Wireless Motion Capture Technology at Affordable Pricing
Motion capture technology is finally beginning to move into the hands of consumers than where it once stood before — primarily with Hollywood entertainment or video game companies. As this technology gets more affordable, it is also getting more useful. Especially in the VR and AR world.
The HoloSuit is a product of India-based company Kaaya Tech, and is a wireless full-body VR, AR, and MR haptic data tracking suit. With the most recent film adaptation, Ready Player One, VR seemingly sets expectations that Kaaya Tech hopes to live up to.
The HoloSuit allows wearers to track, store, and virtualize analytics, while being able to receive haptic feedback in order to feel actions and provide a whole new level of VR immersion. The expectation is that it can be used for physical training simulations for industrial jobs that can be dangerous, as well as for a variety of sports, healthcare, and education training scenarios.
Similar products, such as the Perception Neuron’s Project: Alice Space, HTC Vive’s Trackstrap, Rokoko’s SmartSuit Pro, or Shadow Motion’s MoCap suit provide some VR motion capture technology, but require expensive stationary setups.
Harsha Kikkeri, a former Microsoft engineer who helped to develop Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect motion tracking sensor, wanted to create something different. What he created is the wireless HoloSuit, the patented full-body tracker consisting of three different pieces of clothing that can be worn separately or combined: a jacket, gloves, and pants.
The Technology Behind the Suit
There are currently two different versions of this suit, one that has 26 sensors, and a higher priced version consisting of 36 sensors. Both suits have 9 haptic feedback sensors, as well as interactive buttons on each finger of the gloves to enable input beyond gestures, which is something not yet seen in motion capture suits.
As Shwetha Harsha, President of Kaaya Tech, explained to ARPost,
It is also Wi-Fi enabled, which allows remote collaboration at a global level, and offers cloud syncing so that users can back up their saved data in the cloud. This allows users to share this information and view recorded 360º videos with full body analytics.
The Future of Factory, Sports, and Fitness Training
The HoloSuit wants to replace costly and time consuming inefficiencies in capturing full body animation, and bring a whole new experience to VR.
HoloSuit Golf is a game that enables users wearing the HoloSuit, as well as a VR headset, to have their speed and direction of their golf club swings tracked, with the force transferred to the ball, and reaching the hole in VR/AR as it would in the real world.
You can share this full 360º video recording with anyone, say a coach for example, who can then play, pause, rewind, zoom in and out, or even change camera angles, to get analytics of your entire body and drives. Or, these poses can even be observed and corrected in real-time via virtual spaces by interacting with these VR avatars. These types of scenarios can easily translate into a variety of sports and fitness areas.
Where and When to Expect to Purchase the HoloSuit
The HoloSuit isn’t yet available at the retail level, but the company was accepting orders through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter that just ended July 30th, 2018, to raise funds and begin mass production of the HoloSuit. By the end of the campaign, they had already surpassed their funding goal of $50,000. They expect to ship the product to consumers this November through initial strategic partners.
Kaaya Tech was offering the HoloSuit piece by piece, with the Jacket and Jersey for $499, jersey or track pants for $399, and a pair of gloves for $799. The company was also offering an early bird special for $1,499, which included the full kit.
The system supports all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android device, along with peripherals such as the Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go, Microsoft HoloLens, and Gear VR. This also includes the software that powers VR/AR, such as Unreal Engine 4+ and Unity3D.
