Diferent method for positional tracking

[diegocesaretti]

Now that external hardware is on the table why not use something like these:


...but IR (and maybe laser? similar to kinect but with fisheye lens to archieve 360 degrees of coverage) to project a patern in the room and place the camera in the HMD (like the valve prototype), the projector could be seated in the desk or in the floor or anywhere and it would cover 360 degrees (Omni), it could be even battery powered to add freedom, the HMD could also have two cameras one on front and one on top to add more accuracy and prevent lossing the pattern in the case that the light is obstructed, it will auto calibrate of course, im shure if someone it's willing to dissasemble a kinect and with a little coding... 😄

[raidho36]

My room walls are black finish, there's no way you can get a "dot on the wall" by projecting there something. So that's an instant no. Otherwisely, the room is obstructed with all sorts of items, which obstruct the visual rays also, so that's another big no.

[320x200]

That's not necessarily a negative. Using the pattern to map the obstructions and making that safe-range data available to the app could save a lot of shins and toes.

[diegocesaretti]

"raidho36" wrote:
My room walls are black finish, there's no way you can get a "dot on the wall" by projecting there something. So that's an instant no otherwisely, the room is obstructed with all sorts of items, which obstruct the visual rays also, so that's another big no.

The kinect ir láser works on black walls with no issues, theres tons of vídeos online where you can see the pattern

[diegocesaretti]

Man... I was right on the spot.... Is should be working at Valve hehe... Maybe gabe read this and suddenly got "inspired"...

[ppRaistlin]

I can't help but being sceptical with this kind of detection.
Yes it may be more precise but what is the real advantage for gaming except increasing the price of the Vive Package.
I explain myself :
suppose you have enough room in your room to use it at its fully potential (you may admit it s not so common),
suppose you're a flat design guru addict and have no furniture in your room because you know, well, you understand art,
suppose that you have completely destroyed the Feng Shui of your room that your girlfriend has done the last two years by plugging all the cable on the ceiling to not have problem walking
suppose that you have 10 meters of each needed cables ordered direct from china and that everything went well : command, transport, quality (i may stop here because it s so unrealistic)
Ok, suppose you re lucky and we can continue :
suppose you have all that (not so many of us) and you want to play an FPS game, yes an AAA lamba game and not a perfectly fitted demoed game where you don t need to move far and where the size of the displayed room is not exactly the size of the room you are physically in.

So in that FPS case, what is the point of having this kind of positionnal tracking ? If i have to walk a long distance in the game, I still have to use game pad (we do it on oculus) or use another control scheme for example :
stand up central position => no move
one step forward / central => walk
one step backward / central => walk backward
But it s still something that Oculus can do easily today.

So what is really the advantages of this kind positional tracking..I m not convinced. I can do that with my oculus camera, standing up, 1,5 meters from my desk.
(as for the controller, i am pretty sure new STEM system or even customized good old razer hydra with longer cable can achieve the same thing along with the oculus numble thing)

Don t get me wrong, I will buy the first serious VR system that will come out. But many of the enthusiastic hand-on reviews I read told that Vive crushed Oculus on the positional/controller point of view.
I really think that everything was biased due to the increase of visual quality and the wow factor that follows each step forward in this this technical direction.

(it s just my humble opinion, of course and I apologize for my poor english)