AR without the Markers
The Ford C-MAX augmented reality campaign ran for two weeks across ten shopping malls with over 125,000 curious shoppers interacting with Ford’s Grand C-MAX vehicle. A selection of on-screen icons allowed participants to explore various features of the car including 'Door Slide', 'Seating', 'Power Tail' and 'Spin' with a 'Minority Report' style gesture-controlled interface.

The brief demanded us to track users in the most natural way possible and allow them to ‘play’ with an interactive product advert. No markers or other symbols could be relied on. It also had to ignore people walking past while allowing precise control and selection from the interface.

Proof of Concept
Inition were approached by digital production company Grand Visual who asked if this was possible and thanks to our recent distribution agreement for the Panasonic D-Imager (a Microsoft Kinect-like depth or Z camera) we provided a simple proof-of-concept demo within one day which secured the project.

Over the next few weeks, our in house team of C++ developers developed an application based on OpenFrameWorks and OpenCV SDKs to code the real-time sensing and video display engine. A sophisticated blob tracking and depth thresholding algorithm sensed the participant's hands allowing the car to follow the user's movements. A flocking algorithm gave a fluid, graceful movement around the screen with the optimum amount of 'bounce'. Full HD resolution, portrait graphics, webcam capture, depth and video camera aspect matching and alignment, gestural user interface, interaction logging for usage analysis and hardware fault tolerance were added before going live.

Fine Tuning and Feedback at Every Stage
An important part of the project was the ability to "fine tune" and "play" with all the control parameters via an on-screen interface. On-screen debugging and depth camera modes allowed us to optimise every aspect of the interaction experience. Our development team provided regular “work in progress” videos and executable versions for the client allowing feedback to be incorporated at every stage.

Inition were present for repeated on-site testing with JCDecaux prior to deployment to ensure the software could cope with the rigours of the real-world environment. Issues included reflection scatter from glass shop windows which were tackled with temporal and contrast filtering of the depth image.

Check out the video above to see the installation in action!

Future of 3D #3: Design, Print and Fly!

Co-founder and director of Intion Stuart Cupit, also keen photographer and kite-flyer, decided to set himself a challenge to build a rig capable of taking panoramic aeriel photos from his parafoil kite...

The Spec
The rig needed moving parts, had to be light-weight but strong enough to hold servos and a digital camera and withstand the odd crash landing. Stuart designed the rig using 3D Studio Max and included 5 independent moveable stages, a complete gear system, fittings for 4 servos, a microcontroller, batteries and, most importantly, a digital camera.

The 3D Print
The final design was printed out in one go (yes, no assembly!) using our Invision-XT 3D printer. The various joints and gears were designed in place with the 0.1mm clearance between any two parts required to  allow them to move independently. The VisiJet SR200 build material used is strong enough to be for functional finished products.

Servo Control and Support
The gears, axels and sleeves freely revolve and the fleixble nature of the material, when printed in thin sections, allowed the servos to be held in place by sprung hinged latches. The servos follow a pre-recorded set of moves using a Milinst Wizard board.

A Picavet suspension allowed the camera rig to self-level and prevents twisting. A geared mechanism reduced the speed of one of the servos by 20 to 1 to allow the rig to be rotated. The gears were printed in place and once support material is removed just work with no assembly!

The Flight
The whole rig was attached to a Sutton Flowform 16 kite using a pair wire hangups on 200m of cord. The kite needed a 25mph wind to get the 1kg rig into the air. Flown from Hamstead Heath, the rig took 50 blurry photos the first time! The second flight got some great shots looking south across London, and some bemused looks from on-lookers!

The kit we used: 3D Systems Invision XT (in-house), 3D Studio Max, Sony digital camera, Milinst Wizard Servo controller board, Sutton Flowform 16 kite

Check out our 3D Printing Service and our Future of 3D blog at fo3d.posterous.com for our latest experiments in 3D.

About our 'Future of 3D' series

The 'Future of 3D' series is about exploring the boundaries of future 3D technology through non-commercial creative projects. Supporting this type of work is core to Inition's core values of developing new uses of 3D technology, supporting creativity and nurturing the passion of it's staff and collaborators. If you have an idea for a 'Future of 3D' project, we'd love to hear from you.

Future of 3D: #2 - Sketch, Scult, Print

As part of Inition’s “Future of 3D” series, our 3D printing team worked with BA design student Kristin Katzer from the London College of Communication to realise a packaging design for fruits.

Concept
The concept for Kristin's organic design was based on structures of nature, in particular her research into “tafoni structures” produced during the calcification of porous sandstone.

Freeform Design
Designing these organic structures using a typical 3D CAD package would have proved very difficult, however with Inition's guidance Kristin realised the design through the intuitive interface of the Sensable Phantom Omni in conjunction with the Claytools software. Claytools is a design package specially tailored towards haptic modelling, allowing the user to directly sculpt, manipulate and feel the surface of a model through a pen-line interface attached to a motorised force-feedback arm.

3D Print
After adding colour to the CAD model, the complex design was prepared for print Paul Armand, one of Inition's 3D printing specialists. Our full colour 3D ZPrinter 450 printed out the model over-night including two end caps with extruded lettering. The final design forms part of Kristin’s degree and was shown at the BA Design Show at the London College of Communication in June 2011.

Future of 3D
Inition’s “Future of 3D” series encourages work on non-commercial projects which help to push the boundaries of current 3D creative and technology. This was the first time we had seen a project go from sketched concept, through haptic modelling to a physical 3D printed model. Organic designs are not usually immediately associated with computers but with Claytools strength in creating organic shapes and our 3D printer's ability to print them, we see a great future for this combination of technologies in product design.

The kit we used:  ZPrinter 450, Phantom Omni with Claytools software

Thanks to Kristin for creating a great piece; the first thing we've 3D printed that has been created on a haptic device. Check out our Future of 3D blog at fo3d.posterous.com for our latest experiments.

Inition helped Irish production company vStream create the world’s first personalised stereoscopic 3D experience – the AVIVA Stadium 3D Experience.

The concept of the project was to make the viewer feel that he or she was a team player in the Irish football or rugby team, creating a sense of anticipation and the rush of preparing to play to a crowd of over 50,000 people.

To create the illusion of ‘being there’, Inition chose to use 2 X Iconix minicams on a bolt rig attached to a steadicam. The signals from these were fed through to a StereoBrain processor so the footage could be monitored on a 2D 7” HD-SDI monitor and media was recorded to two Nano Drives.

The entire sequence was to be filmed from a ‘point of view’ perspective so Inition matched the separation of the two Iconix cameras with the natural distance between the human eyes. A Steadicam operator created a smooth flowing sequence, replicating the real motion of someone walking.

To further cement the sense of immersion, visitors had their photograph’s taken via a webcam as they entered the 3D Experience temporary building. Their face was then incorporated into the video and teammates and crowds would even refer to the viewer by name.

Inition also provided the 14 x 24” Hyundai P240W 3D LCD screens with 3D passive glasses which were installed into individual viewing booths.

The Aviva Stadium 3D experience later went on tour. With it being the first of its kind in the world, it attracted massive television media attention.

MATTU (Minimum Access Therapy Training Unit), the internationally recognised centre of excellence for teaching innovative laparoscopic surgical techniques, invited Inition and other vendors to show how 3D display and motion capture technology could be incorporated into surgical procedures to determine whether 3D training simulation could improve accuracy, safety and performance as well as the quality of surgery training.

Inition provided consultancy and equipment for the scope of the project including projection equipment, motion capture devices and technical expertise for two implementations – live stereoscopic broadcast of an operation via a stereoscopic endoscopic camera and a motion tracking demo to show how the tracking of a sergeon's hands can be recorded for future analysis.

Live real surgery was performed and filmed in the Royal Surrey County Hospital Theatres and the feed was transmitted to a remote viewing room where other surgeons witnessed the operation in 3D wearing 3D glasses. Two 3D cameras captured the keyhole operation in 3D. Inition’s stereoscopic endoscopic camera provided the stereoscopic perspective from inside the patient’s body and a Panasonic AG-3DA1 camera was deployed externally. Both were integrated with an LG CF3D projector in the viewing room. Inition supplied two 3D monitors for the surgeon too. Wearing passive 3D glasses, he was able to view the output from the endoscopic camera and Panasonic camera just as the other students did whilst talking through his procedure via a wireless microphone.

Motion Capture For Future Analysis of Surgery Technique

In order to analyse the differences between stereoscopic laparoscopic surgery and regular surgery, lnition also recommended Ascension’s trakSTAR system which we are a reseller for. The technology was used to measure novice surgeons’ performance on stereo (3D) imaging systems in a simulated environment, providing insight into their exact hand movements.

“We concluded that Ascension Technology would be perfect for MATTU’s application because it is extremely easy to use and offers great quality capture time and again,” said Jeff Ferguson, motion capture and tracking expert at Inition.

Conclusion

The results from the day indicated that, by a considerable margin,  the addition of stereo cues improved surgery training and the results are being published as a paper which will be promoted as a new training system.

When the producers of North One Television approached 3D creative services company Inition to provide the technical expertise for an ambitious 'virtual presenter' challenge, LILA was an obvious solution.

LILA is a portable motion capture solution which was used to capture the motion of The Gadget Show presenter Suzi Perry in London and transmit that captured data to drive an avatar of Suzi who was composited in The Gadget Show studios, all in real time.

Marker-less Motion Capture

Based on real-time 3D animation software Autodesk MotionBuilder, LILA is Inition’s marker-less motion capture solution which can provide show stopping interactive installations for brands, exhibitions, tours and marketing agencies.

Without any calibration required, Suzi stepped into the holo-deck style cube at Inition’s London studios where her silhouette was tracked by 14 x 2D cameras. No markers or special clothing were required. The vision processor software calculated a 3D mesh of her body from these views of which a digital skeleton was applied using the Organic Motion plugin.

The frame-by-frame motion co-ordinates from the data was then transmitted to the MotionBuilder system at North One Television studios in Birmingham via a special driver which then applied Suzi Perry’s features such as clothes, hair, skin tones etc in real time. The avatar of Suzi which was composited into the studios of The Gadget Show next to the real co-presenter Otis and an android version of Jason Bradbury who she was competing with.

Suzi’s avatar character included full face expressions and mouth shapes driven by Suzi's voice fed through LILA's voice recognition software.

The composited footage was sent back to Inition’s London studios via Skype which Suzi could monitor on a screen seeing exactly what the public would see.

A World First

This project posed several challenges, not least because of the processing power required to deliver the avatar in real time. This was the first time a motion capture system had been used to drive another avatar over the Internet.

The LILA motion capture is a complete attention grabbing solution which is available for events, promotions and exhibitions. As well as hire of the LILA system itself, Inition also provide a complete production service with the hardware, software, and creative design of the characters, environments and interactions.