CSI: MIAMI SOLVES CRIME USING VICON MOTION CAPTURE

Recent Episode Brings VICON Motion Capture Cameras and Software into the Plotline, As Investigators Connect the Dots to Crack a Murder During a Video Game Production

Lake Forest, CA (March 22, 2005) - Producing a video game can be murder these days. A recent episode of the television program CSI: Miami takes this idea literally, with a show centered around using information recorded by VICON Motion Capture cameras during a game production to help solve a murder on set.

CSI: Miami came to VICON with a plotline in which professional skateboarders, including special guest star Tony Hawk, are being motion captured to drive the animation in a new computer game. Replicating an actual game production, the story has the signature moves of Hawk and other athletes being recorded with an array of high-speed, high-resolution optical motion capture cameras. When one of the pros ends up iced at the session, the CSI: Miami team realizes the hyper-accurate motion data from the VICON cameras holds the keys to the case.

"VICON is used around the world at real game companies and motion capture service bureaus, so it was a natural choice," said Tom Armbruster, VICON. "We encircled a skateboard halfpipe built on set with 16 VICON MX 40 cameras and tracked Tony Hawk wearing motion capture markers. The resulting data was loaded in our VICON iQ software and it's this interface the CSI: Miami investigators scrub back and forth through to see the motion data as skeletal models -- and key clues to solving the crime."

Screens of VICON iQ as well as images of the VICON camera array are visible in the episode, which aired Monday, March 21, 2005, on CBS. The shoot was done at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach, CA.

Motion capture is a popular tool in real-world practice to enable the movements of actors, stunt people, animals and other objects to be recorded in precise detail for use in games, television series and films. The process works by recording the position of light-reflective markers on capture subjects with millimeter accuracy to produce motion data true to the capture subject's physical actions and forms.

For game titles, VICON has been used by clients like Microsoft Games Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment of America and others to motion capture everything from world-class tennis players and soccer teams to Olympic gymnasts. Creative tools and services provided by VICON and its sister companies 2d3 and House of Moves also contribute to a large proportion of movie productions involving visual effects. Dozens of motion pictures have used VICON cameras - from Titanic to the ground-breaking performance capture feature The Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks. This year VICON received a Scientific and Technical Academy Award® from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

VICON's motion capture solutions consist of high-resolution, high-frame-rate cameras built by VICON specifically for motion tracking. VICON's next-generation VICON MX real-time optical motion capture systems usher in ultra-high-resolution, virtually artifact-free capture with VICON MX40, the world's first four-million-pixel motion capture camera. VICON MX revolutionizes the quality, flexibility and ease with which motion capture data can be applied to real-time and off-line applications in film, television, video games, virtual prototyping, biomechanical analysis and more.

About Vicon

Vicon Motion Systems is a subsidiary of OMG plc (LSE: OMG) with global headquarters in Oxford, UK, and US headquarters in Lake Forest, CA. OMG subsidiary 2d3 Ltd. produces innovative visual geometry software deriving 3D data from moving images. Since 1984, Vicon has been providing professionals with the latest tools to accurately capture the subtleties of three-dimensional human motion for research, medicine, sport, engineering, game development, broadcast and film. For more information about Vicon, or to view a comprehensive list of worldwide distributors, visit www.vicon.com or contact +44 (0) 1865-261800 in the UK or (949) 472-9140 in the US.

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Vicon, Vicon MX and Vicon iQ are trademarks of OMG plc. Academy Award is a trade or servicemark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.