#2 How do virtual bets work? (II) Motion capture and the use of kinematic techniques.
Gambling or Nothing is a weekly publication on the gaming industry written by @mad_sander, Director of operations at Tecnalis.
Hi, everybody,
How’s your week been?
In this second article, we are also going to talk about virtual betting, but this time, we will do so by deciphering some of the techniques of motion capture and kinematic techniques; we will also talk about broadcasting these products via satellite or streaming using pre-recorded images.
Motion capture
Motion capture is a technique that records the actions of human actors and uses that information to animate digital models of characters in 3D animation.
Nowadays, motion capture is the most widely used method, whether in cinema, in the video game industry or in virtual gambling, to get as close as possible to reality as we know it.
Computer generated images are often used in conjunction with motion capture to better cover the flaws that can occur with CGI (seen in the previous article) and animations. Computer-generated images are limited in their practical application, although they have improved greatly in recent years.
The effect of the unsettling valley
Unrealistic or poorly managed computer-generated images can cause an effect called Uncanny Valley. This effect is a hypothesis that when anthropomorphic replicas come too close to the appearance and behavior of a real human being, they cause a rejection response among human observers and for this reason are complemented by human motion capture.
This leads to problems with computer-generated images alone, which, due to the complex anatomy of the human body, can often produce this effect by trying to replicate it perfectly. This is where motion capture comes into play. Artists can use motion capture equipment to take pictures of a human doing an action and then replicate it perfectly with computer-generated images so that it looks just right.
The lack of anatomically correct digital models contributes to the need for motion capture. Because computer-generated images reflect only the exterior or the skin of the object being rendered. The constant movement of the body and face when making sounds with the lips and tongue, along with facial expressions that accompany speech, are difficult to replicate using a computer; and this is one of the reasons why motion capture is used, as it can capture the underlying movement of facial muscles and better reproduce images.
Use of kinematic techniques
There are different types of technology. One of the most widely used is optical technology (visual tracking). In this type of technology, active or passive marks are fixed on the subject to be tracked and the position of the marks are stored. The passive marks are illuminated by radiation sources (infrared, or even ultrasound) and the rays are reflected to a detector. The active tags emit rays towards the detector by themselves. The detector (camera) reflects only the position (of the beam) of each individual mark and stores the x and y coordinates; images are not stored. These results are then mathematically processed, and all kinematic parameters of the movement are calculated.
Other types of systems are based on non-optical technologies (Non-visual tracking). Within this section we could mention the magnetic systems: which provide the position and orientation of the mark using the orientation of a magnetic field created by an emitter; and the mechanical systems that use an exoskeleton that is placed over the subject and that indicates the movement of the subject using potentiometers or other mechanisms in the joints.
Recently, inertial sensors (IMU — Inertial Measurement Unit) have been introduced in this type of application. These types of sensors provide in real time the 3D orientation (Roll, Yaw, Pitch) of the place (e.g. the head) where they are located.
In summary, we could say that these techniques allow the developers of virtual games to visualize dynamic events recorded and edited with exceptional filming techniques such as those that occur in sports events, record real movements of professional athletes, as well as record scenarios of real stadiums in situ to live more real experiences.
Here is a video that illustrates these techniques👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇
Another important point is the way in which the providers of these virtual betting contents issue this type of content; they usually do it in the following ways.
Transmitted by satellite (territory-based)
The broadcast signals are transmitted from satellites orbiting the earth and received by local and regional satellite television systems.
As an example, we have the great race that took place on April 4, 2020 in Antree where more than 4.8 million people watched the event live on the private British television channel ITV.
By streaming with pre-recorded images (virtual or real)
A “Streaming” connection is one that allows us to have a virtual event without having to download a complete file onto our computer, tablet or mobile.
To stream, it´s necessary to send the signal to a server that, attending the connection requests of the final users (the spectators), will serve them the content starting to download it in the “buffer”.
The data buffer is a kind of store in which the downloaded signal is stored and simultaneously reproduced.
That’s why sometimes the broadcast stops, and we find ourselves faced with messages like “Buffering” followed by a percentage of data that remains to be received.
This is also the reason why we keep watching a broadcast seconds after losing the Internet connection: we are watching what was already stored in the buffer.
I hope you liked this second episode, and I’ll see you next week for the third part in this series where we look at RNG in virtual bets.
If you would like to get the latest updates, join our group Gambling or Nothing on linkedin.
Kind regards,
Alex.