360 positional tracking with dk2

"leoburton" wrote:
Have you tried mounting camera directly above you, looking down at 90degrees? It should be able to track 360 to some degree.

Would be keen to see a result of that test! Means we can use with omnidirectional treadmills.

My limited understanding so far is the player head-position where the camera points at the back of your head is your deadzone.

So you can actually pick your deadzone, which is the area the player is least-likely to look- and that may be different from application to application.

So in the case of a camera directly above you looking down 90 degreee- your deadzone becomes the position of looking at your feet. That may perfect for your app, or not-

I haven't figured out exactly how far that deadzone spans outward from the perpendicular line, but getting exact numbers is on the to-do list for sure..

"EarlGrey" wrote:
You don't need a rear camera.

All you need are markers at the rear of your head, so when you've turned your head 180°then those rear markers are picked up by the camera.

You'd need a rigid surface though, so that it's always the same shape. Just like Sony's Morpheus.

Anyway, our Oculus overlords will figure out inside-out tracking for CV1. Right Cyber? ;)

"antigravity" wrote:

"leoburton" wrote:
Have you tried mounting camera directly above you, looking down at 90degrees? It should be able to track 360 to some degree.

Would be keen to see a result of that test! Means we can use with omnidirectional treadmills.

My limited understanding so far is the player head-position where the camera points at the back of your head is your deadzone.

So you can actually pick your deadzone, which is the area the player is least-likely to look- and that may be different from application to application.

So in the case of a camera directly above you looking down 90 degreee- your deadzone becomes the position of looking at your feet. That may perfect for your app, or not-

I haven't figured out exactly how far that deadzone spans outward from the perpendicular line, but getting exact numbers is on the to-do list for sure..

Thanks Antigravity! Much appreciated. I'm primarily interested in the Rift because of the Omni and Virtualizer with VorpX. I don't want to sit at a desk, can do that already! I want to use the ODT to get immersed (and get fit!) playing battlefield or COD (with my KorFX vest). Been waiting 20years for this sort of tech to catch up!

I don't often look directly down at my feet in those games, usually just a 20-30degree look-down for stairs etc.. So I might be ok. But as I get into it, I may want to play other games as well. So it could be an issue.

If you have VorpX, once they update it for DK2, give it a try! Lots of Virtualizer/Omni backers would love to know the results!

But does it need to be 1.5meters? That could be an issue too. My ceiling is about 3-4ft above my head.

What about the Stem head module, that gives 360 tracking! (Update 43) Could that be used instead of the camera? Any thoughts?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/89577853/stem-system-the-best-way-to-interact-with-virtual/posts

Its these issues that makes me worry that the Virtualizer is 'too soon to buy'.

"leoburton" wrote:
But does it need to be 1.5meters? That could be an issue too. My ceiling is about 3-4ft above my head.

What about the Stem head module, that gives 360 tracking! (Update 43) Could that be used instead of the camera? Any thoughts?

Hmm.

My gut tells me you're going to have your best bet with the camera coming from above at an angle. You'll get a lot more distance that way..

With 90-degrees you'd also lose visibility of the sides i think resulting in less tracking points..

will try soon, and am optimistic!

I've also been doing above at an angle. I typically work in my basement den/office and it's not very big so I can't easily pull my desk away from the wall for more room. Mounting it like a webcam on my monitor wasn't the best so I set it on an unused track lighting fixture that happened to be in a good spot. It's about 1-2 feet in front of me but it's another 4 feet above my desk. I used the camera coverage visualization in the desk demo to get the angle right and now when I play around in Elite: Dangerous I can look most of the way behind my flight chair before I lose camera tracking.

That's more just for fun but it really helps when I need to look off to the side to trigger the popup displays in the game. When it's just 2 feet in front of me I can't lean in far or duck off to the side too much. Now I can lean in far enough to read text or trigger popups.

I haven't gotten a whole lot of time in other demos because a lot of them are problematic and I'm still sorting out how to get my own noob Unity projects working well but overall it seems this arrangement is better than just having it in front of me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlzeFp_f_kM

This dude just did the test! Doesn't look too good for us just yet. May have to have a stem as well!

"leoburton" wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlzeFp_f_kM

This dude just did the test! Doesn't look too good for us just yet. May have to have a stem as well!

He would have gotten much better tracking resolution from above at an angle pointing down..

directly above you're losing side tracking all the time really relying on one flat plane of leds with not a lot of perspective.. its orthangonal sabotage really!

from an angle, you'll have access to three planes of perspective tracking data for the front facing 180, two planes of top+side data when you start to turn away for another 90-140 degrees, and the one plane tracking only kicks in when you're pointed directly away from the camera for probably 30-50 degrees..and of course down and away from the camera is sketchy dead-zone land.

i wouldn't count this little tracker out just yet! ;)

"antigravity" wrote:
of course down and away from the camera is sketchy dead-zone land

Indeed that's why I mounted it directly above. Looking down was no problem at any time. Mounted above and to the side, I think tracking might be lost when you lean away and look down, but I'll try standing in a different spot and let you know if I get a better result.

"antigravity" wrote:
i wouldn't count this little tracker out just yet! ;)

I love the IR camera - now can I have two please? :)

I have found that this is very limiting as well. If mounting it overhead works, I could put together something, I happen to have a tall ceiling in the room I will set everything up.
Has oculus made any official statement about how similar this tracking method will be to the consumer version? If this is currently "Hey, here is positional information from the SDK, incorporate it into your games", its very useful, but if its "This is how positional tracking will be for the consumer version", I will be disappointed.

Thanks for posting the video, SutekiB. I'm hoping to make it to Gamescom in Cologne next week to try out the Virtualizer (presumably with the DK1, as Vorpx still not ready). I will be enquiring about future proofing this sucker (for all ODTs) incase CV1 is 'seated position only', which is looking more likely.

I hate to think that there will have to be 'hacks and workarounds' to get this running. Maybe Omni and Virtualizer should pair up with Sony instead, and get Morpheus to play ball!

I agree with Mystify. To quote Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda.."DISAPPOINTED!!"