Vicon first to add AR visualization to motion tracking app for athletes

New AR features enhance ability of coaches and athletes to understand and improve performance in real-time and in-the-field

Vicon, a world leader in motion capture, announces today that its motion analysis app, Capture.U – free with its Blue Trident sensors – is now the first (compared to other motion capture manufacturers, globally, January 2020) tracking platform to offer a real-time Augmented Reality (AR) visualization mode, enabling sports scientists, coaches and physiotherapists to better understand athlete performance in the field.

The Capture.U 1.1 update takes advantage of Apple’s Augmented Reality Kit 3 (ARKit 3), the ground-breaking AR platform for iOS 13. Now, with the combination of Vicon’s Blue Trident inertial sensors and the Capture.U app, users are able to see 2D and/or 3D skeletal overlays on live video of movement captured in the field or during training sessions. Based on the kinematic data, the AR visualizations within the new mode offer a choice of methods to analyse and improve athlete technique, measure performance during rehabilitation and carry out research.

This world-first capability puts the power of AR visualization combined with inertial tracking in an easy-to-use app. Empowering a wide audience, from sports scientists, to biomechanists, coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, and physiotherapists from elite teams to grass roots sports – without needing any additional tracking equipment beyond the inertial sensors and a compatible iOS device.

Dr Kim Duffy, product manager, life sciences of Vicon, commented: “The Capture.U update employing ARKit 3 allows for a more informed choice of ways to capture and measure movement in real-time and in the field; where athletes perform their best. The new AR capabilities are another powerful part of our toolkit that includes several different ways to capture and review data, examine joint data, and export data for further analysis in a lab. This empowers customers of all kinds to benefit from insights such as joint angles without needing to be experts, making the process as easy and quick as possible.”

Complementing the new AR feature, the Capture.U app still includes a full suite of data capture modes that can provide real-time data views from Blue Trident sensors. These allow researchers and users like coaches and sports teams to make informed decisions right where they need it – on the pitch, trackside, poolside, courtside or in the lab.

The Capture.U iOS app and Blue Trident sensors are available now.

Blue Trident integrates with Nexus 2.10 so inertial data can be precisely aligned and synchronised with the optical motion capture world.

Blue Trident is being used by high-performance customers including Red Bull.

Alongside this Vicon’s subsidiary, IMeasureU, has also released a new metric that helps drive more insightful ways of analyzing athlete performance – Total Impact Load.  You can learn more about it here:

• Guide to Impact Load
• 5 ways to use Impact Load in your setting
• Impact Load intro video

About Vicon

Established in 1984, Vicon is an award-winning, leading provider of tailored motion capture systems for the life sciences, media and entertainment, location-based virtual reality and engineering industries.

Through Vicon’s premium motion capture technology, the company is able to analyse and enhance the potential for human motion for the benefit of all.

Vicon is a subsidiary of Oxford Metrics (LSE:OMG), the international software company servicing government, life sciences, entertainment and engineering markets and Yotta, a provider of software and services for infrastructure asset management.

In 2017, Vicon acquired New Zealand based wearables company, IMeasureU to accelerate its Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) product offering to enable researchers, coaches and elite athletes to benefit from data-driven performance insights.

Vicon is currently working with a large range of global clients, including The University of Southampton, Stanford Hall, Loughborough University, UC Berkeley, TU Dortmund, Framestore, The Imaginarium, Sony, Dreamworks, EA and many more.