Ross has unveiled Vision[Ai]ry Ft, a facial tracking system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect, locate and track the position of faces within a video stream directly from the camera.

Vision[Ai]ry Ft uses facial positions to drive the pan, tilt and zoom axes of the robotic camera system to maintain the desired framing of the face or faces in the image.

This eliminates the need for a camera operator to manually adjust for the position of the subject in the image. It is therefore said to offer a number of benefits, including consistent framing and a hands-free camera workflow.

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Benefits: Consistent framing and a hands-free camera workflow are two potential benefits of the system

Vision[Ai]ry Ft’s AI algorithm is designed to recognise a diverse set of race, gender and age data, and is said to accurately identify and locate faces as long as at least 50% is visible in the image.

The user interface provides a live display of the video feed with detected faces and framing target clearly indicated, along with status info, tracking controls and framing template library. In addition, damping and deadband settings enable the user to tailor the system to the talent in order to maintain optimal framing and tracking while eliminating undesirable movement and overshoot.

Commenting on the launch, Karen Walker, vice president of camera motion systems at Ross, said: “We’ve been talking about how AI might be used in live production for a few years now and I’m delighted to see Ross leading the way with Vision[Ai]ry, which represents an innovative and highly creative solution.

”Our customers consistently tell us they need to work more efficiently and rationalise their workflows – Vision[Ai]ry Ft meets these challenges head on and holds true to our philosophy of helping drive high-impact, high-efficiency productions.”