PrioVR: a full-body mo-cap suit for gaming

A project currently seeking funding on Kickstarter uses real-time motion capture to put your body's movements inside your video game.

YEI Technology's "suit" for real-time, in-game motion capture to control your on-screen character blew us away when we saw it last year (video embedded below), and now there's a chance it will hit the consumer market, with a Kickstarter project under way to bring it to fruition.

Called PrioVR, it consists of a series of inertial sensors (accelerometers, gyroscopes and accelerometers) strapped to the player's body to provide "360 degrees of unfettered low-latency real-time motion capture without the need for cameras, optics, line-of-sight or special environments". It captures motion data directly from the body and sends it wirelessly from one or more users, and it can be used in any environment, inside or out.

It will be available in two versions, the PrioVR Lite with 10 sensors — two on each limb, one on the lower back and one on the back of the head — and the PrioVR Pro with 16 sensors — three on each limb, three on the back and one on the back of the head.

Each system consists of: the sensor units, which contain the low-power inertial sensors, which capture motion data and calibrate and error correct it on the fly; the input unit, with buttons and a pin-header interface that allows the connection of external inputs such as trigger switches; the wearable hub unit, which hosts the battery and aggregates the sensor data; and the communication base station, which receives the sensor data from the hub unit.

It is also, delightfully, compatible with the Oculus Rift and any head-mounted display, such as Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 headset.

PrioVR's dev kit will include support for major game engines (UDK, Unity, CryEngine), and all systems will be fully expandable and come with the SDK and API to make it easier for developers to use.

At the moment, only dev kits are offered as rewards. Like the Oculus Rift, it will need a bit of work (and a few compatible games) to be consumer ready. An early bird pledge of US$450 gets the PrioVR Lite dev kit, and an early bird pledge of US$625 gets the PrioVR Pro dev kit.

Head over to the PrioVR Kickstarter page for more info.