Zeta Motion Limited was founded by Wilhelm Klein and Huy Phan, two PhD graduates from School of Creative Media of City University of Hong Kong (CityU), and their friend. It is a deep tech start-up harnessing cutting-edge AI to bring humans, animals, products and machinery etc in real life to the digital world, and provide a novel solution for diverse industries including manufacturing, healthcare, entertainment and AR/VR.
Technologies such as digital twin and enterprise XR (extended reality) activate a vision of a digital future, and the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many industries to accelerate their digital transformation. Both trends have created a surge in demand for solutions that can bridge the gap between the real and digital worlds. But existing systems do not meet the need for usability and cost at the same time. This is where Zeta Motion comes into play, bringing revolutionary changes by combining established machine-vision technology with state-of-the-art deep learning to provide NEURAL CAPTURE™, a solution that is fast, accurate, affordable and scalable. Thanks to its unique capability to synthesise large datasets from small samples, NEURAL CAPTURE™ allows rapid onboarding of products and items, at a fraction of cost compared to traditional AI systems.
Since its establishment in 2019, Zeta Motion has received nearly HK$1 million from ITC’s TSSSU scheme at CityU, and has joined the HKSTP’s Incu-Tech programme. It is also part of UK’s Machine Intelligence Garage and Made Smarter Technology Accelerator, Creative Destruction Lab at Oxford University and Mizuho Crowd Brain Accelerator. In its R&D headquarter in Hong Kong Science Park, Zeta Motion continues to develop its patent pending technology, while recruiting deep tech talent in the Asia region. The start-up strives to foster cooperation with multiple industries, including VR/AR, video games, animation and visual effects, as well as education and art institutions in Asia and Europe. The team has applied for the HK Tech 300 Angel Fund.
Wilhelm and Huy, two tech elites, from Germany and Vietnam respectively, crossed paths in Hong Kong, a city where Chinese and Western cultures meet, sparking their creativity. After completing the PhD programme in CityU’s School of Creative Media, they founded Zeta Motion, a deep tech start-up, which has brought revolutionary changes to Visual AI, motion capture and 6DoF object tracking technologies, and seized the opportunities created by the pandemic to provide practical solutions for industries that are keen on digital transformation.
“I have quite a wild background,” said soft-spoken Wilhelm with a gentle smile. “I started out studying economics and business. Deeply interested in technology since I was a child, I once tore apart my parents’ vacuum cleaner, as I was curious about how it worked.” It was his passionate interest in technology that led him to the unusual path of pursuing technology ethics and took him to the School of Creative Media at CityU.
CityU brings together diverse talent for creativity and innovation
At CityU, Wilhelm shared an office with Huy. “I studied painting for almost 10 years before going to university,” said Huy. “I did my first degree in computer science and then a master’s degree in engineering in Japan.”
In Japan, Huy started specialising in motion-tracking technology, while continuing his pursuit of art through this entirely different discipline. “I looked at the movement of fluids and air: how a rocket is launched to Mars on the correct trajectory and how blood flows through an artificial heart, for example,” said Huy. “I was attracted to the School of Creative Media, which was the first of its kind in Asia at that time. So I came to Hong Kong to study for a PhD, using machine learning to analyse art and understand the different styles of artists in order to build robotic artists.”
Wilhelm and Huy have different cultural and academic backgrounds, but they both agree that CityU is an ideal place to pursue further studies, and the School of Creative Media is well suited to their distinctive mix of knowledge and interests. “The School features a lot of highly interdisciplinary talent, and offers scholars, researchers, philosophers, computer scientists and artists from all over the world an incredibly creative environment to exchange ideas and collaborate across boundaries. The facilities it provides are of a great asset too,” they agreed.
After graduating from CityU in 2016, Huy continued his studies in a postdoctoral programme in the UK, and then worked in two start-ups in London. While working on his PhD, Wilhelm engaged in business consulting and continued to be involved in the global maker movement. He was the director of the first and only makerspace (also known as hackerspace, hacklab or hackspace, where like-minded people specialising in computers, machinery, technology, science and digital art gather and exchange ideas), Dim Sum Labs. The non-profit organisation conducts workshops on drone and 3D printer design, as well as brain hacking technology.
The two started Zeta Motion with Ha Nguyen, who comes from Vietnam. She attended an arbitration competition hosted by CityU in 2015, where she met Huy. With her legal expertise, she focuses on handling the company’s intellectual property (IP) issues.
Taking the best of both professional and consumer level approaches
Visual AI and Motion capture enables computers, sensors and other equipment to identify, track and record object trajectory in three dimensions (3D). Bridging the real and virtual worlds, this technology has become an important tool for many industries, most notably film production.
Wilhelm and Huy know very well the strengths and limitations of existing solutions: high-end systems are fast and precise, but they are exceedingly expensive and very difficult to use, often requiring a professional team to set up and implement; while consumer systems are cheap, but speed and performance are rather restricted.
The novelty of their work lies in harnessing cutting-edge AI to “take the best from both worlds”. The new motion-capture system they have developed is as fast and accurate as professional systems, but as easy to use and affordable as consumer-level products, drastically reducing the cost from about US$10,000 to US$100. The specially designed sensors they developed are light and easy to use, and their self-developed software, NEURAL CAPTURE™, can be operated on any computer or IoT device, even a mobile phone. The application programming interface (API), which is still under development, will automate the otherwise tedious and time-consuming process of manually creating 3D models.
Seizing opportunities in digital transformation amid the pandemic
Zeta Motion’s first challenge was the Light Up Poole Festival, an outdoor event in the UK. They were asked to feature a sense of organic interaction to engage visitors, while collecting visitor statistics such as their behaviour with full GDPR (the EU General Data Protection Regulation) compliance. The team collaborated with an artist who suffered from bipolar disorder and applied their technology on tree-shaped installations to help raise awareness of mental health issues. Zeta Motion set a record for designing the world's largest mass motion capture, after simultaneously recording the interactions of 128 participants and collecting data from more than 15,000 people throughout the event.
Despite gaining strong traction in the public festival space, Zeta Motion had to put a sudden stop to working on art projects and exhibitions because of the pandemic. “2020 was a very disruptive year, which brought enormous changes to everyone across the globe,” explained Wilhelm. “Instead of despairing, we kept our eyes open and our noses to the wind, and we saw a new avenue for digital transformation. Many industries that used to operate in conventional ways are now obliged to enter the digital world as quickly as possible to meet the new challenges. They are clearly interested in the technology we offer.”
The challenges posed by the pandemic have given Zeta Motion the opportunity to explore potential application areas that were not part of their initial target. In collaboration with Dakota Systems Inc., a leading US software and digitalisation company, they are developing a technology-based product conformance system for GAF, the largest roofing manufacturers in North America, so that asphalt materials can be quality assured, and produced in an efficient, cost-effective and sustainable manner. They have also expanded their business in the spaces of remote healthcare, fitness tracking and AR/VR.
“We had some marketing struggles, as we developed our core technology before looking for customers. The Light Up Poole Festival was the first time that we saw a viable field of application, but the pandemic pushed us to look for other opportunities. We have learned to be resilient so that we can navigate in this fast-changing environment, and of course, we also had a bit of luck,” Huy said modestly.
Although the founders were not born or raised in Hong Kong, they see the city as their R&D headquarter. “Hong Kong is one of Asia's major industry hubs, a bridge between East and West,” said Wilhelm. “This enables us to build strategic partnerships globally and recruit talent in the region; and Hong Kong’s geographical proximity to Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area provides exciting opportunities and facilitates partnerships.”
“It is our goal to democratise Visual AI technology so that individuals, companies, institutions and academia can have access to the amazing power this offers.” Two good friends and partners from both ends of the globe are continuing to move forward and stay focused on their dream.
(December 2021)