The Universiade has really brought out pandas. Zhang Ci: Each person has a zero distance group photo of a panda | Video | Universiade
Editor's note
The 31st Chengdu Summer Universiade is about to be held, marking the first comprehensive international sports event held in the western region of China. In addition to the fierce competition of young athletes on the field, there is also a vigorous youthful energy surging outside the field, including the staff of the Universiade, foreign volunteers, and various scientific and technological innovation personnel... They shine and shine in their respective positions, jointly writing the unique brilliance of the Chengdu Universiade and leaving shining footprints for the Universiade.
The biggest gain from interviewing Zhang Ci, a young entrepreneur born in the 1980s, was that the reporter had the first video of interacting with pandas in his life, as well as the first photo taken with pandas at zero distance.
It's true, the Chengdu Universiade has sent pandas!
In this midsummer, the "top flowing" flowers of Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Base basically hide in air-conditioned houses every afternoon, making it difficult for fans from all over the country and even the world to see their beautiful faces. But at the entrance of the base, a "Flower Home - Metaverse Giant Panda Interactive Experience Hall" can make up for the regret.
In the experience hall, in addition to various eye-catching panda cultural and creative products, there is also Zhang Ci's flagship product "Volume Video Panda XR Co production".
On the screen, tourists pick up bamboo shoots and shake them a few times, attracting the adorable panda to pass by; But in reality, tourists face nothing and rely solely on their acting skills. Of course, this does not prevent tourists from downloading, posting on social media, and receiving countless likes for their interactive videos with pandas in real time.
During the Universiade, everyone who comes here can enjoy the national treasure gifts brought by this technology.
As the CTO of this startup company, Zhang Ci has been engaged in the virtual reality industry for over a decade. He admitted that the volume video used in Panda co production is a relatively mature technology, but rarely has any connection with the lives of ordinary people. "I want technology to move from the laboratory to life," he said.
Zhang Ci explained that volume video is a technique that can capture three-dimensional spatial information and generate a sequence of three-dimensional models. They use a professional camera to form a 360 degree shooting matrix to obtain activity videos of giant pandas, and then use special effects shooting technology to achieve "co frame shooting" between the experiencer and the giant panda.
Zhang Ci is a native of Chengdu, where he spent his time from elementary school to university. He studied computer science for his undergraduate degree and went abroad for graduate studies, studying virtual reality related majors. After returning to China, he worked as an airport tower simulator for 5 years and an aircraft simulator for 3 years. Although it seems far from being in sync with the current pandas, in fact, his expertise has always been based on virtual reality.
In 2018, Zhang Ci started his own business and the experience center officially opened during last year's National Day holiday. Although it is a virtual reality, the one who takes photos with the tourists is a fake panda named "Er Wa". The Zhang Ci team filmed it for a week and said, "Pandas don't pose according to your needs, we can only capture them.". Accumulated several hours of material, currently only a few seconds have been selected for co shooting with tourists.
The love of pandas among tourists has made the experience center profitable less than a year after its opening. "I have been working on technology for over a decade, and used to develop things with a technology oriented approach. However, after creating this experience hall for ordinary consumers, I feel that my ideas have changed. In the past, I used to create my own, just like it, but now I think that this technology should be useful and enjoyable for everyone," said Zhang Ci.
Technology makes ordinary people's lives better, which is the wish of Zhang Ci and his experience center. Accompanied by the lively "click" sound in the "home of flowers" every day, this wish is on the way to realization.
