LOS ANGELES — UK-based motion capture technology specialists Vicon (vicon.com) announced the availability of a new camera at this week’s SIGGRAPH show. The Vertex camera is compact, lightweight and easily mounted, making it well suited for tracking in small and complex environments.
In response to customer demand, Vertex boasts a smaller and more flexible design, and a wide angle field of view, allowing it to capture significant volumes in very tight spaces. As a result, the camera can be used across a wide range of applications, from the automotive and life science industries to tracking in virtual reality (VR) environments. With a 1.3 megapixel camera, petite design and two-meter flexible cable, Vertex harnesses these features to perform inconspicuously in virtual spaces. Its unobtrusive design and infra-red strobes mean that subjects are often not aware of the camera and continue to behave naturally.
Typically, it can be difficult to position standard-size cameras in VR rooms with floor-to-ceiling projected imagery, often known as a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). With a smaller and more easily mountable design, Vertex thrives in constricted VR environments – allowing customers to effectively position the cameras in corners without casting shadows onto the projections.
With VR becoming ever-present and space at a premium, Vertex helps customers to install capture volumes in small spaces of up to three meters by three meters. By using the camera’s wide field of view, users can track from wall-to-wall while the cameras are still within the capture space. This maximizes the area, giving full coverage throughout the entire room and providing a greater level of flexibility around camera placement.