Forum Discussion
Ideas for Oculus Rift use outdoors
The proposal is to mount a pair of cameras, each feeding into the relevant oculus viewport, on top of a gyroscopically stabilised pole with the width between the eyes proportional to the height of the pole so as to prevent body awareness issues other than scale. The cameras would also need image stabilisation to prevent nausea.
The camera-supporting assembly is to include servos and actuators to directly reflect positional tracking from the Oculus Rift headset, so that the cameras point at what the user is looking at irrespective of the orientation of the user.
Supplementary secondary rear-facing cameras in a 'rear-view mirror' to augment functionality.
Uses are many. The pack can be either backpack-mounted, tethered blimp mounted or vehicle mounted.
1) In civilian vehicular use, getting better perspective on traffic, including seeing past oversized vehicles while in traffic queues, better judging apexes, 3d rear view (see supplementary cameras above) along with all the ideal HUD type displays as GPS navigation etc.
2) Military vehicular use - all the above plus reduced user injury risk through reduced exposure to enemy action plus significantly greater situational awareness - ie an armoured military vehicle with no windows, only an easily and cheaply replaceable camera stalk.
3) Military backpack use - increased situational awareness with reduced risk to the individual - not only backpack mounted camera pack but also drone/UAV mounted, in which increased depth perception/HUD information/rear view/alternate spectra optics (infra-red, night vision) in which real-time head tracking and wide FOV provide a real advantage over current tech.
Sports:
Imagine going to a football game where not only is your view not obscured by the person in front with the inconsiderately sized hat but you can zoom in from your own camera pod in 3D and also jack in to the stadium's own action tracking 3d camera pods in real time.
Extreme Sports: A stereoscopic version of the GoPro head mounted cameras allows casual users to vicariously live the extreme experiences of premium athletes. The lenses of these cameras could be extra wide angle to account for software based user viewpoint limited FOV head tracking, but that's a different idea.
One other aspect I am interested in is with the backpack mounted camera pack - walking through he streets with a stereoscopic camera pack, the cameras 6' apart and the pole 12' tall for example, would you think of yourself as a giant with very short legs?
I an very interested in hearing anyone's feedback about these ideas. Please feel free to use these ideas as you see fit, all I ask is they get done so that I can one day use them. If you are planning on developing anything like this please let me know, I have loads of ideas for alternate uses and refinements.
The camera-supporting assembly is to include servos and actuators to directly reflect positional tracking from the Oculus Rift headset, so that the cameras point at what the user is looking at irrespective of the orientation of the user.
Supplementary secondary rear-facing cameras in a 'rear-view mirror' to augment functionality.
Uses are many. The pack can be either backpack-mounted, tethered blimp mounted or vehicle mounted.
1) In civilian vehicular use, getting better perspective on traffic, including seeing past oversized vehicles while in traffic queues, better judging apexes, 3d rear view (see supplementary cameras above) along with all the ideal HUD type displays as GPS navigation etc.
2) Military vehicular use - all the above plus reduced user injury risk through reduced exposure to enemy action plus significantly greater situational awareness - ie an armoured military vehicle with no windows, only an easily and cheaply replaceable camera stalk.
3) Military backpack use - increased situational awareness with reduced risk to the individual - not only backpack mounted camera pack but also drone/UAV mounted, in which increased depth perception/HUD information/rear view/alternate spectra optics (infra-red, night vision) in which real-time head tracking and wide FOV provide a real advantage over current tech.
Sports:
Imagine going to a football game where not only is your view not obscured by the person in front with the inconsiderately sized hat but you can zoom in from your own camera pod in 3D and also jack in to the stadium's own action tracking 3d camera pods in real time.
Extreme Sports: A stereoscopic version of the GoPro head mounted cameras allows casual users to vicariously live the extreme experiences of premium athletes. The lenses of these cameras could be extra wide angle to account for software based user viewpoint limited FOV head tracking, but that's a different idea.
One other aspect I am interested in is with the backpack mounted camera pack - walking through he streets with a stereoscopic camera pack, the cameras 6' apart and the pole 12' tall for example, would you think of yourself as a giant with very short legs?
I an very interested in hearing anyone's feedback about these ideas. Please feel free to use these ideas as you see fit, all I ask is they get done so that I can one day use them. If you are planning on developing anything like this please let me know, I have loads of ideas for alternate uses and refinements.
7 Replies
- 360 degree cameras accomplish the same thing without the moving parts. Also, head tracking isn't 'fixed' from the original recording, so that the next to view it can look wherever they want. One live feed could service many people, each with their own headtracking. Quality and some stereoscopic issues need to be solved:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=849&hilit=360
BTW you might want to read some of the posts by Geekmaster here or on MTBS for a better explanation of the topic.
Peejle
EDIT: Here's a direct link to one of MakingViews's 360 videos:
http://www.makingview.com/makingview.com/?page_id=23 "Peejle" wrote:
Subject: Ideas for Oculus Rift use outdoors"geekmaster" wrote:
Noticed you posted a pic but I don't think it came through...
Peejle
Huh? I see the pic quoted in the message you posted. You cannot see it?
I borrowed it from the attachment in this post:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=103789#p103789
Do you need to be logged into MTBS3D to see it?
EDIT: It is a "photoshopped" picture of Palmer Luckey with a suntan (except where a Rift would have covered his face). Here was a relevant reply to that post:"Dycus" wrote:
People are gonna be getting "Rift tans" soon enough if you start using it outside... :P"geekmaster" wrote:
Do you need to be logged into MTBS3D to see it?
I assume that's it because I looked from 3 different OS/Comps now with the same result.
Peejle"Peejle" wrote:
"geekmaster" wrote:
Do you need to be logged into MTBS3D to see it?
I assume that's it because I looked from 3 different OS/Comps now with the same result.
Peejle
Okay, here is a local copy:
Rift_outdoors.pngI will try to remember to NOT embed images pointing to MTBS3D here in the future. I thought their content was accessible without needing to be logged in over there. Apparently not (I stay logged in all the time).
This means that other images I posted here may have the same problem... :(
Any other borked images I need to upload for other posts?- This particular idea has several major challenges. The first and foremost is camera system latency. How fast can you get images processed from the cameras and displayed to the uesr. The second is field/depth of view. The last thing you want is to be attempting to operate any sort of vehicle that appears to be looking through two backwards telescopes that lag by three seconds.
"vin" wrote:
This particular idea has several major challenges. The first and foremost is camera system latency. How fast can you get images processed from the cameras and displayed to the user. The second is field/depth of view. The last thing you want is to be attempting to operate any sort of vehicle that appears to be looking through two backwards telescopes that lag by three seconds.
Most of the lag from webcams is caused by the USB 2.0 interface, although cheap webcams can also switch to a slower framerate (more lag) in high-resolution or low-light conditions. If the digital cameras can be integrated with a faster interface, it would be possible to have no more than a single scanline of lag (rolling shutter mode). Combined with a rolling shutter LCD, the video capture and display would have much less lag than the 1KHz head tracker sampling rate. So camera latency is determined by the design, not the available technology limits.
Depth of field requires fast eye-tracking and high-speed dynamically variable optics, which are still rather expensive (used primarily for military applications). So you need both inward and outward-facing cameras.
And THREE SECONDS lag? Even a three dollar Chinese web cam can do MUCH better than that! And why backwards-looking telescopes, when toilet paper tubes would be much more managable (and less expensive) for your proposed experiment? Personally, I have my Rift adjusted for a MUCH wider FoV, even better than a ski mask (due to the lens distortion increasing the FoV). Any less FoV in a Rift is a personal choice.
