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Writer's pictureTheia Markerless

Theia Onboarding - So you bought a markerless system, now what?

Updated: Nov 16, 2023

Summary: Our premium onboarding program will get you ready to launch your first markerless motion capture data collection quickly and efficiently - on your own schedule. Contact us to get started!


You’ve heard the buzz, read the validation papers, and seen the increasing presence of markerless motion capture at all of your favorite conferences. The practical benefits are obvious, and it’s become clear that markerless motion capture is here to stay. You’ve invested in your very own markerless motion capture system with Theia3D. It’s a daunting decision, as it has taken significant time and effort to become a seasoned expert at marker-based motion capture. However, this new markerless technology is completely different and requires a whole new knowledge base and set of skills to deploy effectively, meaning you’ll be starting from the beginning. Not to worry - we’re here to help.


At Theia Markerless, we firmly believe it’s our responsibility to not only provide our customers with an accurate and reliable markerless motion capture solution, but also the training required to be successful. Therefore, we offer a premium multi-step onboarding program to ensure all of our customers understand how Theia3D works (on a useful, user-friendly level) and how best to deploy this novel technology. This onboarding program runs based on your availability and is entirely remote, so don’t worry if you have a big grant application to finish, multiple courses on the go, or a hectic professional athlete testing season - we’ll work with your schedule. Typically, the whole process takes about 2 weeks to complete, and we can start as soon as you have received your cameras, calibration object and computer hardware.


Here’s how it works:


Step 1: Intro Meeting (20-30 minutes)

In our introductory meeting, often called a ‘huddle’, we meet with you to learn more about your use case for Theia3D - what sort of data you’ll be collecting, in what environments, and with what camera system (check out our previous blog posts for reviews of various camera systems). This helps us better understand your expectations of Theia, your research goals, and how we can guide the implementation of the system to achieve those goals. In this meeting we also break down each step of the onboarding process for you, with a particular focus on the next step (sample data collection) and how to collect your first markerless trials. We’ll talk about the data that will be required for the rest of the onboarding, and how best to collect it. At this point, you should be in possession of your camera and computer hardware and ready to begin setting it up for use. Additionally, we will also cover system calibration as this is a crucial step for the next meeting. As you may be aware, the calibration process can vary from system to system.


Thinking of taking the system outside? Make sure you book an onboarding session with our team to cover all of your bases!


Step 2: Sample Data Collection (independently, at your convenience)

Following the intro meeting, you will be fully equipped with a set of action items to follow and additional resources to help you proceed in setting up your camera hardware and collecting a sample dataset. The sample data collection is one of the most important parts of the onboarding process as it allows us to clearly see the space and tasks you are working with, and how Theia will perform for your applications. You’ll position your cameras following our prescribed camera setup guidelines and collect a couple calibrations and a selection of varied movement trials in your capture volume.



Once your sample data has been collected, you’ll then upload it to our secure data sharing site for review by our expert support team. A sample dataset that contains diverse movements and different people provides us with rich information we can use to evaluate the performance of our software for your use case. From this sample dataset, our team will produce a set of recommendations on your camera placement, settings, and data collection practices that will help optimize your markerless system and improve the quality of your motion capture data. Depending on the results of the data review, we may request that you implement some of our recommendations and collect additional data for a follow up discussion. Once a strong system setup has been established and you have the data collection practices down pat, we’ll move on to the final step in the onboarding program.


Step 3: Theia Training Session (1-1.5 hours)

The final step in the onboarding program is a full Theia training session, during which we’ll discuss markerless data collection best practices, review your sample dataset and the feedback from our support team, and perform a detailed walkthrough of our software. The guidelines and best practices we provide are meant to be broadly useful ideas that you can easily understand and apply to successfully implement your new system in any new endeavor. We’ll address camera setup, settings, relevant environment-specific collection factors, and other less obvious data collection considerations, so that you can apply this new knowledge to any future projects.


Once we’ve covered the foundations for successful markerless data collections, we’ll move on to discuss the review of your sample dataset and the feedback from our support team. This review is meant to highlight the strengths of the dataset and highlight any weaker areas where there is room for improvement. Those areas will be addressed in a collaborative discussion where we can provide feasible solutions for your specific environment and use case.


Finally, we’ll perform a detailed walkthrough of our software, using the sample dataset you collected to demonstrate every tool and functionality of Theia3D. We’ll show you how to take the data from raw video output from your camera system to fully organized and analyzed motion capture data. Along the way, we’ll highlight useful tools and important settings, and discuss how they can be employed or modified for different data analysis applications. Importantly, we will do a full deep dive on Theia3D settings, preferences and model constraints. These are incredibly important considerations that require significant attention prior to starting any new project. By the end of this session you will have the knowledge to be able to successfully embark on new markerless mocap projects, including how to set up your cameras, record data, and use our software independently to analyze your data.


Our premium onboarding program will help you take Theia3D into new spaces and environments!


By completing our premium onboarding program, you have chosen the most efficient route to becoming an expert in markerless motion capture and have equipped yourself (and your team!) with the skills required to be successful in this rapidly changing biomechanics industry. Soon, you’ll be taking on projects that just five years ago were only a dream, and the biggest hurdle will no longer be the cumbersome process of collecting large amounts of data.


At Theia Markerless, we’re proud to offer state-of-the-art markerless motion capture software and best-in-class training that will allow you to achieve your ambitious research goals. If you’re looking to get started without delay, reach out to us here to get started with our premium onboarding program.

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