Motion capture technology 27 Mar 2007

From Business Week:

"Motion capture is starting to transform how businesses market their products as well as design and manufacture them. This spring the Las Vegas McCarren International Airport will set up large plasma screens with a motion- tracking component that lets advertisers bring pedestrians into their commercials. When you walk past a car ad, for example, the vehicle might move at the same speed you're walking. When you turn to look at the driver, he'll turn to look at you, and you'll be staring into an image of your own face. Dozens of blue-chip aerospace, auto, and heavy-equipment makers, from Lockheed Martin to BMW to Caterpillar already use motion tracking to let workers collaborate in shared virtual environments, sometimes when they are thousands of miles apart. Together they can test the ergonomics of a design for a car or a plane. 'Any company that creates a product used by people needs to understand how the human body moves,' says Iek van Cruyningen, head of securities at Libertas Capital Group, a specialist investment bank. 'Motion-tracking systems and virtual simulations accelerate product development and boost productivity.'"

[via Emergic]