Action subversive Nuo Yiteng: young "created in China" is beginning to grow

Original tech startups, perhaps unsurprisingly in a place like Silicon Valley. However, if the word "China" is added in front of it, everyone's first reaction must be more doubt than praise.

"China is relatively recognized abroad in terms of model innovation and application innovation. However, technological innovations, especially original ones, are still very skeptical." Beijing Nuoyiteng Liu Haoyang, the founder of Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Noiton"), did not shy away from speaking to "CEConline".

Noitom is one such company and is winning the world's admiration and respect for its innovative technology. At the 2016 GDC (Game Developers Conference, Game Developers Conference), the highest standard, most professional and top level in the game industry, Noitom was one of the only two motion capture manufacturers that provided commercial virtual reality solutions.

Founded in December 2012, Noitom has independently developed "motion capture technology" that has been applied in commercial fields such as virtual reality, film and television production, medical rehabilitation, sports training, and game production. In the field of motion capture, Noitom has created the world's leading products.

Choice is always the key

Since 2008, Liu Haoyang has considered getting involved in motion capture, but he feels that the time is not yet ripe, "There is no such a topic in the market, after we talked about it. Everyone doesn't understand," Liu Haoyang explained to "CEConline".

Before returning to China to prepare for this project, Liu Haoyang was engaged in bridge safety testing in the United States—a sensor-based application analyzes various data and automatically generates a bridge safety maintenance plan. At that time, the sensors were very expensive, and it would cost millions of dollars to do a bridge test.

The arrival of the smartphone era has made sensors cheap and portable, no longer limited to industrial-grade applications. Everyone saw the business opportunities contained in it, and Liu Haoyang naturally saw the business opportunities. Because he has a long-term background in sensor applications, what he sees is that this smart device already has strong data processing capabilities. "A mobile phone today has more computing power than a computer ten years ago. This is an upgrade of the computing platform, and the upgrade of smart phone equipment will become a basis for the prosperity of sensor applications in the future, because it is portable, and sensors can be placed in people. body." Liu Haoyang said.

Liu Haoyang believes that motion capture technology is a major trend in the future. He believes that it is not important what the specific business model is. What is important is that this is a time to drive future product and service upgrades through technological updates. Opportunities, the most critical is the technology itself. Motion capture, in simple terms, is to make the "action" of the human body digitally recorded. Human actions can convey very rich information. Before, there was no way to display human information in 3D in real time through technology. Even if it could, it would be very expensive, and it could not be a consumer-grade product.

Noitom wants to make this possible with sensors. This is also the reason why Liu Haoyang chose the field of motion capture, he analyzed to "CEConline": "Sensors will be very useful in the future, sensor-based applications plus mobile phone device applications may be a very core technology, and even in the future, human The collection of information from the actions of the Internet of Things may become the core technology of the entire Internet of Things industry. We think this is a very important thing, and it is the best thing we can do.”

Why do you reach the "peak"

Noitom has launched four major intelligent hardware products, and all of them have reached the leading level in the world. Among them, the Perception Legacy, which is mainly for film and television production, is the world's first fully wireless motion capture system; the Perception Neuron, which is launched for developers, is the world's first motion capture system that can simultaneously capture the body and all fingers. While ensuring high performance, it also set a record price, with a minimum price of only $200. Its first product, MySwing Golf, is a teaching tool for golf, which has been sold by the Professional Golf Association of America (PGA) and has served many top golf coaches.

The explosion of virtual reality has led to the development of motion capture technology and three-dimensional natural body language interaction. For Noitom, this is also an excellent development opportunity. Project Alice is a fully immersive virtual reality solution launched by Noitom this year. It is also the only hybrid positioning system using inertial sensors and optics that has matured in commercial applications in the world.

In this way, Noitom seems to be a smart hardware company, but Liu Haoyang is not satisfied with being a pure high-quality smart device manufacturer. "We are typically driven by technological innovation to drive product and service innovation. If you don't have the relevant technology, you can't make the product you want. You must have the relevant technology to achieve the performance of the product."

Noitom's technology and sensors belong to both intelligent hardware and software design, as well as the current virtual reality and future artificial intelligence. What they are now proclaiming is: a technology platform company based on sensor-based motion capture.

Liu Haoyang's positioning of the company is: "Nuoyi Teng is based on core technology as a platform, and our technology platform is related to people. To make this technology platform the best, can maintain this technology platform. Leading, based on this platform to meet the needs of different industries, to produce different products and services."

The reason why Noitom's motion capture technology can be internationally leading is mainly for three reasons: first, the algorithm is leading, This is also their core competitiveness; the second is to have a professional team with high comprehensive quality. The main members of the team are professionals in a certain field. The founder Liu Haoyang has 10 years of experience in software development and management. Co-founder and CTO Dai Ruoli is an expert in virtual reality and sensor application technology, and another co-founder, Li Longwei, has profound experience in investment and market operations. The composition of its entire team is also a typical technology-based enterprise. At present, among the approximately 150 employees in the Beijing company, R&D personnel account for 65% of the total number of employees. Military-grade sensors have the same accuracy, the same low latency, and the lowest price.

Noitom has caught up with its industry predecessor Xsens in the field of motion capture. Xsens is a supplier of motion, orientation and position measurement products based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) inertial sensing technology, and has long been a leader in this field. Noito made a comparison for "CEConline". Under the premise of the same technical indicators, the price of Noito's products is Xsens1/7 to 1/8. The Xsens product is expensive because it uses military-grade high-performance sensors to achieve accuracy requirements. And Noitom can greatly reduce the use threshold and cost, and satisfy more small studios for experimentation.

Technical aspects are no longer a problem for Noitom, "The most important thing at present is to do a good job in productization. In the future, we will quickly accumulate our existing resources into productized methods and services. Large-scale promotion will bring more benefits at the same time." Liu Haoyang said.

How to fight overseas battles

Noitom's products have been recognized by many industry insiders in the early days. Despite this, foreign buyers still have doubts and worry about this. It's a "liar company". For Liu Haoyang, how to overcome the wariness of European and American users is a major problem in the promotion of new technologies.

However, Liu Haoyang said in an interview with "CEConline": "On the other hand, the European and American markets also have a very good side, and consumers are mature and rational buyers." He He pointed out, "Chinese consumers have very strong brand loyalty or dependence on brands, and most of them follow the trend of consumption, which may be a problem in the whole East Asia. In other words, if you are new, you have no brand. , in China, not many people will pay attention to you."

Liu Haoyang continued: "So, for a new product, it will only have its opportunity in a mature market. That way you realize it's a good thing, and you buy it instead of buying it because of a certain sign on it."

The foreign market is bigger. The promotion strategy of foreign products is scored in the industry, such as Noitom's MySwing Golf, because the golf market in the United States is mature, so Noito chooses to do it in the United States, and this is a field with strong celebrity effects. "We invest in the best coaches and athletes and gradually do it from top to bottom. Because we are not a single product, we have different points for different industries, and we have to do it according to the characteristics of the region." Liu Haoyang explained. .

Nuoyi Teng is recognized by everyone in the European and American markets mainly in two ways: participating in various exhibitions and letting everyone know about you; It is to do roadshows in some celebrities and influential circles, and to promote through star characters.

Crowdfunding websites are considered to be a platform for the publicity and distribution of a new product. Noitom also regards the famous American crowdfunding website Kickstarter (hereinafter referred to as KS) as a platform for publicity and promotion. In 2014, Noitom's motion capture system Perception Neuron over-completed the crowdfunding on KS with US$570,000, breaking the fundraising record for KS in domestic technology projects at that time, and the record has not yet been broken. Without the help of advertising, through KS, it has a very good publicity effect.

However, this product also encountered a "crisis of confidence" during the crowdfunding period. The shipment was later than expected due to production scheduling issues. There are many people who say that this is a "liar company" and that "Chinese companies are definitely not good", and various public opinions are rising. If the rumors of "liar companies" are allowed to spread in large numbers, the project will inevitably be aborted.

Liu Haoyang recalled: "We asked the US PR team to bring the only equipment to visit the world's most famous tech magician, film special effects studio, and CTO of a famous company at that time. Just give them a set.” After trying them out, they were shocked to find that these devices were inexpensive, performed better than expensive traditional devices, and were easy to wear. At the same time, as the first trial users, they sincerely recognized the product and felt that it was also an honor for them, and they were very willing to publicize the advantages of the product. This incident suddenly reversed everyone's skeptical attitude. "Actively communicate with everyone, find influential people in the industry and have the right to speak, and ask them to help you with publicity. It was some very effective work we did at the time."

Nuo Yiteng is still a critical period for product transformation. Liu Haoyang said that the market promoted by new technology still needs a transformation cycle, its outbreak will not happen overnight, and the road of cultivation continues!