Rokoko, a Danish startup, has revolutionized the world of motion capture with a suit equipped with sensors. A new future for animation and video games is on the horizon
The dragon in The Hobbit, or those in Game of Thrones. Or the movements of Leo Messi in Fifa. All this happens thanks to motion capture. A beautiful final effect but that makes the production costs for films or videogames rise. But now everything can change: it has arrived, in fact, the smart suit that transforms you into an avatar for virtual reality and not only.
Rokoko Smartsuit Pro, the suit that reinvents the motion capture. Many of the characters that surround our leisure time are made with motion capture. Actors in large rooms and wearing special suits perform movements that are recorded from different angles with cameras. Movements then transferred to a computer that processes them for an avatar. It sounds simple, but it’s one of the aspects that drives up the cost of video games and movies. Rokoko, a Danish startup, has developed a smart suit, the Smartsuit Pro, capable of disrupting this system.
How does Rokoko’s smart suit work?
Rokoko’s smart suit bypasses motion capture cameras. The wearable device, in fact, uses sensors placed in different points to capture movements and transfer them to the avatar. To be precise, there are 19 sensors in the suit, each equipped with a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetic prospecting. Using the data it receives from the sensors and their distance based on movement, the computer processes gestures for the avatar to perform. The data can be saved in a Hub placed on top of the suit or sent via Wi-Fi to other devices. Everything is powered by a small battery that uses any USB port to recharge and lasts up to eight hours. Both the Hub and the battery are about the size of an iPhone and don’t give any trouble in movement.
(taken from YouTube)
Better than current motion capture
According to the developers, the Smartsuit Pro is even better than the current system used in motion capture. Because the cameras can have some “holes” in the footage and don’t process every single movement perfectly. What the sensors do instead. In addition, with the new system, designed by Rokoko, up to five people can be captured simultaneously in the same network. Moreover, the processing is faster because it uses numbers sent by the sensors and not video files. In short, the future of animation and video games holds new and increasingly realistic movements and gestures.
Other uses of the Smart suit outside of animation
Once the suit is removed, the data is sent to the Smartsuit Studio, a software, where users can record, edit, stream and play back their mocaps. Any resulting movement or sequence can be exported as a BVH FBX file for further manipulation in other 3D software. Outside of entertainment, the Smartsuit Pro system could also be used in physical rehabilitation, or more generally in monitoring movements and physical activities related to certain sports. For example, football or basketball.
Creating and managing avatars with Rokoko Smartsuit
Remaining in the world of videogames, the suit could be used to manage one’s own avatars in the near future. An aspect that could radically change the current way of playing sports and action titles. Also because the same Rokoko is pushing in this sense. The company would like to release, by 2017, jackets, gloves or shoes, which will cost under 500 dollars, equipped with sensors to be used to play or manage a character on the Net. For now, though, Rokoko is focused on the Smartsuit Pro, which it plans to start shipping and selling starting in February 2017. Prices start at $2,245, and the company is currently taking pre-orders.
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