18th March 2014
London based Masters of Pie explored new potential ways for learning. As an example, Youtube has provided a revolution in open learning and the sharing of knowledge that spans the entire world. They wanted to take video learning another step, using cutting edge 3D mocap techniques and combine this with the accelerating international mobile market.
Mobile was the platform choice as they wanted to create a learning tool that could be taken outside of the training hall/ sports center and into the user’s home. They integrated a free camera for people to look around the 3D tutor and a scrubbing bar so they could pause or rewind the motion capture at any point. If the user needs to step away to practice the techniques they can revert the camera back to it’s original position and listen to the audio as the technique plays through. This allows both passive and active interactions.
Protrain Taekwondo Mobile app video:
Motion Capture
The critical aspect of this app is in the fidelity of the teaching it can provide. This led Masters of Pie to use Xsens MVN as a motion capture solution as it is different from usual camera based motion capture techniques. The Xsens motion capture suit uses a set of gyroscopes that are connected to each joint. As there is no need for a camera, the shoot can be done anywhere and in this case it was done in the training hall. As it is a series of gyroscopes they can capture not only positional but rotational data of the actor, who happened to be an 8th Dan Taekwondo Grandmaster. This gives them a rich set of data to transfer into our 3D software and then into Unity, giving us very high fidelity mocap of the Taekwondo techniques.
Prototypes
Before we began production we produced a series of paper prototypes to explore the flow through the app and how we could integrate these annotations effectively. We concepted a series of locations as we wanted to build the perfect training hall for users to aspire to and that would also influence the final 3D model that would go into the app.
A consistent design language is always important and with this particular project we wanted to explore how annotation data could help add further value to the 3D environment. All these 3D elements should combine to provide a seamless enriched learning experience for our users. Therefore we designed annotation trails that follow finger tips, hotspots that highlight parts of the body and alignment lines that enable users to compare feet to shoulder height for example. All these annotations work seamlessly in the 3D environment and help the user navigate and understand the techniques in 3D space.
Quick turnaround
The app was built within 2 months and the client is looking to extend the app with more techniques. This type of technology could also work across many other sports and disciplines and the client (Fluxx Adventures) is actively looking to see where this would be valuable in other areas.
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