Accessible Motion Capture Technology Wins 2025 Dean’s Imagineering Competition
Watch most any modern movie or play a video game, and you’ll see motion capture technology—think Marvel movies, or Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. The industry standard motion capture technology employs optical sensing to record and recreate actors’ movements, but it is extremely expensive, leaving it as a tool only for major movie studios.
However, a more cost-effective solution is on the way. The winner of this year’s Boston University College of Engineering Dean’s Imagineering Competition is HIVE Technology, developed by Fadi Kidess (ENG’25). “HIVE is a low-cost motion capture alternative for independent filmmakers and video game developers,” said Kidess, who built the system while completing his bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering.
HIVE can interface with VR devices, allowing for a better user experience while maintaining a lower cost, especially so with mobile VR. “Using a VR headset with a Bluetooth connection, a subject is tracked at 12 different points on their body, and with haptic feedback, so they will ‘feel’ external stimuli,” said Kidess. And instead of costing thousands of dollars, HIVE can be deployed for less than $500.
The judges for the competition were Executive Director of BTEC and Professor of the Practice Diane Joseph-McCarthy (BME, Chemistry), Senior Associate Dean for Finance and Administration Richard Lally, and Professor Thomas Little (ECE, SE). Ten teams competed this year.
“The judges were impressed by each project,” said Lally. “They were all high-quality and had original solutions to interesting social problems. The HIVE project rose to the top because the working prototype contained many of the features needed in a low-cost, high-resolution motion capture.”
Likewise, the runner-up project, U-Password Development, provided a novel solution to safeguarding passwords from loss or hacking. This convenient standalone device provides easy access to a bevy of vulnerable passwords.
For being awarded best in show, Kidess took home a $3,000 prize. Charlie Van Hook, ECE ’27 won $1,500 for U-Password Development.
Best-In-Class winners (listed below, with their majors) received $250 prizes.
Class of 2025
Nahiyan Muhammad, ME
Adonai Gray, ME
Class of 2026
Elliot Dinfotan, ECE
Anna Tretiakova, ME
Class of 2027
Moataz Sayed, ME
Class of 2028
Anum Kotecha, BME
The Imagineering competition reinforces the BU ENG ideal of Creating the Societal Engineer as it gives students the opportunity to express their creativity and entrepreneurial capabilities by developing their ideas into technologies with the potential to impact society.