Motion Capture

The Motion Capture Studio at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) is the site of research in the use of motion capture (a.k.a. "mocap") and motion tracking technology for dance and for gestural control of music.

The Motion Capture Studio has a Vicon 8-camera system for three-dimensional capture of motion data, as well as a variety of two-dimensional video tracking software such as SoftVNS, Jitter, Cyclops, and Big Eye. Work has focused primarily on a) interpretation of data to derive higher-level information about the nature of the motion and b) application of the data to control music.

Accurate tracking and capture of motion in a limited 3D space is largely a solved problem with the Vicon 8 system. At UCI, data from the Vicon 8--which is normally intended for use as input for 3D animation software or for biomechanics studies--is interpreted for the control of music. One part of this effort is the Motion Capture Music (MCM) software development project intended to facilitate the translation and mapping of mocap data into musical control data. The progress of this research is documented in some articles written by UCI researchers, and some of the basic mapping issues are demonstrated in brief video examples.