MockUp (with RapidVRM) supports basic body tracking (typically head, hands, and fingers), with inverse kinematics used to resolve some body segment positions such as the elbow and upper arm, and a visual representation called ‘Fred’. Multiple ‘bodies’ can be dynamically added to the scene, and the root body position of the first user can be recorded. Visual Advantage’s RapidManikin takes this further, enabling the full and accurate recording and replay of any tracked body segment and the management for complete RapidManikins within MockUp.

For an accurate full-body tracked solution, the position and orientation of bone landmarks (representing unique points within any limb or body segment) need to be determined accurately in real-time. From a landmark the correct rotations can be determined and the manikin body segment can be positioned correctly. Please note that it is very difficult and time consuming to manually determine this and an automatic and dynamic solution is required to maintain this accurately. If a body part is rotated around an incorrect rotation point, the resulting movement in the virtual environment would of course be incorrect.

However, it is possible to go further by dynamically determining the length of each body segment hence scaling the representation of the immersed user accurately in the virtual environment. As the RapidManikin is scaled in the graphics domain it will also be scaled in the collision (interference) domain so that interferences between the RapidManikin and the rest of the design assembly can be determined in real-time. These interferences can then be recorded correctly at run-time or during an animation replay, and can trigger more advanced real-time events. 

The solution is fully integrated into MockUp so that RapidManikins can be fully managed as MockUp entities and can be used in conjunction with the full suite of MockUp tools. Many RapidManikin instantiations may be managed, replayed and recorded within one MockUp session and multiple users may be tracked by one Vicon MX tracking system and managed within MockUp. If required, one user may also record one role, then play this back while recording a second and further roles, all within one MockUp environment.