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Science Hardware

Wearable Motion Capture 91

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the all-your-motion-are-belong-to-us dept.
AnonymousHack writes "Swiss and MIT researchers have developed a wearable kit that will capture your every move for mapping onto a virtual character. It's almost as accurate as the camera-based motion capture used in studios to develop games. The team have recorded people's movements in completely new locations — like driving a car — previously out of reach. There is even a video of it in action."
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Wearable Motion Capture More

Wearable Motion Capture

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  • Hmm (Score:3, Funny)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Monday November 26, 2007 @05:09PM (#21484749) Homepage Journal

    "Swiss and MIT researchers have developed a wearable kit that will capture your every move for mapping onto a virtual character. It's almost as accurate as the camera-based motion capture used in studios to develop games.

    Stop picking your nose and raise your hand if you think this will not be a major boost for pr0n industrie and adult video games?

    "oh, oh, oh, Mario, please don't stop, oh, oh, oh!"

    • Re:Hmm (Score:4, Funny)

      by Poromenos1 ( 830658 ) on Monday November 26, 2007 @05:28PM (#21485047) Homepage

      Stop picking your nose
      WTF, how did you know that? That was uncanny!

    • Other applications... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RingDev ( 879105 ) on Monday November 26, 2007 @06:13PM (#21485565) Homepage Journal
      I think this thing could be huge to professional sports.

      You could use this set up to help show athletes how to improve their form, be it in the weight room, on the golf course, ski slope, or any other place where repetitive precision movement is needed and a refinement of form could improve performance.

      Heck, even just as a trainer, get your clients to strap this thing on a couple of times (especially those who aren't keen on working out in front of a mirror) to show them their form and how to improve it.

      Or combine this with pre-defined motion capture to attempt to train the wearer on how to re-enact the original motions (be it real dancing, DDR, or even 'Ninja Challenge' or what ever that Spike show is!)

      For $3k and dropping, the entry fee is so low that there are sure to be people looking make a profit off this system. I'm interested to see what all they come up with :)

      -Rick
      • "I think this thing could be huge to professional sports." Good idea. But combine this with computer controlled feedback. Write a realtime golf swig analysis program that can produce a sound where the pitch varies depending on the amount of error in the swing. If you legs move wrong you hear one sound if the shoulders aren't right you hear aanother. Pracic untill you can make the noises go away. Could work for quite a few sports. Gymnastics, baseball,....

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by HangingChad ( 677530 )

        You could use this set up to help show athletes how to improve their form, be it in the weight room, on the golf course, ski slope, or any other place where repetitive precision movement is needed and a refinement of form could improve performance.

        You can just say "porn." We all know that's where this is going.

        • The only thing that is currently stopping the world from being filled to the brim with animated pr0n, or general animated amateur productions, is that mo-cap is expensive; Lightwave, Vue, Poser all have the ability to import mocap data and do generally realistic images.
          If this is under $500, I'll get it, and a few thousand others will also, for personal animation hobbies. if it costs a little more than that, it probably won't make that big of an impact.
      • Or combine this with pre-defined motion capture to attempt to train the wearer on how to re-enact the original motions (be it real dancing, DDR, or even 'Ninja Challenge' or what ever that Spike show is!)

        I second this. I currently use cameras to improve my DDR form: I point the eyetoy at my feet so I can see them on the screen as I dance, and I videotape my dancing to study my feet after dancing (some are on yt). Comparing the motion captures described in the story between players would be a tremendous imp

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by ILuvRamen ( 1026668 )
        lol and by "professional sports" you mean Wii Sports :D I smell a Wii2 Wiisuit controller! w00t! Do you know how much ass that would kick to be playing a fighting game and actually have to do a spinning kick with realistic force? People would be so skinny it would be ridiculous. Either that or in the hospital lol.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mikael ( 484 )
        It's been done [sports-motion.com]
      • Yes, this is indeed a great idea. Take pre-recorded motions from a professional kung-fu fighter, put some vibration elements on the wearer and "hint" him if he does the wrong movements.
  • The team have recorded people's movements in completely new locations -- like driving a car -- previously out of reach.

    Can't make a clear car out of plastic?

    • Re:Plastic (Score:5, Funny)

      by wattrlz ( 1162603 ) on Monday November 26, 2007 @05:13PM (#21484821)
      Well, yes, but c'mon, would you really want to be recorded driving a saturn?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by durnurd ( 967847 )

      The team have recorded people's movements in completely new locations -- like driving a car -- previously out of reach.

      Can't make a clear car out of plastic?
      Yes, you could, but it would also have to be relatively stationary for the standard mocap cameras to be able to pick up the motion of the driver inside. If the car is stationary, the person inside isn't moving naturally how one would move in a car. That's the idea here.

  • SIGGRAPH (Score:4, Informative)

    by TubeSteak ( 669689 ) on Monday November 26, 2007 @05:18PM (#21484893) Journal

    Details of the project were presented at SIGGRAPH, a computer graphics and interactive technologies conference held in San Diego, California, US, in August.
    I know that lots of cool stuff gets shown @ SIGGRAPH... but 3 months is quite a bit of lag, even for slashdot.

    Maybe someone who went can dig out their conference DVD and put up the presentation somewhere.
  • Motion capture by inertial navigation seems a bit expensive, but it's probably affordable for Swiss. Those IDG300's actually increased in price since they came out. Now we're finding all kinds of new uses for inertial navigation. Too bad there aren't many jobs for inertial navigation experts in Web 2.0 crazed Silicon Valley.

  • Update (Score:2, Funny)

    by moogied ( 1175879 )
    Update:

    Due to vigarious usage, the hand peice has to be replaced.

    Again.

  • A few hundred dollars, huh. Are we looking at the beginnings of the real next-gen console(s)?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) *

      A few hundred dollars, huh. Are we looking at the beginnings of the real next-gen console(s)?

      Dr. Venkman would have some good use for this with his ESP research, particularly if it comes in skin-tight Spandex. (Negative Feedback Electric Shock optional)

  • Porn (Score:2, Insightful)

    by bigattichouse ( 527527 )
    Porn will take this technology further than everyone else.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by melder ( 1082253 )
      Of course; how do you think the Internet got the momentum to evolve as far as it has?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) *

      Porn will take this technology further than everyone else.

      MMOPr0n

      It's 11:00 PM, do you know what your kids are doing on-line?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Knara ( 9377 )

      It's pointless because there's no tactile simulation/feedback for the stimulated and stimulator.

    • Nah not just porn

      Second Life AND porn:)

    • Porn will take this technology further than everyone else.


      p0rn Beowulf cluster anyone?
    • Online sex could be done like this: a doll could be animated by receiving the kinematics of the person on the other side; the kinematics are recorded through wearable motion capture. If both parties have an animated doll, and both are wearing motion capture, then the animated doll could serve as a replacement for the other person.

  • Key Component, Sonic Transducer (Score:5, Funny)

    by pete-classic ( 75983 ) <hutnick@gmail.com> on Monday November 26, 2007 @05:23PM (#21484965) Homepage Journal
    This sonic transducer, it is I suppose some kind of audio-vibratory-physio-molecular transport device?

    -Peter
    • You mean...
    • Dood If I had the points, you'd be marked up Funny. So would anyone else who saw the clip.

      For all those who missed it, it's a line from the Rocky Horror Picture Show where one of the main characters goes into a rant about a laser being some kind of "audio-vibratory-physio-molecular transport device" (at which point the whole audiance yells out "THEN IT'S NOT A LASER IS IT!"

      Yo Grark
      • I think you've confused Riff's "laser capable of emitting a beam of pure antimatter" (which isn't a fucking laser, is it?) with Frank's transducer (which will seduce ya).

        -Peter
    • I don't need anyone / Don't need no mom and dad
      Don't need no pretty face / Don't need no human race
      I got some news for you / Don't even need you too

      I got my time machine / Got my electronic dream
      Sonic reducer / Ain't no loser
      I'm a sonic reducer / Ain't no loser

  • Just like intersense! (Score:5, Informative)

    by HEbGb ( 6544 ) on Monday November 26, 2007 @05:25PM (#21484987)
    This very product has been on the market for years, by Intersense, which also uses accelerometers augmented with ultrasound to prevent drift. It looks like MIT just copied them.

    This isn't really new.

    http://www.isense.com/products.aspx?id=43& [isense.com]

    • My thoughts exactly.
    • Yes, but they fail because they use Microsoft clip art on their homepage.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ivar ( 31153 )
      yeah, but at $3k for components (without any economy of scale) this is just waiting to be turned into the next videogame peripheral... think of DDR, or Wii Fit or any sports game.. or any game really given how much mileage Nintendo's gotten out of it's nunchucks..
    • You may have missed the point...

      "'The sensors are all off-the-shelf parts,' Adelsberger says, making the system much cheaper than other motion-capture technology. It cost about $3,000 currently, but this could come down to a few hundred dollars, he says, if the sensors are mass-produced."

      Forget about buying an already built commercial system, this is a MAKER's dream. Run it on a home-built laptop for extra points.
    • <sarcasm>Come on, that was in the last millennium; nobody reads papers from the last millennium anymore, in particular not if they're from the same university. Besides, that's just a product; I mean, products aren't science, are they?</sarcasm>

  • Xsense (Score:4, Informative)

    by Frans Faase ( 648933 ) on Monday November 26, 2007 @05:28PM (#21485035) Homepage

    Everyday, I bike along a company called Xsense [xsense.com] here in Enschede, the Netherlands, which is selling a similar system called Moven [moven.com] as described here as a commercial product.

    • Sorry, for the incorrect link, it is www.xsens.com [xsens.com]. There system is much more wearable and you can even capture things like brake dancing.

      • you can even capture things like brake dancing.
        I see quite enough of /that/ every time I get onto the highway.

      • you can even capture things like brake dancing.
        Ahh, you really are from the Netherlands aren't you? Brake dancing? Is that like drifting, but you get to see how the driver hits the pedals with eminem on the radio? And my gosh, they do it on a highway?

        That will be all, thank you, more abuse at 11.
        • Okay, it should have been "break dancing". I felt that there was something funny about it when I wrote that, and me knowing that I am dyslectic should have made me think twice. I suppose your Dutch is as good as my English, as otherwise you would not have made fun of me.

    • Here's a video [youtube.com] of the moven suit. The discussion after it points out that their suit costs $60K USD.

      It's nice to see people going after the low-cost end that would make this kind of thing ubiquitous. Hopefully they won't be hindered by patents (Xsense has an unpublished patent application related to this).

  • If I had this prototype I'd be hacking Second Life to stream my movements into the world (and get Linden Labs to stream it out) and everyone would be like "wow, how's he move like that?!" but I guess they'd just think I was a poser.

  • The team have recorded people's movements in completely new locations -- like driving a car -- previously out of reach.
    Kick ass! Now I can finally create that machinima of Samus and Master Cheif having sex while skydiving!

  • GameTube. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm thinking this will do for the modding and homemade game industry what the video camera did for Youtube.
    • ... is supposed to add what, exactly, to the homemade game industry? Homemade games are not successful on any recognizable scale even when they are made in free development environments for hardware which the entire Western world owns -- after you get past the level of simple Flash game you run SMACK into the content creation barrier and start having to have professional programmers and artists to make a stab at anything. Who is going to write the textures and skeletons, to say nothing of 3D engine (eh, m
  • how long before we can get this thing hooked up to secondlife?
    all we need now is some form of feedback and we're all set
    all in the interests of science of course
    mmmmm science
    • Shouldn't they be up to thirdlife by now? It's still like barely quake-2 level realistic, when the entire rest of the games industry has moved on e-generations ago.
      • I think the main problem is scale
        given the number of houses / users / locations / scripts constantly interacting
        one small change can bring the whole system to it's knee's

        although I must admit it does need a complete overhaul
  • Shoot, am I the only one that read that as "wearable kilt"?
  • Long before: http://www.animazoo.com/ [animazoo.com] I saw these guys give a presentation about two years ago: the processing's almost entirely done with the suit. It's even possible to capture information at a significant distance: a major motorcycle manufacturer used it to work out the applied ergonomics of their more recent sports models, and adapt it so that it would give a 'more optimal ride', I believe the term was.
  • But they're the worst ping pong players ever.

  • "-Hunny, you've been standing in the middle of the room waving your arms towards the celling for about 30 minutes now, are you sure you're alright?
    -Yeah leave me alone I'm playing Superman!"

  • until someone figures a way to get rid of the goofy suit a motion subject needs to wear.

    ok, better technology, but you still need prep time to slap on the suit and sensors--i.e. prep to look goofy I say.

  • Someone wake me up when they remove the need to move at all (neural interfaces ftw), so I can lay motionless for the rest of my life.

  • I find it interesting that in the split-screen presentation, the live video can have a completely different angle than the motion capture video. It looked wrong at first (wait, he's supposed to be facing me...) until I realized that the motion capture video can be rendered from any angle at all. There's absolutely no connection other than time sync between the live and motion capture video.

    Then there's the distance. I noticed that on the universal machine the subject was quite a bit farther away in the live
  • This has lots of applications in construction and assessment. I'd like to see all the 3D building structure data loaded into a system and piped to heads-up displays for construction workers, where they and/or structural components are pinpointed by the location sensors. It would give real-time "this thing goes... right... HERE" feedback. The other application I'd love to see is for existing structure assessment: a 'wand' with ultrasound and possibly magnetoresonance to sense pipes, wiring, and structure ele
  • I think the best application would be for use by independant game and animation studios. It's inexpensive, has relatively few components, and doesn't require much space. Perfect for the indie community.
  • It seems like the motion that's captured remains in place, with the hips not getting the translation data, so if you were o capture a run, the 3d character would stay in the same spot. This might be useful for creating run cycles for games, but it would practically be useless for anything else, since it would take a long time for an animator to go in and make sure the feet placement is correct and the character isn't sliding around everywhere. Motion capture data is very heavy and fairly hard to adjust once
  • I can't seem to find anything useful through the wonderful search - I just keep getting back to this article plus a whole lot of unrelated onse - but does anyone else remember an article from several years ago where random students wired up a wearable thing that mapped quake levels and enemies onto the real world you were running around in ? What's new in this one ?
  • This same technology was on the business investment show "Dragons' Den" but invented by a British guy. The investors ended up laughing it out of the room as they couldn't see how it could have any practical application whatsoever. The company's called "Virtual Puppet Ltd" and if you're in the UK (or possibly elsewhere) you can watch their presentation to the dragons here. [bbc.co.uk]
  • The original manufactures of this technology are Animazoo http://www.animazoo.com/ [animazoo.com] . There have been a number of copy cat systems which claim to be better however on close expection of the data, Animazoo products are far superior. This is due to Animazoo working with House Hold animation companies for the past 10 years and developing a product that the industry wants and not a product that the company thinks the industry wants! Animazoo technology is used by Virtual Puppet as seen in the UK on Dragons De
  • > Swiss and MIT researchers have developed a wearable kit that will capture your
    > every move for mapping onto a virtual character.

    Great. A bunch of obese, sedentary-looking fugly pork pies runnin' around with rocket launchers.
  • This rig would be awesome to take to the local Rock Climbing gym, or even outdoors, to capture the motions involved in rock climbing. Finally something that can capture it in 3D, compared to the current 2D methods used (video cameras arent enough to fully visualize the moves 100% of the time).
  • Actually, this system was developed at MERL (Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories); the MIT and ETH
    linkage is that some of the interns working on it were MIT and ETH Zurich.

    Check the paper authorships to see this.

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