3D Exercise Experiments: Mocopi

I was able to get my hands on some Sony Mocopi trackers recently, and, given their price point and seeming ease of use, I really wanted them to work. This could have been a nice plug-and-play, low(er) cost, physically low profile solution for those looking to do some MOCAP; instead, I got "so bad it's good, but for all the wrong reasons" results!

I tested the MOCOPI 3 times. First impression was that it was easy to set up, put on and pair and the app was very simple and straightforward. But unfortunately, that is where the pros stop.

Due to the position of the hip tracker, which is clipped to the center back of one's pants, lying supine to do Pilates was not possible, as the hard tracker jutted into my back and prevented me from doing the exercises correctly. Lying supine did not affect the app's ability to pick up the supine movement, but lying down was so uncomfortable that any movement in that position I would rule out as an option. Proprioceptively, it was also not very successful in finding its floor; I found consistently that in the supine movement I was able to capture, that my upper body was sinking underneath the app's floor and my lower body was pointing up to the ceiling. With the app's simplicity came a minimal-ness where I was unable to find a way to really tweak my captures in the app, and there were no instructions included in the app on how to use it.

With what felt like a lot working against me, I nonetheless played with it to try to get it to function as well as possible, to humorous results you can review below. While I would not recommend this product, I think the baseline concept is strong, and I hope one day that a similar, more robust and functional product will be made available to make MOCAP more accessible at a lower price.

Me, suited up for failure, and ready to go!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e36e77_9fe5e35c6cb1426c95b15db1d0096a94/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Me, performing a choreographed HIIT sequence... Could you tell from this capture?

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e36e77_cf49e3600fea417da3117035646acef5/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Me, performing a choreographed dance using the MOCOPI avatar, finally becoming the J-Pop Idol I was destined to be!

text and images coming soon https://electronics.sony.com/more/mocopi/all-mocopi/p/qmss1-uscx