Motion Capture and Analysis

Rick has been in motion capture and analysis for 9 years. We asked Rick about the usage of this technology and how it's changed since he has been in the field. He told us about some of the coolest applications!

"Nine years ago, digital was a new technology. Our customers fell into three major categories: the military, universities, and research groups from industry (groups of people that conduct scientific studies to develop new products or techniques)."

The military used motion capture and analysis to study ballistics (the flight of objects that are not self-propelled, for example bullets but not airplanes). These objects have a shelf-life (a length of time that an object can be kept without deteriorating). Researchers wanted to understand if projectiles built today would still fly the same way several years from now. They would use high speed cameras to study the performance of these objects over a period of time and look for differences.

Researchers and students at universities used motion capture and analysis to study both biomechanics (the science of how a living organism moves) and fluid (liquid or gas) flow.

One of the most interesting projects Rick told us about was funded by the Navy and conducted at a university. The Navy and other branches of the Department of Defense are interested in unmanned vehicles. The researchers used cameras under the water to study how sea creatures maneuver on the ocean floor. How does a crab move over the edge of a cliff? By understanding how these creatures move over this difficult terrain, better underwater droids (robots) can be constructed.

High speed cameras can be used whenever motion is so fast that the motion can not be comprehended by our eyes and brain. One example from industry was an electronic toothbrush study. The cameras were used to determine if and how the bristles of the toothbrush reached the nooks and cracks on and between the teeth and gums.