Organic Motion debuts public motion capture experience

LOS ANGELES — Organic Motion, makers of the only commercially available markerless motion capture systems, has announced that the first general public motion capture experience will be unveiled at the 2008 SIGGRAPH conference and exposition. During the demonstration, attendees to the show can interact with markerless motion capture and have their full-body motions captured and instantly animated. The exposition will serve as another example of how this breakthrough technology can be incorporated into a new line of public experiences for retail. Organic Motion will showcase its breakthrough technology during the exposition which opens Aug. 12, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The public experience will be based on Organic Motion's OpenSTAGE platform, which accurately digitizes the movements of an individual. Unlike traditional motion capture systems which require the subject to put on special tracking bodysuits, people can simply wear their regular clothing. Many people can pass through the system individually and have their exact body motions instantly animated through standard software or analyzed via biomechanical packages.

"No other system can give people such a vibrant and immersive experience in public settings, and we're proud to provide the first chance for anyone to experience the only full-body markerless technology," said Andrew Tschesnok, chief executive of Organic Motion. "By eliminating the bodysuit, we have taken motion capture out of the special effects studios, where it was limited to animation and content creation, and are bringing its benefits to everyone."

Organic Motion's markerless technology has recently been used for a number of live animation demonstrations. During Intel CEO Paul Otellini's keynote address at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, the motions of Smashmouth front-man Steve Harwell were captured by an Organic Motion system to create an animated avatar and live virtual jam session. Disney also featured Organic Motion's technology during the inaugural World Science Festival in New York, allowing select audience members the chance to be animated in real-time as a pirate, astronaut, alien and teddy bear.