Articles
Oscar De Mello, commercial manager at Camera, University of Bath
Motion capture technology is well-known in the entertainment industry, where it is used to create characters such as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. However, it is also applied to enhance human performance in Olympic athletes and in rehabilitating amputees.
The Centre for the Analysis of Motion, Entertainment Research & Applications (Camera) laboratory at the University of Bath was set up in 2015 to find cheaper and less labour-intensive ways to carry out motion-capture techniques and push forward technological developments.
Camera has a motion-capture studio, including a facial-capture system, ultra high-definition broadcast cameras, and portable motion-capture suits that use inertial sensors to measure a point in space. This suite of equipment enables the centre to support both academic re-search and commercial projects.
On the rehabilitation theme, Camera’s Professor James Bilzon is working to apply advanced gait analysis to developing next-generation prosthetic limbs for amputees. The motion-analysis equipment is being used to produce bespoke limb attachments by combining 3D scanning techniques with a detailed understanding of a patient’s movement.
The laboratory is also working with both British Skeleton, on the development of marker-less motion capture for athletes, and engineering company BMT, on more realistic assets for virtual-reality (VR) training environments.
The work on marker-less capture uses the Sony camera array to capture the movement of an individual without the need for motion-capture suits or markers. While this technology will have wide applications in entertainment, health and engineering, we are initially inves-tigating its application in elite sport, where athletes are constrained by the need to wear markers.
The work with BMT enables Camera to apply motion-analysis techniques to the burgeoning field of augmented reality and VR. The studio is equipped with a HTC Vive VR system, al-lowing researchers to experiment with levels of realism and human engagement within virtual environments. This work is of interest to BMT in relation to its work building highly specialised training simulations for engineers. Placing a person into the actual, physical training environment – such as a naval ship – can be both logistically complicated and ex-pensive. The use of simulations is therefore essential where repeatable training is required.
The centre provides a vibrant environment for students, as well as early-career researchers, to fulfil their research interests in a field with relatively short transition timeframes be-tween fundamental research and market application.
It has been funded for an initial five-year period, but we are keen to grow our facilities and increase opportunities for more young researchers to join
the team.