VICON AND MOVA ANNOUNCE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE

Markerless Mo-Cap Solution ‘Mova™ Contour™ Reality Capture’
Integrates Seamlessly With VICON MX Systems On Set

Boston, MA, SIGGRAPH Conference, Booth 2215 July 31, 2006 – VICON, developer of Academy Award®-winning motion capture systems and a division of OMG plc, Oxford Metrics Group, announced today a technology alliance with San Francisco-based Mova, which is debuting the new Mova Contour Reality Capture system in booth #1027 at SIGGRAPH 2006. Contour is a system that allows markerless motion capture to be recorded with sub-millimeter precision using a combination of specialized phosphorescent make-up, digital cameras, customized fluorescent strobe lighting and proprietary software.

Through a collaboration between Mova and VICON, Contour was designed to work seamlessly with the VICON MX-series cameras, enabling the two systems to capture simultaneously in a single session. VICON has been Mova’s motion capture equipment of choice from the get-go, and the facility’s 4,000 square-foot stage now boasts 24 VICON MX40 cameras at the core of its motion capture production pipeline.

“Contour was designed from the ground-up to work seamlessly with the Vicon MX40 system, allowing both systems be used simultaneously in a capture session while maintaining the highest levels of quality and precision,” said Steve Perlman, Founder and President of Mova. “We are really excited about entering this market with the support of VICON and look forward to collaborating with them more closely as we extend development of our Contour Reality Capture system.”

“Mova and Steve Perlman, who also runs Mova’s parent company Rearden LLC, have a long history of innovation in entertainment technology, and the development of Contour is no exception,” said Brian Nilles, CEO, VICON US. “The innovation by the team at Mova is quickly coalescing into the most profound improvement in CG facial animation since our own MX40 camera. For CG animation that requires both the performer and CG character to be the same, the Mova Contour system should provide a clear and significant step toward the holy grail of a photorealistic final product. We are proud to be both collaborator, and integrator for Mova’s work with the VICON system.”

Mova Contour employs two separate-yet-synchronized camera systems to simultaneously record visual and geometric information of the subject. These two sets of data are combined to result in a high-resolution 3-D digital image. With this innovative, markerless, optics-based process, every subtle detail of a human performance—from an arching eyebrow to widening eyes to a sly smile—is recorded in real time, offering directors and producers a level of creative control that has never existed before. In essence, Contour ties together the traditional world of cinematography with digital computer animation, expanding the possibilities for both motion picture and video game makers.

About MOVA
San Francisco-based Mova was founded in 2004 by Rearden Companies to provide 3-D motion capture services using their VICON MX40 marker-based system, and has worked on such projects as the Electronic Arts titles The Godfather and From Russia With Love and Universal Vivendi’s Eragon. Mova’s sister company, Ice Blink Studios, which Perlman co-founded with Doug Chiang (production designer, The Polar Express), also is closely tied to mocap production, having provided visual effects and art direction for Sony Pictures’ motion capture animated feature, Monster House and complete art and production design for Warner Bros’ upcoming mocap feature Beowulf. For more information about Mova, visit www.mova.com.

About Rearden Companies
San Francisco-based Rearden Companies is an incubator of fundamental technologies and artistic endeavors, founded in 2000. The chief architect behind the Contour system, and Rearden Founder and CEO, Steve Perlman is the holder of over 65 patents pertaining to multimedia and communications technologies and gained initial notice as a key researcher at Apple Computer. There he led the company’s multimedia initiatives in the late 1980s, including the development of QuickTime technology. He is perhaps best known for the 1995 founding of WebTV Networks, acquired by Microsoft in 1997.

About VICON
Academy Award®-winning VICON is the world’s largest supplier of precision motion tracking systems, serving customers and CG animation applications in film, visual effects, computer games, and broadcast television, as well as engineering and life science industries. VICON operates in four offices worldwide, including its Los Angeles-based Entertainment headquarters, a 26,000 square-foot facility equipped with three performance capture stages for VICON’s service company House of Moves as well as 125 VICON MX40 cameras.

VICON is the largest holding of OMG (Oxford Metrics Group - LSE: OMG), plc., a group of technology companies that produces image understanding solutions for the entertainment, defense, life science and engineering markets. Other holdings include Emmy Award®-winning 2d3 and newly founded Geospatial Vision Ltd.

VICON’s and OMG’s global clients include: life science leaders University of Pennsylvania, the VA Hospitals, Shriners Hospitals for Children, Titleist Golf, National Pitching Association; engineering industry leaders Ford, BMW, Airbus, Lockheed, Pratt-Whitney, NASA, Caterpillar, International Truck, and Toyota; and entertainment companies Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Computer Entertainment, Industrial Light and Magic, Sega, Nintendo, UbiSoft, Vivendi, Electronic Arts, Square Enix and many others. For more information about OMG and its subsidiaries, visit www.omg3d.com, www.vicon.com, or www.2d3.com.

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Mova Contour patents pending.

Mova, the Mova logo, and Contour are trademarks of Rearden, LLC. VICON and VICON MX are trademarks of OMG plc. Academy Award and Oscar are trade or servicemarks of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.