Lenovo’s Project Chronos concept offers motion capture without wearables

Lenovo unveiled its new Project Chronos concept at CES 2023, a new motion capture system that doesn’t require a dedicated wearable device. The new device is a prototype from the Chinese PC maker. According to the official description, Project Chronos is a “glasses-free, full-body movement-driven experience”. Simply put, users do not need to wear a special headset/glasses or use motion capture activated controllers to use the technology. It’s similar to recent announcements of glasses-free 3D solutions from Acer and Asus, but here the focus is on motion capture rather than 3D gaming.

According to the company, Project Chronos Use RGB depth cameras for simulating user actions in virtual reality (VR). Next, the device outputs to an external display via DisplayPort or HDMI. Lenovo has stated that Project Chronos will be HDMI compatible, despite the fact that its units lack dedicated HDMI ports.

The concept device has three DisplayPort connections, as well as four Mini DisplayPorts. The Chronos also features a twin 6W speaker system and a camera that can rotate 180 degrees. Lenovo promises that the device will make it “easier than ever for users to enter 3D-rendered virtual environments.”

The Lenovo Project Chronos is powered by an Intel Core i7 Raptor Lake series processor. It also includes a discrete GPU, up to 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of internal storage. The device runs Windows 10 and comes pre-loaded with in-house Chronos. This model weighs around 3.54 kg and measures 284 x 275 x 60.6 mm.

Unfortunately, this is still a concept device, so it is unknown whether the company intends to release such a model anytime in the near future. Will the Lenovo Chronos perform better than this? Microsoft Kinect So it remains to be seen.

Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices that was first released by? Microsoft in 2010. The devices typically include RGB cameras, infrared projectors and detectors that chart depth via structured light or time of flight calculations, which in turn conduct real-time gesture recognition and body skeleton recognition, among other functionalities. can be used for. They also include microphones for speech recognition and voice control.

Microsoft’s Kinect was originally designed as a motion controller peripheral for the Xbox video game console, differing from competitors (such as Nintendo’s Wii Remote and Sony’s PlayStation Move) in that it did not require physical controllers. .