Vicon expands into markerless facial capture with purchase of Captive Devices

Vicon announced the purchase of Captive Devices Ltd, a Manchester company that produces head-mounted cameras for markerless facial performance capture. The Captive Devices team has joined Vicon immediately, and its CoreHMC system will be offered alongside Vicon’s four-decade-old marker-based body capture solutions. The combined offering promises an end-to-end pipeline that lets studios capture both facial and body motion using one vendor and support line.

Clients such as Ninja Theory, Nant Studios, Animatrik and Deep Silver Dambuster Studios already use Captive Devices’ technology, and the integration with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine enables real-time on-set facial review. Company leaders highlighted the cultural and technical fit, noting that Vicon’s global manufacturing and distribution network will broaden the reach of the facial capture hardware. The move is presented as a targeted investment to enhance Vicon’s existing strengths rather than replace its core business.