July 22, 2013

SIGGRAPH 2013: OptiTrack demo highlights affordable, realtime motion capture

ANAHEIM, CA — At SIGGRAPH this year, OptiTrack (www.optitrack.com) is featuring markered skateboarders shredding a half-pipe in its booth. The 30-by-20-foot set-up includes 24 Prime 17W cameras powered by the recently released Motive:Body software. Specially engineered skateboards featuring LED markers embedded on their decks, trucks and wheels allow them to be tracked alongside the skateboarders’ movements. Motion is being captured, delivered and rendered in realtime. 

Launched earlier this year, the Prime 17W is the latest offering in OptiTrack’s Prime Series line of high performance motion capture and tracking cameras. A 70-degree-by-51-degree field of view and 50-foot range offers users flexible system deployment and camera configuration. The wide angle field of view delivers clean, continuous data with fewer cameras and also captures up to 360fps with full frame, global shuttered precision. OptiTrack’s low pricing makes it well suited for animators, engineers, clinicians and researchers at facilities large and small. 

OptiTrack’s Motive software works with the full range of OptiTrack cameras to create a simple and high fidelity motion capture pipeline that is fast and easy to setup. The skateboards are being tracked with Motive’s new rigid body engine, which enables highly accurate motion capture results. The Motive:Body software includes dozens of time saving features, including one-click subject calibration for quick character set-up, easy skeleton export to Autodesk MotionBuilder, precision finger tracking and kinematic labeling. 

“OptiTrack’s core technology is remarkably extensible,” explains Brian Nilles, chief strategy officer. “Motion capture set-ups that were formerly considered to be very difficult and unthinkable in live exhibition settings are just really easy for OptiTrack systems. The skate ramp is a great example of the Prime 17W’s ability to pack large capture volumes into small spaces.”