Thanks for posting your research, Snapz. Even the low-end action cams sound very promising.

Now that I have a decent mobile workstation, I'm working on moving my capture space from our living room back to our garage. After the garage is cleaned out, it should give me more space to perform in. And depending on how well these low-end action cams work with Mocap Studio, I might even consider switching since they seem to be cheap. (Well, maybe not right away. I kinda blew my hardware budget for the year on the new computer.)

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Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | Demo Reel (2017) | Demo Reel (2015) | Demo Reel (2013)


Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

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Yeah, I am just trying to get ahead of what may be needed to go this action cam route in the future myself and review the cheaper models capabilities.

I am intrigued by the remote outdoor set up for larger capture volumes, if it pans out and not a real pain to do so just to get to the recording.

I really don't think 1080p is needed for recording, 720p should be fine and will keep the file size a bit smaller too and some of the cheaper cams do 720 @ up to 120fps.

I have time to do more research about this and like I said, I hope iPi can make some videos on the procedure for the use and tracking process for the cams they state will be compatible now.

Just trying to post some info I find and hope it may be useful for those wanting to try the action cam route with the v4 release.

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it seem that very difficult to make a big success，but ，I believe ipi official side will give us some surprising，waiting for good news all the time，and thanks ipi official side working so hard to help us improve our skill in making a better animation film

Some more info about the upcoming Azure Kinect:

Microsoft shrinks Kinect into a $399 cloud-powered PC peripheral

and

Preorder Azure Kinect Developer Kit

TBH, having recently upgraded my workstation, I'm not planning to buy ANY new gear for rest of 2019 but I'm still very excited about this news. Especially if Azure Kinect's hardware demands turn out to be less finicky than Kinect 2 has been.

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Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | Demo Reel (2017) | Demo Reel (2015) | Demo Reel (2013)


Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

...

Just have to see what the future brings for it.

Some of the details so far from Brekel @ Brekel.com/Kinect4

Some of the details of Kinect v4 (v1 = XBox 360, v2 = XBox One, v3 = embedded in HoloLens)

Time of Flight technology (like v2 & v3)
Depth resolution of 1024 x 1024
Highest Figure of Merit (highest modulation frequency and modulation contrast resulting in low power consumption with overall system power of 225-950mw)
Automatic per pixel gain selection enabling large dynamic range allowing near and far objects to be captured cleanly
Global shutter allowing for improved performance in sunlight
Multiphase depth calculation method enables robust accuracy even in the presence of chip, laser and power supply variation
Low peak current operation even at high frequency lowers the cost of modules
>6 meter range (with <1cm error at 4 meters), uses <1W power (thanks to Tim Field)
Minimum range is 20cm (in lower power mode) with 1-2mm error for distances <1m (thanks to Tim Field)

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