Leading motion capture company Vicon is jumping deeper into VR with a new tracking system for location-based solutions.
You may have seen Vicon’s tech at work in hit movies like Blade Runner 2049 and Gravity as well as games like the VR-compatible Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, but its work in VR opens up a new avenue for the company. Using a combination of new hardware and software the new platform, named Origin, is designed to offer ‘unbreakable’ tracking to VR arcades and installations across the world for improved, multi-user experiences.
To achieve this, Origin introduces three main components. The first is Viper, a lightweight camera that works with active marker technology. The camera’s sensors follow Origin’s wearable tracking clusters named Pulsar, which consist of several LED markers that a user would attach to their body (presumably fitted to a piece of clothing) and headset. A third device called the Beacon, meanwhile, allows Viper and Pulsar to communicate over a synchronized wireless network.
This new hardware is paired with a software platform named Evoke, which is designed to keep tracking stable and also auto-fix any calibration changes between play sessions. The system comes with plug-ins for game engines (exactly which isn’t stated) for you to integrate into your software.
Vicon is currently partnered with location-based VR company, Dreamscape Immersive, which is best known for its Alien Zoo experience, though we don’t know when or where we’ll see Origin integrated into one of its offerings. Vicon will be at Siggraph in Vancouver later this week to showcase its system, though.
