Three Engineers from VICON Visit Japan!

NEWS

The SHOGUN development leader and two engineers brought the improved CROWN for virtual studios and the SHOGUN beta version to SHIBA Studio for full-day testing.

The improved CROWN is designed to enhance accuracy without using gyroscopes, instead utilizing newly developed LEDs and configured via SHOGUN software. They intentionally avoided gyroscopes to focus on an optical tracking approach. However, in our studio, the results showed that the previously used active markers performed better, so we decided to revert to the old system.

The key focus of this work was to address marker loss during shooting. When a marker is hidden by the cameraman, subtle noise tends to occur. We concentrated on this issue and conducted verification tests using both the CROWN and active markers. The results showed that active markers were more stable. The collected data will be analyzed at the headquarters, and a solution is expected in the near future.

Our virtual studio solution includes markers attached to the lighting equipment, creating the same environment as camera tracking and synchronizing with the background CG. This setup reflects our vision for the virtual studio. By using VICON tracking, a significant advantage is that motion capture can be performed in the same virtual studio space. For example, virtual humans can be composited in real-time within the virtual studio, allowing real people and virtual humans to coexist. We plan to present specific examples of this effort in the near future.

The developers spent the entire day on-site performing SHOGUN beta and CROWN setup, adjustments, and reviewing camera settings. We deeply appreciate their dedication to understanding our studio environment. We cannot express enough gratitude to the VICON engineers for spending the whole day working for our studio.

You will never know how much I appreciate it.

Akira Takahata President, aex inc