Metaverse minus the headset: A deeper look at Lenovo’s Project Chronos

As anticipated, there was loads of metaverse-related exercise at CES 2023, with the highest-profile launch being HTC’s new flagship VIVE XR Elite VR/AR headset. There was additionally an intriguing announcement from Lenovo — Project Chronos, a camera-based full physique motion-capture system that lets you animate an avatar within the metaverse with out the necessity for a headset or different wearable sensors. 

Additionally: Apple’s VR/AR headset is coming. Here’s everything we know so far

Particulars on Mission Chronos, which remains to be very a lot a piece in progress, have been restricted, so ZDNET caught up with Sanjeev Menon, vice chairman and normal supervisor of the Desktop Enterprise Section at Lenovo, by way of electronic mail after the present to seek out out extra. 

Why do you suppose related motion-control applied sciences have failed to achieve widespread traction?   

Pure motion-capture applied sciences are both marker-based utilizing body-tracking sensors or markerless-based utilizing cameras. Deployments of the latter have sometimes been restricted both by complicated setup necessities or poor person expertise as a consequence of low accuracy and excessive latency. 

With the speedy evolution of {hardware} know-how and AI, Mission Chronos can push the boundaries to allow close to real-time movement seize, permitting new ranges of freedom for folks to work together and have interaction inside digital areas. To that finish, we additionally did not wish to confine its use to just one situation, however reasonably energy a number of use instances throughout totally different facets of customers’ lives.  

Whether or not used for content material creation, social gaming, dwell broadcasting, health exercises or one thing else fully, the Mission Chronos idea is purpose-built to empower a brand new degree of freedom for individuals who frequent digital areas or those that need to new applied sciences to interact with others. 

What was the impetus for Lenovo to maneuver wearable-free movement management past gaming and into the metaverse with Mission Chronos?  

With Mission Chronos, we’re creating a brand new gateway to the metaverse for folks to expertise all varieties of 3D digital areas in a brand new approach. Since it’s a wearable-free expertise that mimics one’s pure actions with lifelike avatars, it offers customers with an unconventional, immersive expertise.  

Whether or not used for digital health, vlogging, gaming, digital walkthrough, etcetera, our idea will allow folks to seamlessly swap between digital worlds, and a wealthy catalog of choices opens the probabilities to quicker person adoption. 

Is the shape issue and specification of the Chronos unit finalized, or are additional refinements seemingly?   

We’ll proceed to refine the shape issue and specs primarily based on person expertise research. We can even work with content material creators and builders to drive the perfect match to energy the brand new situation experiences. 

Why are there solely DisplayPort and Mini-DisplayPort connections on the present Chronos unit? Why not HDMI, too?   

Because the Mission Chronos base unit is designed to be paired with an exterior show, like a large-format monitor or TV, we plan to offer a number of video connectivity choices together with DisplayPort, Mini-DP and HDMI. In the end, we’ll optimize the I/O ports and specs for the perfect person expertise primarily based on person insights and market realities. 

Additionally, why is a handheld distant management required? Certainly any person interplay with the Chronos unit may very well be by way of gestures… 

By incorporating a handheld distant management with the system, we’re giving customers the choice to modify between body-driven management and a extra stationary interplay inside digital environments when most well-liked.

We would like Mission Chronos to be as versatile as doable, in order that it will possibly meet a large number of wants and use instances. A distant management offers the agility, and sometimes comfort, wanted to accommodate that. As we construct out our content material companion ecosystem, the distant can even give us extra choices to permit for compatibility throughout a larger variety of apps the place full-body motion might solely be acknowledged in facets of the applying.

How good is the monitoring of facial features and eye motion in Mission Chronos? Is extra growth wanted right here?  

Mission Chronos can observe facial expressions together with the person’s micro facial features, eye motion, and mouth motion. We have achieved this by way of the adoption of 3D Level Cloud know-how that captures greater than 50+ energetic items round an individual’s face. It is a powerful know-how that we’re excited to proceed exploring on this proof-of-concept stage.

Which Mission Chronos use instances are more likely to have most attraction? 

We aren’t positioning Mission Chronos as a gaming answer at the moment, however see lots of potential in all its supposed use instances. Nonetheless, I actually suppose individuals who at the moment use motion-capture fits or different wearable units to manage their digital avatars within the VTuber area will gravitate to this know-how due to the liberty it offers. Mission Chronos will allow these performers and broadcasters to specific themselves by way of physique motion and facial features that hasn’t been doable with out wearable movement sensors of some kind.

Health is one other space that I believe folks will see its attraction. The power for an individual in Spain, for instance, to take a yoga class with an teacher in Thailand, obtain their speedy suggestions on kind and posture, and be capable of emulate what the teacher is doing as in the event that they’re standing proper in entrance of them is highly effective, particularly when you think about that each people can get pleasure from that have in a gorgeous digital atmosphere with none extra AR/VR tools weighing them down.

Additionally: Meetings in the metaverse: Our experience with HTC Vive Sync

We additionally see different situations like social chatting or conferences being standard, the place folks can leverage Mission Chronos to work together not solely with one another ‘in particular person’ within the digital world, however with 3D objects, as effectively. So, two architects or product designers may meet up and current their creation as a 3D hologram that they will each see in a extra immersive approach, eradicating the boundaries of time and area.

What is going to the Mission Chronos software program ecosystem appear to be? Will I be capable of take my Lenovo avatar right into a digital world created by Meta, Microsoft, Google, HTC, or whoever? The place is Lenovo on the walled backyard/open system continuum? 

The metaverse is evolving at an unbelievable tempo as extra customers and experiences come on-line day by day. By merging gaming, media, dwell occasions and social media into a brand new type of interactivity that blends digital and bodily, the metaverse is rewriting the foundations of the patron financial system.

As such, so too should our know-how evolve to adequately clear up the wants of its customers. To supply our clients the perfect person expertise, cross-device and platform collaboration is required within the AR/VR area, simply as it’s in different tech areas, and that is what we’re working towards attaining as we proceed to satisfy with content material creators, builders and repair suppliers to broaden on this ecosystem and launch an answer that provides that digital freedom.

The imaginative and prescient we’re creating by way of Mission Chronos is an open 3D ecosystem the place customers can take their full-body avatar to any digital world within the metaverse and be capable of management it by way of pure interplay and physique motion with out the necessity for glasses or mocap wearables. That is why we’re positioning Mission Chronos as a gateway to 3D digital worlds, not solely from the {hardware} functionality perspective, but additionally from the open ecosystem perspective.

When will the following iteration of Mission Chronos be demonstrated after CES 2023?   

We’re finalizing future demonstrations of Mission Chronos and can announce the following iteration as soon as it’s accessible.

When will we get a sign of the ultimate product title, launch date, and pricing? 

The ecosystem remains to be underneath growth, and we’ll announce its last title, launch date, and pricing when it’s additional alongside in its launch preparation.

Lenovo Mission Chronos specs

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