Manus Polygon – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

November 30, 2021

Manus Launches its Free Motion Capture Software Polygon

Manus specialises in building enterprise-level data gloves with precision finger tracking and haptic feedback for a range of use cases including virtual reality (VR). The company is moving beyond pure hardware solutions today by releasing Manus Polygon, motion capture software that’s SteamVR compatible and free to download.

Designed as an entry point for developers looking for a simple motion capture solution without the expense, Polygon Free enables live streaming of body data into Unity or Unreal Engine. When it comes to tracker support, Polygon can be used with any SteamVR compatible device, from the Vive controllers for a basic setup to Manus’ own SteamVR Pro Trackers or the Vive Trackers. And, of course, the software is compatible with the company’s own Prime X series gloves.

For a basic motion tracking setup beyond merely using controllers, developers need enough trackers to cover six points, hands, feet, waist and head. With a VR headset on that means five extra trackers are required. Polygon can support more though, adding further trackers to the upper arms to finesse that digital avatar movement.

“At Manus, we believe in a future where content creation in the virtual world becomes as integrated as video is currently. Convincing full-body motion capture will play a large part in the adoption and creation of the metaverse,” says Bart Loosman, CEO at Manus in a statement. With this release, we invite developers and content creators to dive into full-body motion capture and explore the opportunities this offers for VR, animation, digital avatars, virtual production, and the coming metaverse.”

Manus Polygon Free provides all the software functionality developers might need to get started, with Polygon Pro and Polygon Elite offering further professional features. Polygon Pro features recording and editing tools within the Manus Core, as well as FBX exporting, timesync and genlock. Pro users will also get the Manus Strap Set to attach SteamVR compatible trackers. Taking that a step further is Polygon Elite which includes the Pro bundle, a perpetual license, and Manus SteamVR Pro Trackers and a charging station.

The Manus SteamVR Pro Trackers were announced earlier this year with pre-orders being taken for them individually. On the Manus website currently, they only seem to come in a 6-pack retailing for €1,999 EUR, available Q4 2021. By comparison, six Vive Trackers would set you back €834.

For continued updates from Manus, keep reading VRFocus.

June 4, 2020

Manus Polygon Available Now, Offering Full VR Body And Hand Tracking

As announced back in March, orders and licenses for Polygon, the VR body and tracking system from Manus, can now be placed online. Prices for the full Polygon system are not listed, but quotes can be requested on the Manus site.

Manus Polygon is a tracking system that combines Vive Tracker pucks in addition to hand-tracking via a separate glove in order to provide a full-body solution for enterprise VR. To achieve this, the system uses 5 Vive Trackers in total — one on each foot, one on your waist and one of the back of each hand — in combination with Manus’ fully-body inverse kinematics solver and its Prime II Series gloves.

The idea is that the system is easy to set up and eliminates the need for any kind of full body suit to achieve full body tracking. The system also supports multiple users for multiplayer and can produce synchronized and accurately proportioned human avatars from the data. There is a 45 second calibration process, and the finger tracking from the gloves can measure 2 joints per finger and with 11DoF tracking.

Obviously this is an enterprise-focused project, so don’t expect to see any of this integration in your favorite VR games.

While we haven’t tried Polygon ourselves, we did try Manus gloves on one of our episodes of the VR Culture Show in November last year, which you can watch below.

Purchasing the Polygon pack also includes plugins to implement the system in Unity and Unreal. One year licenses for the Polygon system are available to order via a quote on the Manus site now.

The post Manus Polygon Available Now, Offering Full VR Body And Hand Tracking appeared first on UploadVR.

March 24, 2020

Manus Brings Your Entire Body Into VR With its Polygon System

Ever since virtual reality (VR) remerged as a viable consumer product the quest has been to make the technology as immersive and interactive as possible. That’s lead to motion controllers, eye tracking and hand tracking but full-body tracking has stopped and started due to the complexities of this process. Manus VR, the company which makes enterprise-grade data gloves, is almost ready to release its solution to this challenge, Manus Polygon.

Like other full-body tracking solutions such as CloudGate Studios’ version for Island 359, Manus Polygon utilises Vive Trackers on the feet, waist and hands. First introduced during CES 2020 back in January, the announcement this week will see Manus Polygon made available to companies looking for a full-body solution this summer, no matter the use case.

Suitable for a variety of applications including training and simulation to virtual collaboration Manus Polygon has been designed around easy self-calibration, so you don’t need anybody outside of the VR experience to help with setting up. The Polygon IK-system reads the movement of the Vive trackers and calculates the natural body movement of the user.

Compatible with Manus’ range of Prime gloves, Polygon supports multiple users either locally or via an existing network so colleagues can share a virtual workspace. This is achieved by the system working with a host who runs the simulation allowing guests to join their environment.

Another key part of Manus Polygon is the networked object tracking feature. This ensures all users see object locations in real-time, no matter who is using the object.

Compatible with HTC Vive and other SteamVR headsets, Manus Polygon will be compatible with Unity when it officially launches in June 2020. The company also plans to release an Unreal Engine 4 plugin later this year as well as expanding compatibility for more motion capture hardware.

The new range of Manus Prime gloves arrived in 2019, with three models for tracking users hand gestures. The flagship gloves are the Prime Haptic for €4990, offering haptic feedback for each finger.

Manus VR isn’t the only company exploring the full-body tracking space. Recently, Antilatency updated its software development kit (SDK) to version 1.0.0, adding support for Oculus Quest to its custom tracking solution. As further advancements are made in the field, VRFocus will let you know.