TrackIR

[FreakSoftware]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AO0F5sLdVM
http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

This is all new to me. Any of you heard of this before? Anyone tried it?

[AnotherJake]

Interesting, but ugh... The "we have patented math" thing killed me. :(

How much `patented math' do you have to use to calculate where something is if you have three spatially-known red dots in front of a camera? I learned triangulation in pre-calc 1. I'd bet the Toysight guys could do the same thing with paper and a day-glo marker. :rolleyes:

[Nick]

I'm not sure I see the point. If I rotate my head away I have to turn my eyes back to see the screen.

Maybe once they toss in virtual reality glasses so that the screen is fixed right in front of my eyes it will be better. Then you can have the controller/keyboard-mouse to move you around and turn your body and then you can look with your head just like they show and you will be able to see what's in front of your character without moving your eyes to look back at the monitor.

[FreakSoftware]

I'm not sure I see the point. If I rotate my head away I have to turn my eyes back to see the screen.

That's the thing that bugged me about it too, but it's really not an issue when you think about it.

The guy should have explained it more, but his point was that the movement scaling or whatever he called it, is what handles this. You would set the scaling such that to look 90º left, you'd look at the edge of your monitor, and maybe a virtual 180º is a physical 45º. Of course you have to keep your eyes on the screen, but in reality you can't look 180º behind you without looking out of the corner of your eye anyway.

And when you think about it, turning your head and having to look out of the corner of your eye to look completely behind you while still moving straight ahead and not doing anything differently with your hands, is pretty cool. And the leaning around corners could work really well (though IMO the demo showed that it was either poorly demoed or poorly implemented in that particular game).

I think it'd be really cool to have, though it would definitely take a long time to get used to.

America's Army has support for this, so whenever I get an Intel mac, I'll buy TrackIR and tell you how it goes :)

[Nick]

The guy should have explained it more, but his point was that the movement scaling or whatever he called it, is what handles this. You would set the scaling such that to look 90º left, you'd look at the edge of your monitor, and maybe a virtual 180º is a physical 45º. Of course you have to keep your eyes on the screen, but in reality you can't look 180º behind you without looking out of the corner of your eye anyway.

True, but in this case you are reversing which corner of your eye you are looking out. For instance, you want to turn your head to the left and look behind you. Normally you put your eyes in the left corner, but in this case you turn your head left, but your eyes shift right to stay with the monitor. Just seems awkward.

But do get one and let all of us know how it is. :)

[JustinFic]

I'm not sure I see the point. If I rotate my head away I have to turn my eyes back to see the screen.

Maybe once they toss in virtual reality glasses so that the screen is fixed right in front of my eyes it will be better.

That was my first impression too, but after seeing the demo it started to look really cool. It seemed that the head-turning is for kind of a "secondary" look, so looking around in flight sims or racing games (which would otherwise be awkward controls) and looking without turning in an FPS, which, aside from Marathon, doesn't even exist as far as I know. It seems like it's something that once I got used to it, it could feel very natural.

But yeah, face met palm when I heard "patented math" too. Give me a napkin and 5 minutes.

[aarku]

I don't think this would work very well with my game peripheral idea: an array of high intensity computer controlled infrared lights to simulate the heat you feel on your face from explosions. :D The math for that will be patented, too. :p

-Jon

p.s. The peripheral could also be used to grill steaks.

[Joseph Duchesne]

I don't think this would work very well with my game peripheral idea: an array of high intensity computer controlled infrared lights to simulate the heat you feel on your face from explosions. :D The math for that will be patented, too. :p

-Jon

p.s. The peripheral could also be used to grill steaks.

Oddly enough, I think a toned down version of this idea would be pretty cool :P...

[BeyondCloister]

Oddly enough, I think a toned down version of this idea would be pretty cool :P...

Of course it would be cool if the heating has been toned down :lol:

[PowerMacX]

Join us soon at our new address, http://www.imakejokes.com !

[AndyKorth]

...an array of high intensity computer controlled infrared lights to simulate the heat you feel on your face from explosions.

<snip>

p.s. The peripheral could also be used to grill steaks.

Mmm, I just hope there aren't any bugs. This could be even better than the Therac-25 machines.

[FreakSoftware]

Mmm, I just hope there aren't any bugs. This could be even better than the Therac-25 machines.

I'm gonna guess that I'm the only other one here that knows what those even are :p

[PowerMacX]

I'm gonna guess that I'm the only other one here that knows what those even are :p

Google knows, ergo we all do :p

[JustinFic]

Mmm, I just hope there aren't any bugs. This could be even better than the Therac-25 machines.

p.s. The peripheral could also be used to grill steaks.

Well if things go wrong the answer is obvious. Just wear a steak on your face.

I just so happen to be developing a headset that does exactly this. We should team up.

[kestrel7e7]

Freetrack is a completely free alternative to TrackIR.

www.free-track.org

[ferum]

"patented math" Since when can you get a patent on math. What's the world coming to?

But yeah, at the engineering camp I went to this summer, one day we went to the local army reserve technology center and played with all their simulators. The convoy one had something like this, only with the display-right-in-front-of-your-eyes headsets (which the army guy said cost 20 grand each, yikes!). It was cool, you're head could move/rotate completely independently of your gun (which was mounted on a swivel track that you could spin 360 degrees, like in an actual Humvee).

Of course, if this ever get adopted by one of the consoles or something the news waves will be flooded with reports of gamers sustaining neck injuries. :rolleyes:

[FreakSoftware]

Heh.

Then you have to worry about the next step of gaming where we'll go into physical environment with VR elements, because the game might become smart and start to kill you.

Anyone seen that Xfiles episode? So rad...

[PowerMacX]

Anyone seen that Xfiles episode? So rad...

If I remember correctly, they used a vest very much like this one (http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/20/medical-force-feedback-vest-tweaked-for-gaming/), anounced 4 days ago. Something went terribly wrong, of course and the "feedback" ended up being a bit stronger than expected ;)