Vicon’s Cara head rig goes public

Motion capture hardware and tech outfit Vicon has today made public its new Cara head-mounted camera rig system

Conceived to allow studios of every size across a spectrum of entertainment, Cara takes the form of a light weight four-camera facial capture system that outputs 3D data, as opposed to the 2D many custom head-rig mocap systems deliver.

Five years in the making, and developed i conjunction with cinema animation specialist Framestore, Cara – meaning ‘face’ or ‘expression’ in Spanish – is available as a standalone product and can be fully integrated into a full Vicon motion capture workflow. Supported by the CaraPost processing middleware, it is currently on display at Siggraph, and set to star in the August issue of Develop magazine.

"The need for a modular, high-performance and accessible facial motion capture and tracking system has long been recognised within the industry," said Vicon CEO Imogen Moorhouse. "This makes the launch of Cara very exciting and instrumental to the future of facial motion capture.

"Vicon’s long heritage and industry expertise allows us to develop practical innovations to enable our customers to push the boundaries of what is possible. Whether the user is a start-up studio or a long-standing Hollywood giant, high quality facial motion tracking is now accessible to all."

"Head mounted cameras are the way forward when it comes to large scale capture stages," added Ben Guthrie, motion capture supervisor at Framestore. "Through beta testing of Cara we’ve seen at Framestore that Vicon is an innovator in the industry. Cara offers four synchronised high-speed cameras with full wireless connectivity, and a robust dot tracking solution that integrates well into existing Vicon motion capture products as well as being a solid standalone system."