Sony has launched its first camera tracking system, Ocellus (ASR-CT1), designed for AR and VP applications in broadcast and cinema.
By providing marker-free camera tracking through multiple sensors, Ocellus is camera agnostic and can be used with both cinema and broadcast cameras.
Designed for virtual production such as in-camera VFX and AR, Ocellus sends the camera position and orientation data while the camera is shooting, with the system comprising a sensor unit, a processing box, and three lens encoders which can be used with Sony Cinema Line cameras, system cameras and non-Sony cameras.
With vie image sensors and Sony’s Visual Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) technology, the system creates a reference map, enabling marker-free tracking both indoors and outdoors.
When using Sony cameras with Ocellus, metadata on focus, iris, and zoom values from the camera and lens can be obtained via the camera’s SDI output and transmitted in real-time to external devices via Ethernet cable.
If the lens does not support metadata acquisition through the camera, lens encoders can be affixed to the camera to obtain metadata. The data can then be used for virtual production and AR, with the system supporting recording tracking data, camera/lens metadata, timecode and file name, which can be used for the post-production workflow.