US Patent 7629994 - Quantum dot motion capture

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7629994.html

Image capture technology is becoming more commonly used in computer graphic animation in the last several years. This patent from Sony teaches using quantum dots having sizes tuned to different wavelengths as markers in order to map the movement of more actors and objects during image capture. Claim 1 reads:

1. A quantum nanodot processing system, comprising:

at least one image capture camera configured to capture scenes including actors and/or objects in a visible band; and

at least one marker capture camera configured to capture motions of the actors and/or objects applied with at least one quantum nanodot (QD) marker,

wherein a first marker and a second marker of said at least one QD marker are excited with an excitation signal of a third wavelength but the first marker is tuned to emit a narrowband IR signal of a first wavelength and the second marker is tuned to emit a narrowband IR signal of a second wavelength, and the first wavelength and the second wavelength are longer than the third wavelength of the excitation signal,

wherein a first marker capture camera of said at least one marker capture camera is tuned to capture the narrowband IR signal of the first wavelength emitted by the first marker, and

wherein a second marker capture camera of said at least one marker capture camera is tuned to capture the narrowband IR emitting signal of the second wavelength emitted by the second marker.