The fantastic performances of Andy Serkis as Gollum brought the concept of motion capture to a wider public audience but the filming technique usually involves dark skin-tight leotards covered in reflective balls with multiple cameras and sensors gathering data in three dimensions. Unless it’s a multi-million dollar production or a top-end athlete wanting to hone their skills, it’s a lot of effort.

StretchSense have a much easier method in mind. By using lightweight stretch sensors with gloves or other form-fitting clothing, StretchSense can get real-time tracking and motion capture without expensive equipment. Jamie Davis chats to Ben O’Brien, CEO of StretchSense.

StretchSense make the soft precise sensors that can be embedded into gloves and clothing to measure the human body’s movement. With the sensors, the movement and motion of the wearer can be tracked for animation and gaming, with other applications in sports training, physiotherapy and physical rehabilitation. Within VR, it can provide presence, positioning hands and legs within the field of view as in reality. It’s all pretty cool stuff – expect products to come to market in the new few years.

Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist.

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