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RSS >  Top headtracking, Would give the overall best headtracking experience
Virginityrocks #1 28/10/2009 - 06h32

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Now, you must forgive me for the excessively large concept picture, but I have a very high resolution, so I don't really sympathize with lower res users when drawing.

By placing your webcam/wiimote directly above your chair, facing downwards, and using a rectangular 4-point hat, you would get the highest level of capability with headtracking. Full 360 degree rotations would be possible, as the camera is always in sight of every IR LED at all times.

Right-click >> View image to see full image, or click here.
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1676/topheadtracking.png

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Edited by Virginityrocks on 28/10/2009 at 06h35.
pirate #2 28/10/2009 - 09h35

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Seems a good thought...

Doe you happen to know of any other free software for this application...I can't get freetrack to work and nobody seems to have any suggestions.  You seems to have looked into this area in detail VR?


Pirate
vicinity #3 28/10/2009 - 11h11

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Um, just looking at this quickly I can tell this won't work...

The distance between the two points on the left will be the same as the distance between the two points to the right, if you roll right or left. This also applys to the top and bottom set of points for pitch. Whilst rolling with pitch the diagonal set of points will be the same reguardless of rolling right & down or left and up and so on..

The only way this could work is if freetrack used size/density of dots which i'm pretty sure it does not, and even if it did it wouldn't be very accurate.

I don't much see the point in 360 degrees rotation anyway.

Still, if you do build the prototype let us know if i'm wrong.
Edited by vicinity on 28/10/2009 at 11h12.
KydDynoMyte #4 29/10/2009 - 15h55

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I've thought about top head tracking in the past but haven't tried it out yet. But couldn't you just use a 3 point LED on top of your head. Since roll is the only axis that the camera can see 360 of from a front view (hard to stand on your head though), couldn't you just swap the roll & yaw axis and swap pan Y  & Z? Pitch would still be pitch and pan x would still be pan X.

360 yaw would be good for more realistic movements while using a HMD in a sim cockpit or while trying to use VR while standing. It'd be really hard to hide the LEDs from the camera with this setup.
schermvlieger #5 29/10/2009 - 22h49

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I think it is a a very good idea, although I agree with KydDynoMyte that a 3-point system should probably be enough. If a future version of Freetrack would include a model for top-down viewing I would probably modify my cap to start using it, for a few reasons:

- Pointing the leds upwards instead of to the front would reduce the red glow on dark parts of the screen (the infrared leds I use have a quite strong visible light)

- The camera is less likely to pick up stray light from windows etc, making day flying easier

- No more blocked leds whatever movement I make with my head (within reasons of course   :stuart:

- Easier to place the camera at the optimum distance from the leds, as there is nothing in the way

- For people who use projection screens it would be a possible advantage as well

Sandor

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