geoffrey@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz (Geoff Thomas) (05/27/91)
I recently saw an article on head-mounted tracking systems, using Lateral-Effect diodes. These little beasties measure the offset of an incident light source focused on their ~1 cm^2 surface and can therefore be used to detect the direction from wich the light was coming. With 3 of them on a helmet, and a matrix of extra bright LEDs on the ceiling, flashing in a known sequence, the position and orientation of the wearer's head can be determined. Now for the good part... They are very fast : update rates are in the order of 200 micro seconds. And the bad part... I didn't photocopy the whole article, and I can't remember where it came from! If anyone knows of the article (where it was published, etc.), or has any info about the diodes (price, specs), could they email it to me, or post it? Thanks in advance. Geoff >:-[] p.s. if anyone has ever seen the game 'Elite' on the BBC microcomputer (6502A), then they will know that doing reasonable speed wire-frame drawing is quite possible with a simple processor, CRT chip (6845), and a few k of ram, so why doesn't some enthusiastic person look into MS Flight Sim. and find out how the PC can draw shaded frames so quick?