Avatar motion capture software improves Ford car design

DEARBORN, Jan. 28, 2010 – Ford Motor Company is taking a leap into the world of virtual engineering, using the same motion-capture technology used in blockbuster movies like Avatar, The Lord of the Rings and Shrek the Monsters to design Fords that are more comfortable and fun to drive.

Motion capture technology is a technology that digitally captures movements. It is used by Hollywood computer animators and video game designers to create more realistic non-human characters. Ford Motor uses this technology to create realistic digital human bodies for testing vehicles in virtual environments. Ford is also the only automaker to use motion capture technology for vehicle design.

“Just like in the movies, we’re connecting real people with sensors to understand the movements involved when they interact with the car,” said Gary Strumolo, Ford Research and Engineering boss. “Once we’ve captured all that movement, we can create virtual humans to run thousands of experiments to help us understand how various vehicle designs work with people of different sizes and shapes. It’s a very efficient way to build the car of the future.”

Ford engineers use these digital human models to evaluate their posture in different virtual vehicle models, from compact cars to full-size pickup trucks. By changing the configuration, the system can reflect the interior space for the driver, front passenger, second-row and even third-row passengers.

HOPS motion capture technology provides engineers with a more scientific approach to understanding human-vehicle interaction.

"Comfort or discomfort is a subjective evaluation," said Nanxin Wang, Ford's technical director. "For a certain model, some people think it is very comfortable to sit in, while others may feel the opposite. Our challenge is to find out why people have those feelings and how we can improve people's feelings through design."

“Before the HOPS system, the only way to evaluate a vehicle design was to have people sit in it and tell us how it felt,” Wang added. “That was time-consuming and involved a lot of guesswork. Now we can combine that subjective evaluation with objective measurements of their arm, leg, head movements and muscle effort to mathematically quantify the movements. Our design team uses this data to guide the development of various vehicle platforms to provide optimal comfort for people of all sizes.”