Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!milton!xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: Re: rambling on motion Message-ID: <10960@milton.u.washington.edu> Date: 10 Nov 90 09:02:30 GMT References: <10924@milton.u.washington.edu> Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 55 Approved: hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu frerichs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu writes: >motion sensing... >A very sticky problem. >there are various ways to sense the movement (rotation, etc. not gestures) in >the head and hand. >VPL uses a polhemus sensor (built by Rockwell I think) that works by magnetic >induction. [...] but... there is a problem... NOISE... >the system is so noise sensitive that the machine always thinks you are >jittering. Even with software compensation, it still jiggles a bit. >maybe this problem can be solved, maybe not... >does anyone have other solutions to the motion sensing problem? >we could use sensor arrays, but who want's to limit themselves to VR that >takes up a whole room...??? Me, as long as every room where I intended to use it was equipped the same way. One solution I've daydreamed about, given zillions of cpu cycles and unlimited cash, is to make the user part completely passive, no wires. Just line the body with lots of tinsy corner cube reflectors, the size of rhinestones, and put near infrared cameras and flash sources in each corner of the room. Given the topology of the reflector layout on gloves, clothes, headband, etc., and eight points of view, a sufficiently fast processor, I pretend, with just A Small Matter of Programming, would be able to deduce the position of every body joint, and interpret it into gestures. Given the reality, corner cube decorated clothing would be all the rage, and one would even be able (required==1984) to wear a pattern of reflectors that uniquely identified you. I _refuse_ to do the math to see whether this is practical, but note that each camera and flash could be notch filtered to a different wavelength, and have it's own dedicated processor, so the setup could be at least eight way parallel. My experience with geodetic intersection calculations tells me you could get strong location information from such a setup. I suspect it might take a new generation of sufficiently high resolution ccd arrays for the cameras to do the job right. Of course, by giving up the wires, you also give up force and pressure measuring capabilities, but for attitude and motion, this should work. /// It's Amiga /// for me: why Kent, the man from xanth. \\\/// settle for \XX/ anything less? Convener, ongling comp.sys.amiga grand reorganization.