VANCOUVER — At SIGGRAPH 2018, OptiTrack (http://optitrack.com) previewed the lightweight Active Puck Mini, its latest advancement in VR player tracking and full body motion capture. With a reduced form factor and the added tracking benefits of an inertial measurement unit (IMU), OptiTrack’s newly designed pucks build on its technology already implemented by leading location-based entertainment centers. They can deliver precise player tracking for VR and produce high quality motion capture data without the need for specialized suits and long setup times.
“We’ve significantly refined our Active tracking technology in response to the requests of our location-based entertainment customers, and it has emerged as the clear choice for high throughput VR experiences,” says Brian Nilles, chief strategy officer. “Streamlining player tracking was next on their list of needs, and we delivered the first Active Puck and player tracking software late in 2017. Our latest release, the Active Puck Mini, is 40 percent smaller than its predecessor, and comes with the added robustness of an IMU for hyper accurate and consistent player tracking. For traditional character mocap, skin tight suits have been standard in tracking for decades, but with the Active Puck Mini, that is no longer the only solution. Performers can quickly attach the small pucks to six key points on the body – wrists, feet, a baseball cap and a belt – then take advantage of OptiTrack’s realtime pipelines into Epic’s Unreal Engine and Unity.”
IMUs have also been added to OptiTrack’s standard-sized Active Pucks, and both will be shipping in the fall. OptiTrack Active Pucks provide positional tracking data with errors of less than 0.2mm, even across very large tracking areas, as well as rotational data derived from active LEDs and the IMU. Pucks will provide tracking for any object to which it is applied, including HMDs, set pieces, weapons and end effectors for full body tracking. The pucks are powered by a rechargeable battery and can run up to 10 hours on a single charge.
All OptiTrack Active technology can be tracked by both Active and Passive camera systems, so customers with existing ethernet based systems can integrate Active Pucks into their workflows immediately.