Sony has launched an attention-grabbing product known as Mocopi, consisting of six motion-tracking bands worn in your fingers, toes, again and head, with a value of 49,500 yen (about $358). The goal is to allow you to observe your physique to create movies or function avatars in actual time with metaverse apps like VRChat. It even presents an SDK that permits you to import movement information into 3D animation apps. 

Apparently a play on the time period “mocap,” (movement seize) Mocopi’s six color-coded, light-weight movement sensors use “proprietary technology and a smartphone” with a devoted app, based on Sony. “Normally, video production using motion capture requires dedicated equipment and operators,” Sony wrote. “By utilizing our proprietary algorithm, ‘Mocopi’ realizes highly accurate motion measurement with a small number of sensors, freeing VTubers [virtual YouTubers] and creators involved in movie and animation production from time and place constraints.”

On December fifteenth, Sony will present a software program improvement equipment (SDK) that hyperlinks the movement seize information with metaverse companies, together with the real-time improvement platform Unity and Autodesk’s animation/mocap app MotionBuilder. “This SDK expands the use of motion data for activities such as full-body tracking, thereby facilitating the development of new services in areas such as the metaverse and fitness.”

In a how-to video (under), Sony exhibits how one can pair the sensors with the app, strap them to your physique and calibrate them. From there, you can begin dancing or do different actions and see the in-app avatars ape your actions. A second video showcasing some avatar animations (above) appears good, however does reveal typical movement seize points like jitter and foot sliding. 

It’s an bold product geared toward not solely individuals within the metaverse, however animation professionals and filmmakers as effectively. Sony notes that you need to use current VRM avatars and export recorded movies within the MP4 format, supplied you have got a tool with iOS 15.7.1 or Android 11. Reservations are set to begin in mid-December 2022 and it’ll go on sale in late January 2023, however there isn’t any phrase but on North American availability.