Identifying the limitation differences were small and the impact on in ROM at a joint might well correspond calculated kinetic variables was negligible. Neuromuscular compartmentalization to poor performance across a range of refers to muscles bounded by a single items on a functional test. Some form of One limitation of their study, as the authors fascia having independent sub-volumes correspondence analysis may reveal the recognize, is that mass distribution data controlled by extramuscular branches of most limiting restrictions with those joints in children with CP is not readily available. its nervous supply. Gluteus maximus and becoming a target for intervention. The authors had to calculate segmental medialis, tibialis anterior, rectus femoris, body masses in the CP group from soleus and many muscles of the upper limb And finally... anthropometric tables in TD subjects are all likely candidates for subdivision. But and measurements of segment length. why should a muscle be constructed in That’s hard work! We know that muscles and bones are this way? In muscles with broad tendinous Who was it who said that research work reduced in mass in the lower limbs of insertions, muscular compartments may is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration? LITERATURE children with CP. It is likely that if we had correspond to different mechanical actions Workers at the New South Wales Institute real mass distribution data for children at the tendon, as in the example of gluteus of Sport and University of Western Sydney with CP, our estimates of kinetic variables minimus here. It is more difficult to justify have found a way to combine science and REVIEW in this group would be significantly a mechanical explanation for muscles with pleasure. Tight fitting garments can do different to TD children, especially at long tendons but perhaps, even then, a lot for the observer but I never really higher walking speeds. differential activation of the compartments thought of their potential to improve of a muscle may modify subtly the line of movement and posture, not at least in It seems to me, with the broad availability action of muscle forces. typically-developing subjects. In this study, of magnetic resonance imaging, that our friends from Oz demonstrate that One Small Step Gait Laboratory there is an opportunity to measure mass Are arms better than legs? tight athletic clothing actually improves distribution in the limbs of children with I have a colleague (an Occupational objective measures of balance in female CP, and generate new anthropometric Therapist) who, when we meet, never fails athletes during eyes closed trials indicating tables that could replace those of to remind me that arms are “better” than that proprioception in these subjects is I tried to be clever while writing this literature review Ganley et al and Jensen. legs. Inter-professional rivalry is a terrible augmented. They speculated that thing, but she has a point. The movements compression clothing may well have a and develop a theme that would connect the papers I Anatomists shout with joy, modelers repent of the lower limb during walking lend role in injury prevention. Roll on the next selected. What I came up with is a selection of quite and return to your computers. When is a themselves to analysis because in the study: compression garments in overweight muscle not a muscle? When it is two or typically-developing population they are middle-aged sedentary males – any takers? independent papers, which I either found amusing or more muscles, stupid. consistent and characteristic of a lower important or both. level/more automatic form of motor control. Don’t you love it? You think you’re The upper limb by contrast possesses a getting to grips with the complexities

42 43 VICON ENGINEERING VICON STANDARD

A PLACE WHERE ETH Zurich has been a Vicon customer for over five years FLYING ROBOTS and in that time has achieved some amazing feats with their T-Series system. Often seen giving demonstrations LIVE AND LEARN to showcase the amazing ability of their quadrotors, ETH is leading the way in UAV development.

ETH ZURICH

Gaby Zueblin Raymond Oung, ETH Zurich

Markus Hehn, ETH Zurich François Lauginie Cooperative Quadrocopter Ball Throwing and Flight Assembled Architecture Exhibition – Gramazio & Catching, Google IO, San Francisco, USA. June 2012. Kohler and Raffaello D’Andrea, FRAC Centre, Orleans, France.

FRAC Centre 7 Flight Assembled Architecture, a collaboration with architects Gramazio Discover More By Vicon Editorial Team & Kohler, is an exploration in aerial ETH Zurich’s Raffaello D’Andrea construction. Conceived as a 1:100 model presents at TED 2013: Here are a few pictures and video links of of a 600m high vertical village, the four ted.com/talks/raffaello_d_andrea_the_ some recent demonstrations and exhibitions day long, live exhibition, featured four astounding_athletic_power_of_ they have attended in the past year. Enjoy! quadrocopters building a six meter tall quadcopters.html tower out of 1500 foam bricks. The Google IO exhibition took place at the FRAC Centre ETH Zurich on YouTube: The Flying Machine Arena team was invited in Orléans, France, from December 1 to 4, youtube.com/user/ethzurich to showcase its research at the Google IO 2011. The FRAC Centre is an architectural developer’s conference, which took place art museum on the outskirts of Paris in San Francisco, California. On June 27, that promotes contemporary art, both 2012 the FMA quadrocopters demonstrated nationally and internationally. During the their ability, including triple flips, opening night the museum hosted 300 cooperative ball throwing and catching, enthusiastic people. and the building of a 150 foam brick tower. The event, which also featured live concerts and various technical exhibits, was attended by over 1000 people.

44 45 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON STANDARD

Our Vicon T160 cameras did a great job. 16 million pixels, 120 fps, electronic freeze frame shutter. We couldn’t have done it without them.

on a mesh that would not scare every was simply made of cubes for the body deaf viewer. This was a challenge in itself! and fingers, with no facial animation! BY Rémi Brun As a comparison, it would be just like MOCAPLAB FOUNDER & CEO When it comes to motion capturing hands, hearing people who recognize someone we focus on the 10 fingers, moving very by their voice on the telephone. My PhD subject at that time was “How to rapidly in the air, in all configurations and transform Speech into Tactile Signals for positions around the body; making a lot Other interesting comments were based the Deaf”. This research experience led of contact with one another, sometimes on the ‘accent’. The signer we used was me to learn in more depth about the deaf with an impact, and also making contact signing in ASL (American Sign Language), world as a whole and also to investigate with the body or the face. It’s a real and yet her native sign language was New on how scientists were studying speech complex ‘ballet’ with five limbs, 22 DOF for Zealand Sign Language (which is very at that time (speech analysis, recognition each hand, with a thumb that has its own close to British Sign Language). In her and speech synthesis). Coincidently when very particular way to roll. The challenge avatar, when signing ASL, deaf viewers I started motion capture, back in 1993, for us was to work out the right recording could sometimes guess her origins from one of my first mocap sessions consisted and synchronization solutions as well as the ‘accent’ in the movements recorded! CAPTURING THE in motion capturing Sign Language with processing tools to drive the right skeleton. optical mocap at the CNRS Research And last but not least, we had to define So the whole experience has been incredible. Institution. It was an exciting experience, how to rebuild the fingers’ mesh to ensure We’ve worked hard, we’ve pushed boundaries, POWER, RICHNESS but the results were not successful an accurate final mesh surface positioning and we’ve learned a great deal about the enough to take it further. in order to enable a good quality contact power, the richness and the subtleties of between the two hands. human movement. AND SUBTLETIES OF Since then, it has become clear to me that Sign Language will become a very special The results so far have been very rewarding I am sure the path will continue, as this SIGN LANGUAGE branch in the motion capture world. Not and the feedback from deaf viewers has is just the first step. We are currently only is this area technically difficult for been extremely positive. finishing a research project to create a so many reasons, but also, as a mocap tool for Sign Language that would be like specialist facing movement everyday It is important to bear in mind that in “Pro Tools” for sound engineers. It will be over the last 20 years, I was particularly general the deaf community, for historical a tool box to analyze the Sign Language fascinated by the extremely subtle and rich reasons, is not at ease when it comes to signal through all its aspects, as scientists MOCAPLAB movements, that convey to the full extent, scientific research and avatars, and usually did for speech 30 years ago. this means of communication. As deaf remain very sceptical about the results. Despite the very low quality of our mesh people explain very clearly, Sign Language 7 is as rich and as complex as our spoken and rendering, the feedback remains very language. It has its own structure, syntax promising. Actually it is important to Discover More and grammar. It is not a “word by word” mention that we kept ourselves as far mocaplab.com translation of a spoken language, nor is away as possible from photorealism, to vimeo.com/mocaplab it a type of miming. It is a real language. avoid comments and reactions on the modeling/rendering, allowing the viewer Mocaplab’s ASL signing avatar: The technical challenge itself is tricky. In to focus primarily on the animation side. vimeo.com/89629973 addition to capturing fingers, one has to Of course we will try photorealism too, As soon as I started MocapLab back in 2007, I wanted first make sure that the facial expressions which you can see in the video links on A photorealistic animation to explore whether it would be possible to record the are recorded and transferred to a mesh the right. project from Mocaplap: properly, as it is important to remember vimeo.com/80051522 complete motion of Sign Language. It just so happened that Sign Language communication focuses In addition to this, we have also had some that prior to getting involved in motion capture, I had as much on the face, as on the fingers. unexpected and interesting comments And with the facial expressions, the eye from deaf viewers. For example, some spent several years dealing with deaf community issues. gaze direction is also a very important cue. viewers personally knew the signer behind So before tackling the finger issue, we had the mocapped movements driving the to make sure that our in-house tools were avatar, and recognized her immediately ready to record the face and eyes, as well through her signing. This was also the as being capable of transferring the subtleties case when the 3D model of the ‘avatar’

46 47 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON LIFE SCIENCE

FULL CIRCLE THE STRATHCLYDE MAFIA AUDIOMOTION

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

The Biomechanics group at the University of Strathclyde is 50 years old this year. To celebrate, we bid for, and have been awarded host status for the 25th ISB Congress 2015, which will be held in the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre here in Glasgow, Scotland the week of the July 13, 2015.

Image courtesy of Audiomotion Studios

movements of one or two people even if effortless. A future step will be to incorporate I Prof. Paul built the original 3D motion system have become known. These developments the software left something to be desired. the aesthetic head-mounted camera into at Strathclyde, using three cine eight video were overseen by Professor Paul and most BY Mick Morris It was used to full effect on Ridley Scott’s the pipeline. Something we are very much cameras. He hand-digitized every frame recently by Professor Sandy Nicol, another MANAGING DIRECTOR Gladiator, the movie for which the Mill won looking forward to. BY Prof. Philip Rowe to locate markers, calculated 3D marker huge contributor to our field. It was with an Academy Award for best Visual Effects. positions with pen and paper, and used two some trepidation therefore, that I took on I read an article recently which made me The Colosseum could have been populated early force plates to calculate the kinematics leadership of the group in 2007 on Sandy’s smile. It was an enthusiastic report about without using the Vicon system but it would and kinetics of human movement for the retirement. However, we continue to flourish how the medical industry is now using have taken an excruciatingly long time. hip and knee during a number of activities. and have recently upgraded our lab once motion capture technology from the Something this generation of movement more to the latest Vicon technology. movies to analyze patients’ movements. In the years since, we adopted the MCam, scientists can only marvel at. To be fair, the journalist might not have the MCam2, the MX40, the F40 and most ISB 2015 was to have been an event to been too well informed about the origins recently the T-Series. Simply put, there In the early 70s, the cine cameras were thank John Paul for his contribution to of this amazing ‘new’ technology. A little has never been a competing product replaced with the newly developed “TV” biomechanics but unfortunately he died bit of research and fact checking would brought to market that would persuade cameras. Hand identification of markers at the end of last year. We plan to make have revealed that part of the story began us to change supplier. Today we have 160 and calculation of forces and moments, it a celebration of his life, 50 years of with Vicon, thirty years ago! cameras and there are very few projects was slowly computerised by a succession Strathclyde biomechanics, 25 ISB world we can’t tackle, as can be seen in the of students. Through this work, Strathclyde congresses and 30 years of Vicon’s leading When we bought our first system from recent Hollywood block-busting zombie Strathclyde University’s considers itself to have helped give birth technology. We hope you will join us for Vicon 17 years ago, it was the cutting flick World War Z. We created a giant Vicon lab in 1988 to Vicon. The picture of our old lab shows what promises to be a great celebration all edge 370. There were very few people capture volume at Shepperton Studios the biomechanics facility as it was in 1984; round and some serious science as well. in the entertainment industry who knew for the movie and the results were then It is with great pleasure that I can when I started my PhD here, with the TV anything about motion capture at that turned into hundreds of thousands of announce Vicon will join us as Diamond camera on a stand and the calibration time, whereas the medical and biomechanics the CG undead. Total Film described the Sponsors of ISB 2015, which we consider a board to the right-hand side. By the time The Biomechanics group using world was well aware of what could be movie, “There’s never been a more great way to celebrate their 30th birthday! I left the bioengineering unit in 1988, the Vicon technology has played achieved with the technology. As the impressive horde on the big screen. Further details of ISB 2015 are available department had decided it really needed to visual effects world began to take notice, Sprinting, gnashing, leaping and head- on our website isbglasgow.com. convert from its own prototype equipment a full and active part in the Vicon were already developing software butting their way through civilisation Audiomotion’s main stage to the increased capabilities offered by the 30 year history of the company. and hardware which could handle the in a swarm of thousands, the Zombie Biomechanics here at Strathclyde began in early Vicon systems. needs of this fledgling area of movie apocalypse finally looks big enough to the early 1960s with the pioneering work making and games development. be believable.” of Professor John Paul. John, a Mechanical The Biomechanics group using Vicon Engineering Lecturer at the time, was technology has played a full and active part By the time the Vicon 8 was ready to ship, Another recent breakthrough is the We are very proud to have played approached by the Professor of Orthopaedic in the 30 year history of the company. They Audiomotion upgraded to a 17 camera rock-solid real-time visualization which our small part in Vicon’s 30 year Surgery in Glasgow, to help improve joint contributed valuable research work training system. This was probably one of the is the result of combining the T40 implants so they “did not keep breaking”. over the years, which lead to the references largest in the country at that time. It was cameras and Blade. It makes rendering history. Here’s to the next 30 John initially thought this would be a simple often made in our field of the “Strathclyde” more than adequate for recording the up to 10 performers in real-time, seem years. Congratulations to all. task but it became a lifelong enterprise. mafia, as former students of the group

48 49 VICON STANDARD VICON STANDARD

Very early on in my first year at Vicon, In 2003, Vicon supplied the world’s largest But, as always, my colleagues in the R&D The Bonita range was then extended to I was fortunate enough to attend the motion capture system to Sony Pictures department were hard at work, and by include a higher resolution camera, the gait analysis course run by the University Imageworks for multiple actor capture for 2007, the development of a new and B10, plus several video camera options. of Dundee. For me, this clearly set out film. It became clear over the course of this ambitious motion capture platform was In parallel, our development teams were our user needs, and over these last 13 project that the requirement for digital, well underway. Vicon has always been working on our independent video years that fundamental need has not real-time systems in this industry was able to take off-the-shelf products and capture and logging system called Pico. CAN YOU materially changed. an absolute must. repurpose them for motion capture, but Back in 2007, Vicon assisted a large US some technical compromise is always film effects studio with a one-off prototype My sales career took me to far flung Therefore in 2004, Vicon launched the required using this approach. Over the head-mounted system for facial capture laboratories in Europe, Asia and beyond, world’s first four megapixel motion capture previous years we had moved into designing and tracking, used in several major feature CAPTURE THIS? and, without exception, all our users had camera, the MX40, which connected to our own cameras and distribution boxes films. The Pico project took some of the the same common goal; to help people a fully digital system architecture with but still had to rely on general purpose basic principles of this prototype, such as improve their quality of life. One of my real-time provided by Vicon iQ software. sensors and lenses. In 2008, with the miniature video cameras, automatic blob most challenging early demos for Vicon The new platform was extremely popular, launch of the T160, Vicon had not only tracking and wireless control, and turned was on arrival at a biology department in and our life science customers also saw produced a camera with four times the them into a commercially viable proposition. VICON Belgium. I was presented with a gecko, the benefit; a higher resolution camera resolution of previous generations, but The first product to be launched based with its own treadmill and fine-wire EMG able to deal with a larger number of smaller with a sensor with a matched lens range on Pico, is Vicon Cara, our head-mounted system, and asked ‘can you capture this?’. markers to capture foot and hand movement designed entirely for motion capture. capture and tracking system, launched in With a bit of head scratching, a pair of or faster sports moves with ease. 2013. We are in the process of exploring ladies nylons, a clockwork toy mouse and The T-Series was an immediate success, new markets for the Pico system, so a vivarium, I successfully demonstrated The MX platform developed through but our markets were also demanding a watch this space. it was, and won the deal. I think that was several iterations, with 2.0, 1.3 and 0.3 lower cost offering, primarily for tracking when I realized this wasn’t going to be a job megapixel versions alongside the Nexus in engineering applications. Vicon’s answer But we are not resting on our laurels by when any day was the same as the last! software platform specifically designed was to produce the Bonita camera range, any means. Vicon is working on a number BY IMOGEN MOORHOUSE for life science needs. which has quickly grown to be our most of exciting new projects, which will launch CEO In those days the heady heights of fully successful camera. Bonita cameras have soon, and we know will provide genuine automatic real-time systems were not the At this time, I was working as the General been used in such diverse engineering added-value to customers old and new, reality as we have today. Analog cameras, Manager, looking after the production applications as in-vehicle driver assessment, while providing true innovation. This, I joined Vicon in January 2001 as a (fairly) fresh faced 28 year off-line reconstruction, labeling and modeling facilities as well as sales and support. UAV tracking, analyzing the movements combined with our world class support with low camera counts, resolution and We introduced ISO9001 and ISO13485 of excavating equipment and robots. But teams and resellers, means the future is old Life Sciences Sales Engineer. What led me to apply for, frame rates, made up a standard system. accreditations during this period. ISO9001 as seen in previous years, a technology looking healthy for Vicon motion capture and ultimately accept the position, was the challenge of principles are mostly familiar, but ISO13485 that had been primarily developed for one in whatever form it takes. At the same time, our other major market encompasses all aspects of development market, was quickly taken up by others, and international sales combined with the absolute connection that in entertainment was moving into a very and quality assurance of our products, Bonita has been very successfully used by exists between Vicon technology and real world issues. A lot aggressive period of expansion, in terms of and is a Medical Device Standard. It was life sciences and entertainment customers technological advancement and wide scale no mean feat to gain this and we are one in areas such as running injury assessment, of technology, although engaging from a purely engineering adoption of motion capture for film and of only two companies in motion capture pre-visualisation and high street store perspective, does not have this essential link. game content. with this standard. layout design.

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After being sure to have locked the studio’s door, my colleague Sylvain Chagué and BY Caecilia Charbonnier I equipped our two volunteers with CO-FOUNDER AND RESEARCH DIRECTOR reflective markers, and we captured twelve different common sexual positions with SEX AFTER I remember the day when Dr. Panayiotis our 24 T40S cameras. The session lasted Christofilopoulos, Orthopaedic Surgeon at about two hours. The day after, we tackled the University Hospitals of Geneva, came the post-processing of the data. As you can HIP IMPLANTS to my office. He told me, “I have a new imagine, we were faced with many marker project. I would like you to analyze what occlusions but it wasn’t an issue thanks to A GUIDE BASED ON are the best sexual positions that could Vicon’s Blade. MOTION CAPTURE be performed after total hip replacement”. I replied, laughing, if he was kidding me. The data was imported in custom software He said, “No, I am not this is a very serious and the hip joint kinematics were computed scientific question. Lots of my patients from the recorded markers trajectories. wonder about the risks related to sexual This was achieved using a previously activity after surgery and I have no developed optimized fitting algorithm ARTANIM answers to provide them!” which accounts for skin motion artifacts and patient-specific anatomical constraints. Several months passed. My team and I This algorithm has an error of 0.5 mm in were very busy working on the research translation and < 3° in rotation, which is project MyHip whose aim was to improve quite accurate. The resulting computed the surgical planning for total hip arthroplasty motions were applied to the volunteer’s hip (THA). In this project, we were in charge joint 3D models, reconstructed from their of the simulation of prosthetic hip joint MRI data, and hip ranges of motion were 3D models based on motion capture data determined at each point of the movement. of daily activities. It is at this particular The next step was to evaluate joint instability moment I thought, why not capture sexual and to determine whether or not positions? After all, these movements are impingement occurred during sexual part of everyday life and sex is the oldest activity after THA. The recorded kinematic recreational activity of all! This is how the data was hence used for the simulation study began. We asked Medacta International of prosthetic hip models. We tested and SA, who were also involved in the MyHip simulated nine implant configurations to project as industrial partner, for their account for the different ways in which authorization to use their prosthetic models surgeons have implanted the prosthesis. for a very uncommon study. They agreed Whenever impingement occurred, we noted and we started looking for volunteers willing down the location and range of motion to participate in the study. The research responsible for that impingement. questions were twofold: first, to quantify the hip range of motion necessary to Results showed that sex posed a greater Images courtesy of Artanim perform sexual positions, which was unknown risk for woman than for men, because more at that time; second, to objectively evaluate mobility was required for the various sexual during their practice the relative risk of positions that involved extreme hip flexion impingement – when there is a collision or and abduction. Out of the 12 sexual contact between the prosthetic implant positions, we found four positions for components or bone-to-bone contact. women that should be avoided and only When this happens, there is a greater one position for men. This means patients risk that patients can dislocate their hip. can still have good sex after their surgery. Although there have been some studies that have looked into this matter, for instance, Motion capture in the biomechanics field by means of questionnaires relating to has a long history. Since the pioneer work sexual difficulties before and after THA, this of M.A. Lafortune in 1984, this technology aspect remains largely unexplored and rarely has continuously provided valuable answers discussed between patients and surgeons. in understanding the mobility of the human joints. Over time, motion capture systems Several weeks later, we were ready to acquire have become more and more precise allowing Motion capture in the biomechanics field has a long the necessary data for the study. Two researchers to study increasingly complex history. Since the pioneer work of M.A. Lafortune in brave young and healthy volunteers, one movements, from a simple walk to high female and one male, accepted to undergo performance sport, and now sex. Thanks 7 1984, this technology has continuously provided Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and to this technology, we were able to provide Discover More valuable answers in understanding the mobility motion capture. The MRI scans were used surgeons with specific instructions or Caecilia Charbonnier talks to Reuters to reconstruct 3D models of their hips and guidelines to patients’ enquiries. I believe about her hip implant research: of the human joints. to verify that no joint abnormalities could that such a study can help a lot of patients reuters.com/video/2013/11/18/reuters- affect the results of the study. We planned having total hip replacement today. tv-sex-after-hip-transplants-scientists- the motion capture session at night when rev?videoId=274562919& everybody left the lab. videoChannel=118065

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post production possibilities and result in and in cinematic form, will allow the player TM & © 2012 Marvel & Subs. sloppy, up front decision making? I’ve seen to connect with characters in much more Image courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic BY PHIL ELDERFIELD this kind of thing first-hand through days complete ways. Ongoing improvements PRODUCT MANAGER - ENTERTAINMENT spent in cutting rooms wading through in immersive technologies and the drive thousands of feet of footage shot by toward wearable tech, can, and will exploit Mention motion capture to the person next directors who covered everything from and compliment motion capture techniques. to you on the train today and it’s a fair bet every possible angle. In those days, one These technologies combined, will grow in they’ll know what you’re talking about. measure of a director’s credentials was the importance for both content creation and This wouldn’t have been the case just a number of feet they shot per day, fewer player immersion. few short years ago. Over the past 30 being indicative of clear vision, good years of Vicon’s history, mocap has been planning and a promise of clarity of result. So, what are these advances which will demonstrated to monarchs and presidents; make high quality, accessible mocap seen and used by politicians, engineers, However, not only does mocap provide a possible anywhere? Well, without going artists, doctors, celebrities (A to C list) superior tool for previsualisaiton and shot into detail, many will come through and scientists. There are few who don’t planning to help the decision making software and processing, where much more recognize the dark suit and white dots as process early on, my experience has been will be made of limited data sets. This will a piece of Hollywood trickery. that a good director will always have a help make motion capture truly accessible clear vision and execute cleanly to it. to a wider range of user, and usable in This broad domestic recognition is indicative Increased flexibility will provide for the most difficult of environments. In of the ubiquity of motion capture within experimentation and finesse under the hardware, robustness and reduction in the film and games industries where it has control of that vision at all stages of footprint and physical impact will make the reached almost the point of being taken for production, before, during, and after the technology recede, and allow the creative granted as a production tool. shoot, promising almost infinite creative process to flourish. Complimentary data possibilities, but exploited with structure acquisition sources may be used to It’s not just about fast turnaround animation and within budget and schedule constraints. increase the pool of information on which any more, though of course productivity the clever processing can work, each source gains are still important. Now, everyone It will become more and more important overcoming limitations of its counterparts. talks about the ‘performance’ – and with that the director, performers and crew are good reason. The terms performance able to visualize and explore the digital The still settling discipline of facial capture capture and motion capture have become environment in real-time as they shoot, is key to the delivery of computer-generated interchangeable and doubtless the former and this will require reduction in system imagery which is as representative of an will replace the latter completely in the footprint and increase system transparency. actor’s performance as its camera-generated coming years. Mocap must perform unobtrusively in the counterpart. Work currently underway in most physically and politically dynamic, this area, driven by obvious demand, will lead But cameras have been capturing demanding and pressurised of environments to methods both unintrusive and accurate. performance motion since the dawn of the – the film set. moving image, though with a traditional Another area where we will see expansion camera you get what you shoot and only You may well think these ideas a little of the use of capture technologies is in what you shoot. Different camera angles fanciful but I believe we are already broadcast, where real-time interactions require different takes so careful planning taking strides in this direction and the in virtual worlds will become more is crucial for both productivity and creative noises being made in a few important commonplace for viewers and participants, reasons. You need to know what you want sectors certainly suggest a desire. That and as a production technique. The before you start. said, there is a great deal to be done before immediacy of the current level of real-time it becomes close to reality and the barriers feedback offers intriguing possibilities for For a performance, mocap effectively are as likely to come from acceptance by the world of TV production and I believe EMERGING, allows shooting infinite angles in one take. some of the more intransigent areas of we will see more and more evidence of This can defer some of the decision making the industry as from the technology. this over the coming years. process to later in the production pipeline and allow immense creative flexibility. Of course, motion capture alone will not Despite its 30 year history, its ubiquity make this possible. Significant advances and the transition of motion capture from IMMERSING, While we have a long way to go, for me, are required in rendering, lighting, the magical to the commonplace, I can’t the logical conclusion of all this, is the modeling, simulation, hardware and help feeling that actually we’re on the complete replacement of traditional 2D software, across the face of digital verge of a new and significant period of cinematography with 3D capture for every production to achieve photo and motion virtual entertainment, where motion CONVERGING; production type. Mocap becomes digital realism comparable with current digital capture and completely new technologies cinematography, a kind of ‘captography’. photography. For games, there has been a are set to radically change for the better, Just as silver nitrate was replaced by pixel swing in recent years toward the type of the way we produce and experience our values as a means to capture light, so 2D title which lends itself to the huge variety art and entertainment. WHERE WILL THE electronic images are replaced with a of currently available digital and mobile different kind of digital representation delivery mechanisms, which don’t always where the output is the entire 3D performance demand the same level of detail or STORY LEAD? stored as motion data rather than a set of narrative thread found in their console image files. counterparts. Narrative, however, will always be part of the picture and, I believe, You might reasonably question whether story and character driven games will all this flexibility is a good thing. Could it remain a vibrant part of the mix. Increased VICON muddy the creative vision with too many believability of performance, both in game

54 55 VICON ENGINEERING VICON STANDARD

Inspire Its Visitors: A pretty display would the way to a real-time rendered virtual EON REALITY HELPS do very little for the Discovery World in 3D object. the grand scheme of things. The proposed solution would have to inspire and educate Sparking Learning: With 30 simulated DISCOVERY WORLD GUESTS their guests in accordance with their environments, Discovery World’s Icube mission statement to develop a better gives its guests an opportunity to venture understanding of technology and the beyond the walls of the facility and walk SEE MILWAUKEE DIFFERENTLY environment while fostering both among the planets, take apart an engine, innovation and creativity. A solution or ride a roller coaster. THROUGH VIRTUAL REALITY that could grow with Discovery World’s needs and create a fully immersive “The Solar System simulation is one that experience was a necessity. really showcases the immersive aspects of the HIVE,” said Hayden. “Scale becomes EON Reality installed an EON Icube with a so real in the immersive environment. EON REALITY Vicon tracking system at Discovery World’s Especially with the head tracking system, facility, called the HIVE (Hybrid Interactive it makes what you’re teaching much more Virtual Education). The EON Icube’s tangible for children than flipping through Discovery World connects innovation, science, technology, four-wall projection system accurately a boring textbook.” simulates a 3D environment by being able and the environment with exploration and learning through to re-render the projected images from the Key Benefits user’s perspective in real-time. Virtual Milwaukee can be used for urban interactive exhibits and experiential learning programs. The HIVE installation at Discovery World EON Reality’s Solution planning and is extensible to mobile EON Reality installed seven Vicon Bonita devices for tourism applications. City cameras for cost effective yet reliable, life can be simulated to monitor how high-performance motion capture and changes to the cityscape affect the Vicon Tracker software to track people’s people of Milwaukee. For instance, heads. Tracker’s precise, low latency architects can add new buildings to tracking makes it ideal for maximizing the see how they impact the city’s skyline. user’s sense of immersion in the virtual reality environment. Also by utilizing Discovery World’s connections to local universities, such as “It’s the difference between watching Marquette University, they have embarked from home versus going to a live event,” on several of their own simulations, like said Paul Hayden, Director of Exhibit a virtual operating room. An enterprising Integration “When you have the right medical student created an arterial simulation views and head tracking it’s an overall placing the viewer in the middle of the better experience. Watching people look carotid artery with mathematically modeled over a virtual railing and getting a feel for blood flow and arterial wall movement. the height in the simulation is incredible.” The HIVE has become one of Discovery Accurate Virtual Milwaukee: EON Reality World’s more popular exhibits. On worked collaboratively with Discovery weekends, you cannot get a HIVE viewing World to create Virtual Milwaukee, a 3D unless you book a time in advance, and on digital recreation of downtown Milwaukee. average six to seven people move through Virtual Milwaukee was created by the HIVE every 10 minutes six days a week. compiling real terrain, elevation, and Since 2008, 1.7 million people have infrastructure data to build an accurate visited Discovery World and approximately A family exploring the solar system in the HIVE computer-generated version of downtown 250,000 people have directly engaged that can quickly be updated with data with the EON Icube powered by Vicon’s All images Courtesy of provided by city planners and architects. motion tracking system. The Challenge “We want visitors to have the tools to Discovery World There are tentative plans to expand the Discovery World was looking for a solution imagine and visualize the future of their model to include bus routes and the city’s Key Benefit Highlights that would bring the city of Milwaukee to community. By taking something familiar old steam tunnels. – An accurate 3D simulation of By Vicon Editorial Team life for their guests, utilize their existing and showing visitors a new way to look at downtown Milwaukee for city resources and partnerships, and help the it, we spur creative ideas of what tomorrow Collaborative Immersive Platform: The planning use and learning. They are dedicated to helping people institution fulfill its mission statement. may look like and how we can improve our EON Icube’s ability to easily import – A unique experience for guests to get positively impact their communities by community in the future,” said Discovery different modeling and CAD formats has excited about learning and technology. developing a better understanding of Create Virtual Milwaukee: Discovery World President Joel Brennan. made the HIVE a centerpiece of local – Showcases how virtual technology is technology and the environment while World wanted its guests to get to know collaboration. With the ability to work with used in industry and education. fostering both innovation and creativity. the city of Milwaukee in a completely Utilize Existing Creative Resources: local educational institutions and utilize – Opportunity to explore environments and The 120,000-square foot facility includes new way. They wanted a three-dimensional Empowering their current resources was in-house resources, Discovery World’s scenarios not typically available to others interactive science, technology and model of downtown Milwaukee that another key need for Discovery World. With HIVE is a true teaching environment in the same type of industry. freshwater exhibits, learning labs, citizens could virtually explore and their strong ties to local universities, and research platform rather than just a – An exhibit that differentiates Discovery 7 theaters, television and audio studios, interact with. By doing so, Discovery Discovery World was looking for a solution display device via their local partnerships. World from similar facilities. and fresh and saltwater aquariums. World sought to enable visitors to that enabled easy collaboration and would Discover More – Can be updated, upgraded, or repurposed visualize what opportunities Milwaukee easily import popular file formats from industry See a video of the HIVE in action at: Discovery World is able to quickly move in the future. holds and inspire its guests. standard CAD and 3D modeling products. youtube.com/watch?v=D8NcH49Waa4 a project from an idea, to a 3D model, all

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THE CAPTURE LAB CREATES THE WORLD’S LARGEST “With the sheer volume of data that we capture and process, we rely on the cameras, software and hardware to perform MOTION CAPTURE VOLUME together flawlessly every time. Downtime isn’t an option, WITH VICON BLADE and Vicon’s system keeps us up and running.”

THE CAPTURE LAB

Based in Vancouver, Canada, The Capture Lab is the world’s largest motion capture facility. Since 1996 it has contributed motion capture, digital doubles, facial animation, and virtual camera services to more than 225 high-end animation, video game, and visual effects productions around the world.

“The familiar, user-friendly interface every time. Downtime isn’t an option, and has facilitated the adoption of the new Vicon’s system keeps us up and running.” Blade software at The Capture Lab,” says By Vicon Editorial Team Jeremy McCarron, Director of Strategy. “We need to focus on production and “The Axiom engine has improved our getting amazing animation into our Recent projects include Electronic Arts’ real-time display and increased our customers’ hands, so the on-going award-winning first-person shooter game pre-visualization capabilities, allowing support Vicon offers is invaluable,” Battlefield 4, 20th Century Fox’s Percy directors to see the animation, characters, concludes McCarron. “Whether loaning Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and EA SPORTS’ props and set pieces ‘in camera’ and focus us equipment during routine maintenance, FIFA 15. on achieving their creative vision instead consulting on pipeline efficiencies, or of wondering if they got the shot.” collaborating on new technologies, Thanks to Vicon’s Blade 2.6 motion capture Vicon has been an important part of software, The Capture Lab has more than Vicon’s Blade software enables effective The Capture Lab’s success.” doubled the size of its motion capture production pipelines and workflow volume, creating the largest entertainment efficiencies, with solid real-time capture stage in the world. The increased performance, and integrates seamlessly functionality of the new software allows with Vicon’s T-Series and Bonita camera The Capture Lab to deploy 132 Vicon ranges. For fast-turnaround material, cameras, covering a massive 50’x130’x15’ Blade’s QuickPost feature allows users volume, through one aggregated system. to automate the post processing workflow, including reconstruction, labeling and “The new link aggregation feature was a occlusion fixing and solving - reducing huge win for us this year,” explains Brad the need for time-intensive manual Oleksy, Director of Studio Operations at clean up. Its HSL API enables The Capture The Capture Lab. “The ability to run Lab to customize the software to its everything on one system has greatly specific needs. increased the accuracy of timecode sync, camera calibration, and the resulting According to McCarron, The Capture Lab animation. We no longer need to merge opted for Vicon based on its accuracy and three separate systems together. Blade’s stability: “Vicon’s motion capture system is volume visualization tool was also essential robust enough to stand up to the rigors of to the creation of the massive shoot production,” he explains. “With the sheer volume. It enables us to ensure accurate volume of data that we capture and camera coverage information without the process, we rely on the cameras, software need for iterative testing; a huge time and hardware to perform together flawlessly saver for our team.”

58 59 VICON LIFE SCIENCE VICON ENTERTAINMENT

CLIENT SERVER APPLICATION FOR REAL-TIME AVATAR ANIMATION

ESTIMATING THE HIP JOINT CENTER FOR INFORMATION CENTER WITH MOCAP AND TECHNOLOGY RENATO ARCHER

The starting point for the current work In order to accomplish this goal, we used ULTRASOUND IMAGING was Vicon’s DataStream SDK, which we an MS SQL Server Database Table and ADO by Tania Lima & are using to access the DataStream components in a Delphi application to save Mario Rocha created in Vicon’s Blade software. Our the data sent by the Vicon DataStreamSDK first tests on the data broadcasting C++ program. Of course, all of this could be The purpose of this work is to increase the performance by the Vicon system were done more efficiently using the same C++ UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA research capacity of our motion capture based in the Vicon DataStreamSDK_CPP program, but Delphi software development projects using the Vicon system. This test sample application. is much faster than C++, which is suitable makes the system more accessible and for rapid and exploratory work. more likely to be used by a greater number The challenge in streaming real-time the underlying bone movement still exists. coordinate transformation algorithms to of people, regardless of their physical animation over a network by treating The exchange of data between the two To tackle this, we came up with the calculate the HJC, with an accuracy of presence in the laboratory. data-streams broadcast from a remote applications was performed using the BY Ms. Swati Upadhyaya, possibility of combining the evergreen up to 15mm in human participants. location, is to increase the network Windows API’s FindWindow function AND Dr. WonSook Lee Vicon system, which records the external In this article we show the results of some performance. This is not an easy task; it and COPYDATASTRUCT to send the marker positions on the thigh and pelvis, We recalculated the position of thigh software techniques that can be applied to depends on many factors, such as the type data, and event handlers in the Delphi The precise location of the center of rotation with ultrasound imaging, which is a markers using the bone depth information increase the frame rate of a real-time avatar of technology used to access the server application to receive the data to be is needed for various applications ranging portable and non-invasive way of locating available from ultrasound images obtained animation when streamed over the network, remotely (e.g., wired or wireless), distance recorded into the database. from gait analysis, to being used as a the underlying bone. on the thigh. The 3D position of the bone with data captured by a Vicon system. from the modem, density or thickness of reference point in navigation based surgeries. was estimated using the probe’s local This is a continuation of our last work, in the walls, electrical interference, issues Once the applications are running, the The experimental setup consisted of an frame of reference and the ultrasound which we presented the steps to develop with the cables and so on. Furthermore, clients are able to remotely connect to Humans have an urge to make things better ultrasound imaging machine (Picus, Esaote image data. Both systems, ultrasound an avatar-interpreter of the Brazilian sign even if the client and server are in the same the database, read the fields from the using existing technology, that’s why, when Europe), a linear probe (L10-5, 5 MHz (30Hz) and Vicon (120 Hz) were language for deaf (LIBRAS), applied to an machine, hardware and software limitations table, process the data and animate the presented with the idea of locating the center operating frequency, width four cm) synchronized by time stamping and graph electro technical glossary (see Fig. 1). may cause loss of frames – in our server, avatar, and this is straightforward in of rotation of the hip joint, we decided to and the motion capture system, which analysis. The centers were recalculated the log file shows that the loss is 50%, and Python, the language used to extend use an approach based on motion capture. consisted of six Vicon MX40 cameras using the new marker positions and The bones of the model are constrained to using our Wi Fi connection, it is even worse Blender functionality. operating at 120 Hz. Nine retro-reflective compared for four participants. The the moving markers by Blender, shown as and happens in a random way. This well established method for non-invasive markers were used, three on each thigh algorithms give two centers for the hip dots on some of the panels. This method Of course, with this method, we have a determination of the hip joint center (HJC) and pelvis, and three on the probe with joint, for the two segments involved. The is used to animate the model and make Since we are not supposed to deal with delay of the order of seconds, between is called functional approach, in which an extension to track the position of the distance between the two centers needs the avatar. This procedure has many steps technical issues related to the client’s the data acquisition and the avatar animation, external markers are placed on the thigh probe movement. Four researchers took to be minimized and serves as a measure and takes a considerable amount of time. environment, we decided on a solution but we hope that this will not be a big and pelvis. While the hip joint is modeled to part in the initial exploratory research of accuracy of the algorithm. However, we solved this by putting almost that depends only on the server hardware issue, compared to the benefits of having be a ball and socket, the thigh is made to needed to form the design of the research. all the commands used in the procedure and software performance, and so ensures our avatar-interpreter performing where move with respect to the pelvis, such that The ultrasound images were obtained at The mean residual has been improved by in a python script that can be run from that the maximum number of frames will they are needed: in front of the client. the marker trajectories are recorded and a frame rate of 30 Hz for six seconds, 46% with the combination of ultrasound the Blender IDE. be received by the client. then analyzed through various algorithms which gave 180 frames of recording for imaging with the high resolution Vicon to find the center of rotation. The 3D each capture. system, with an accuracy of ± 0.04. This marker positions were recorded using a experiment is suggestive of opening new Vicon system because of its sub-millimeter Our aim was to record the movement of doors to the possibility of combining the accuracy, which is an essential requirement the thigh, pelvis and the ultrasound probe two non-invasive imaging technologies to in medical applications. The recorded through the Vicon system, while the leg better estimate the hip joint center for movements are assumed to be representative of the participant was flexed. At the same various clinical and educational applications. of the underlying bone, although due to the time we needed the ultrasound placed on non-rigidity of the overlying soft tissues, the thigh, such that it recorded the change this assumption does not quite hold true, in the depth of bone during the movement. and results in the inaccuracy in determination of the HJC. The markers on the thigh, pelvis and probe form the local frame of reference, which Many measures have been taken to resolve is used to calculate the position vectors this problem in the past, however a need and rotation matrices for the respective Fig. 1: Illustration of the methodology used to make to link the overlying marker positions with segment. These are used in traditional the avatar-interpreter. Credit: A Benetti

60 61 VICON STANDARD VICON STANDARD

Fast forward to The Standard in 2012, Wolf, Barry G, Jackson D, Mhiripiri D, Olivier P, A., Senesh M., “Estimating joint kinematics Rochester L. “Accuracy of the Microsoft from skin motion observation: modeling Kinect sensor for measuring movement in By Ed Biden and validation”, Computer Methods in people with Parkinson’s disease”. Gait Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, Posture. 2014 Jan 22. The authors tested I was involved in buying the first Vicon 2011, Vol 14:11, pp 939-946 used a Vicon a Kinect system using Vicon as the “gold system at Childrens’ Hospital San Diego in system to study the use of a large number standard” to see if they could measure 1982/83 when the company was still part of markers on either a rigid model of a timing, gross motion patterns of things of Oxford Instruments. That first system forearm or on the forearms of volunteers. like rising from a chair, walking on the spot, had five cameras and ran on a Digital The objective was to apply a Kalman filter and reaching, as well as fine motions such Equipment PDP 11-44 with a clock speed to the results in order to reduce the effect as hand clasping, finger tapping etc. Vicon of 6 MHz and 1.25 megabyte of memory of skin motion. The idea of a Kalman filter can reliably measure all these types of - hardly enough for a digital watch today. is that if you have a situation which motion. Kinect, which is a very inexpensive After moving to the University of New produces noisy data, you can improve the option, did well in overall timing and gross Brunswick we acquired a portable four quality of the data by developing a model motion tracking, but didn’t do as well in camera Vicon 140 System in 1995, which of the system being tested. As the data are following fine motions. Vicon has was eventually replaced by a Vicon 512 collected they are mapped against the established itself as a standard for motion and most recently by a T160 system, model predictions. In this case the filtering measurement. The Kinect device may be with 12 cameras, six force-plates, and an didn’t actually improve on simpler the way that motion capture can move apparently limitless number of analog techniques of low pass filtering and a into a home or small clinic setting. channels. Vicon has an interesting point cluster method. However, comparing “Brief History” on page 28/29 for those this to the papers from 1996 emphasises Another example of Vicon as a measurement who have followed the evolution of the the enormous progress in computing standard is in the very new paper by product over the years. power, and also in the Vicon hardware and Stevens T GA, de Ruiter CJ, van Niel C, software for imaging and point tracking, van de Rhee R, Beek PJ, Savelsbergh G JP. In 1996, when I wrote my first literature which allowed straightforward tracking of “Measuring Acceleration and Deceleration review for The Standard, motion picture many markers on a segment rather than in Soccer-Specific Movements Using a film was still in common use and is the just a few. It is also worth noting that much Local Position Measurement (LPM) method of data collection for several of larger camera arrays were possible and System.” Int J Sports Physiol Perform. the papers which were reviewed. At the practical, which opened up new possibilities 2014 Feb 7. They test a Local Position time, a new entity “the web” was just for motion capture and analysis. Measurement (LPM) system from Inmotio beginning to become widespread and in a sports dome with a 10 camera Vicon Google would not exist for another two Vicon systems can last a long time, as is T40S system concurrently tracking markers years. By way of comparison, a web evident in the paper reviewed in the 2012 placed on the antennas of the LPM system search of the terms “motion and analysis” Standard by Hong WH, Chen HC, Yang while 12 male soccer players of average found 50,000 references in 1996, and FP, Wu CY, Chen CL, Wong AM. “Speech- age 22 years, did moves which involved over two million today. associated labiomandibular movement in straight running in a 30x2m space, and Mandarin-speaking children with quadriplegic running which involved direction change I re-read Yang, L., Condie, M., Grant, J., cerebral palsy: a kinematic study.” Res Dev from 90 to 180 degrees in a 15x6m Paul, J., Rowley D., “Effects of Joint Motion Disabil. 2011 Vol 32(6): pp 2595-601. Their space. These are very large measurement Constraints on the Gait of Normal Subjects application is to track facial motions, but volumes. Participants were tested at a and Their Implications for the Further the really interesting feature is they are “jog, sub-max, and max speed”. The LPM Development of Hybrid FES Orthoses for using a Vicon 370 system, which must be was found to be quite accurate for the Paraplegic Persons”, J. Biomech. Vol 29 close to 20 years old. Their experiments parameters measured and the role of the #2, 217-226 1996 and was struck that they were on 12 children with spastic Vicon system was to act as the standard LITERATURE were using a workstation based Vicon VX quadriplegia cerbral palsy and a matched against which to compare. system with force platforms and EMG in a group of unaffected children. They tracked configuration not so different from what facial movement while the children made Vicon has had an amazing 30 years and would be current. They were attempting various sounds, which were assessed by is, without question, the defining system to model quite subtle changes in gait due a speech pathologist. Using Vicon allowed for motion analysis. The range of REVIEW to the orthosis. In the same year Kramers both temporal and spatial coupling measurements which have been de Quervain, I.A., Simon, S., Leurgans, S., between the words spoken and the facial undertaken using this technology is Pease, W.S., McAllister, D., “Gait Pattern movements, and could be used to assist in staggering and the literature describing in Early Recovery Period After Stroke”, planning therapy. applications of these systems grows JBJS, Vol 78-A, pp 1506-1514, 1996 by the day. UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK were using a Vicon system to answer the The next two papers are very recent ones question posed in the title, but were also and reflect applications of motion analysis assessing whether or not representative in a health care setting with Parkinson’s strides were sufficient for gait analysis. patients and in soccer. They both reflect Their work suggested that measuring that Vicon has become the definitive Having been asked to write a literature review as part of The simple variables over a few cycles and then method of motion capture and analysis. Standard which celebrates Vicon having been active as a company focusing on the most representative cycle is an effective approach. This study would An interesting development over the past for 30 years, I can’t resist the chance to tell a little about my own have been very difficult to do in the days few years has been devices such as the connections to the company over that time. of hand digitization of cine film due to the Microsoft Kinect, which can track motions overwhelming volume of work required. without the need for markers. Galna B,

62 63 VICON ENGINEERING VICON STANDARD

BRISTOL ROBOTICS It houses specialist workshops and wet labs, and two flying arenas with multiple Vicon systems. It is a LABORATORY unique collaboration that harnesses the collective strengths of its university partners, and brings together the best expertise from industry and the academic IN PICTURES community to spearhead Britain’s efforts to be a world leader in modern advanced robotics.

By Vicon Editorial Team

Flying robotics A newly commissioned 1900 sq ft flying arena has been instrumented with 10 T-Series cameras for research on the guidance and control of micro aerial vehicles. The goal of the research is to give vehicles autonomous navigation capabilities, so that they could be used for investigating damaged buildings or other hazardous, cluttered environments. The Vicon equipment has so far been used to support developments on autonomous decision making, real-time trajectory optimization, control and visual navigation.

Human & robot interaction Bristol Elumotion Robot Torso Version 2 (BERT2) is a humanoid robot developed at Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) in collaboration with Elumotion. BRL is working on the integration of several advanced subsystems within a heterogeneous computing infrastructure. This enables them to construct a unique platform ideally suited to investigate complex human-robot interaction (HRI). BRL is focusing on two important domains of non-verbal communication, Human & robot interaction namely gaze and pointing gestures in a real-world 3D setting. Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England and University of Bristol Internationally recognised as a Centre of Excellence in Robotics, BRL is a state-of-the-art laboratory covering over 3,000 square metres.

64 65 VICON ENTERTAINMENT VICON STANDARD

QUANTIC DREAM DOUBLES ITS INVESTMENT IN VICON

TO DELIVER ‘OUTSTANDING’ PERFORMANCE CAPTURE

T-Series upgrade increases full performance capture space by over 200% helping Quantic Dream achieve more with less technology. OBITUARY – PROFESSOR JOHN PAUL

Professor John P Paul died on 13 November 2013, aged 86. Although his seminal work on gait analysis was undertaken a few years before Vicon first came into existence, his influence was key to its beginnings and continues to this day.

and full performance capture saving days be challenged by them to deliver increased of production time.” efficiency. We’re delighted to have provided them with a studio that fits all requested By Vicon Editorial Team The newly equipped studio is now capable purposes and exceeded their expectations. Ask anyone unfamiliar with biomechanics hip joint load. In Sweden, Nils Rydell was Over the next five years, the Paul/Jarrett/ of both full performance capture for at Quantic Dream’s further investment in what the load through the hip joint might able to measure the load directly in two of Andrews video system was iteratively World renowned games studio, Quantic least eight people and body capture at the T160, in combination with Blade 2, be in someone walking. If they hazard a his patients in whom he inserted artificial improved and replicated for installation Dream, has invested in 38 additional any time, providing Quantic Dream with a is testament to the camera’s data quality guess, it is probably that it is roughly equal joints with built-in strain gauges. in hospitals in Dundee and Oxford, as well T-Series T160 cameras. Having previously flexible and cost-effective solution. Vicon’s and power and the software’s reliability to their weight. If they’re really thoughtful, as in Glasgow. In 1978, Oxford Metrics enlisted Vicon technology for PS3 exclusive extensive pre-consultation work at the and production ready toolset.” they may estimate it to be body weight less John Paul took a less invasive approach. (formerly Oxford Dynamics) negotiated titles, Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain, site ensured that the new studio fulfilled the weight of the leg they’re standing on. In Strathclyde (Glasgow) he assembled a gait a license with JPP, by then Head of the the recent investment will enable Quantic all of the requirements laid out by Quantic lab that we would all recognise today. He Strathclyde Bioengineering Unit, to Dream to execute future high-profile Dream in maximising the full potential Technical breakdown: In the 1960s, this question took on a new used antero-posterior and lateral 16mm manufacture the system under the projects in a larger full performance of the space and providing industry urgency. Several pioneering orthopaedic cine film cameras, force platforms, and trade name Vicon. capture (FPC) space than ever before. proven, production ready data through New system surgeons began to replace badly worn or electromyography. Using measurements the integration of Vicon’s data processing Camera count: 76 T160s fractured hip joints with artificial from this equipment, he was able to estimate John Paul’s reputation as an elder The upgrade more than doubles the and capture tool, Blade 2. New body capture volume: 11m x 6m x 3m replacements. The results were mixed. hip joint load throughout the gait cycle, statesman and strong advocate of available FPC volume, increasing the space New Performance capture volume: Although arthritic pain was generally showing that, in someone walking vigorously, sound engineering principles in from 3x4x3m, to 6l x 4w x 3h. Guillaume Fondaumière continues: “The challenge 6m x 4m x 3m relieved, depending on their design and it reached a peak of almost three times biomechanics continued to grow until de Fondaumière, co-CEO at Quantic Dream for us was guaranteeing a quality full Talent count for PC stage: at least materials, the artificial joints frequently body weight. and beyond his retirement in 1992. He said: “For any project, we usually require a performance capture rig for our studio eight actors came loose, caused fractures in the was a steadfast friend to Vicon and, as mix of body mocap and full performance space. The Vicon team used their knowledge surrounding bone, sometimes fractured The main problem with JPP’s experimental in all his professional dealings, one who capture. Previously, this would mean having and expertise to design the studio and Previous system themselves, or wore rapidly away. It was set-up was the time taken to measure spoke clearly and honestly. to create a new wall of trussing to mount delivered over and above what we Camera count: 64 – 36 T160s and 28 clearly time to seek some engineering advice. kinematics from the cine film by hand. the cameras into a smaller volume and expected to achieve with fewer cameras MX40s So he asked two of his research students, JRWM re-configuring the system. This could take than we thought possible. We are truly Previous body capture volume: 11m x Verne Inman, the Berkeley titan of gait Michael Jarrett and Brian Andrews, to work 24 March 2014 anywhere up to five days every time we amazed at the results.” 6m x 3m analysis, had in 1947 published estimates on the design of an equivalent system, needed to switch between the two set-ups. Previous performance capture volume: of hip joint load as over twice body weight. replacing the cine cameras by video, and Obituaries for John P Paul have appeared Our new system enables us to keep all the Imogen Moorhouse, CEO at Vicon commented: 3m x 4m x 3m His estimates were revised and updated in the hand digitiser by automatic detection in the UK Times, Guardian, and Telegraph cameras on the same rig, meaning we can “Quantic Dream are a longstanding and Talent count for PC stage: four actors a static anatomical model by McLeish and of retro-reflective markers. This prototype newspapers. quickly and easily switch between body innovative customer; so it was exciting to Charnley. Two other experimentalists took system, based on a PDP-10 computer, up the challenge of estimating dynamic became operational in 1973.

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