Rent Events Special technologies

Features and capabilities

The system looks at “stars”; which are small, identical retro-reflective stickers – the same reflective material that could be found on emergency vehicles. These stickers are randomly applied to the studio ceiling or the lighting grid. No additional structure is required. They do not have to conform to any pattern and can vary in height. The “stars” are hardly visible to the naked eye. A small LED sensor, mounted on the studio camera, shines light on the stars. This defines the star map, which allows the StarTracker to report the position and orientation of the studio camera in real time to the rendering engine.  

Freedom of movement

StarTracker offers unlimited freedom of movement and gives accurate position, rotation and lens data in real-time - this makes it ideal for Steadicam and handheld. You can rotate the studio camera 360 degrees, and move it to any position in the studio, even right to the edge, as long as enough “stars” are in sight of the tracking camera. Other systems are often restricted in their tracking volume. StarTracker can track in 3m to 20m high studios. Since the tracking sensor points up rather than looking into the scene, the tracking is unaffected by studio conditions, such as moving objects, set changes, lighting configurations, reflections and plain green screen environments.  

No lighting restriction

As the “stars” can be applied randomly, in no certain pattern, above the lighting grid, they do not restrict the studio lights in any way. Despite being optical, StarTracker is unaffected by studio lighting, giving you complete freedom to install and adjust lights as needed. This is unique to StarTracker  

Absolute tracking

StarTracker does not drift, unlike mechanical encoded pedestals that work on dead-reckoning and accumulate error with distance travelled. This excludes them from almost all AR applications. Because StarTracker is always referencing itself to its star map, its position is absolute and drift-free.