Tobias Baumann is the director of game development for Perception Neuron, which is an IMU-based motion capture system. It might eventually be used as a VR input device, but Tobias acknowledges that the current price for the full system is a bit steep to be used for anything than a motion capture system at first.
The 32-sensor based full-body suit with finger-tracking runs at $1,499, and the 18-sensor full-body without fingers has an academic price of $799. The single hand version is more affordable for $100, and a two-handed option available for $200.
The Perception Neuron kickstarter more doubled their funding goal of $250k, and are getting ready to ship out their rewards within the next couple of weeks.
In the interview Tobias talks about:
- The mechanics of how their wireless IMU-tracking system works and how it’s mapped to an inverse kinematic skeletal model
- A bit of the history of Perception Neuron & how he first got involved
- Some of the preliminary prototypes and design issues in grabbing virtual objects
- Space requirements for roaming freely and cautions about Gear VR locomotion issues
- The production pipeline for using Perception Neuron for motion capture and the Unity plug-in & Perception Access data capture software
- Rigging considerations for getting Perception Neuron to work with motion retargeting
- Hopes that it might eventually be cheaper to be used a viable VR input device
Finally, Tobias talks a bit about how he first got into VR and how he got involved with the Perception Neuron project.
Theme music: “Fatality” by Tigoolio
