
Universal Mocap Streaming
Introduction
Motion capture data streamed over the internet. Open-source, easy to use and available to all. Revolutionising the use of mocap for games, TV & film and theatre. Imagine being in VR and seeing a dance company from New Zealand live in your living room. Imagine a Broadway theatre director being able to give stage notes to an actor rehearsing in London.
Background
MotionRiver is an open-source tool to stream motion capture data over the internet. MotionRiver interfaces with the Optitrack motion capture system right now with Vicon support currently in the pipeline). It creates provision for developers to add support for other systems. Our system takes mocap data and converts it into a universal format via a ‘Source’ app that sends it to a ‘Server’ app for streaming to the Unreal Game engine via a custom Live Link plugin.
The UKRI funded project seeks to research and develop this software, test it and place it freely in the public domain with documentation so it becomes usable, disseminating the findings across a range of contexts and outlets reaching – creatives, researchers, collaborators and audiences. For MotionRiver the team formed a partnership with developers Cooperative Innovations and the Centre for Creative and Immersive eXtended Reality (CIXR) at the University of Portsmouth.
The MotionRiver tool is currently being used by Thayaht to develop DAZZLE – artist Collectives Gibson/Martelli & Peut-Porter join forces to re-stage a Mixed-Reality version of the 1919 Chelsea Arts Club Dazzle Ball. After five years of war, and inspired by the naval dazzle-ship patterns, the original Ball applied zig-zag motifs to costumes and set design, playing with audiences vision and perception.
How it WORKS

SETUP
