lowry@src.honeywell.com (Dave Lowry) (09/13/90)
Hobbyist-level VR gear can be cobbled together pretty cheaply. I've
built the following:
$200 - Stereo headset made of two Sony camcorder monitors driven by a
Mac II with two video boards. Field-of-view is very narrow;
someone knowledgeble in optics could probably fix this easily.
The monitors need only +5v, ground, and an ntsc composite signal.
$5 - DataFinger made from an IR LED and a phototransistor from Radio
Shack. A loop of cheap fiber optic cable connects the two.
When powered by 5v, the signal at the phototransistor varies
by a couple of volts over the travel of a knuckle joint. Scratch
the outside surface of the fiber so that light will escape as
it is bent.
$150 - 3-Space sensor (roll, pitch, yaw). Haven't actually finished
this one. Radio Shack sells a flux gate compass for $50 that
outputs magnetic heading by sensing the Earth's magnetic field
lines. As the compeass is pitched or rolled, it thinks the
heading has changed. So, it seems to me you could assemble
three of these in orthogonal axes, and, with a little math,
get roll, pitch, and yaw out.
All of these projects are extremely crude compared to the commercial
offerings, but I'd encourage basement cybernauts to play with this
stuff, because I think that's where the innovation and inspiration
to make VR a reality is going to come from.
Disclaimer: All opinions and data expressed are my own and do not necessarily
reflect those of my employer.ins_atge@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Thomas G Edwards) (09/15/90)
In article <7508@milton.u.washington.edu> lowry@src.honeywell.com (Dave Lowry) w rites: > > >Hobbyist-level VR gear can be cobbled together pretty cheaply. I've >built the following: >$200 - Stereo headset made of two Sony camcorder monitors driven by a > Mac II with two video boards. Field-of-view is very narrow; > someone knowledgeble in optics could probably fix this easily. > The monitors need only +5v, ground, and an ntsc composite signal. I'm curious as to how good of a 3-D effect you have been getting. Another piece of VR hardware is just a video camera and a high-speed video digitizer. If you put yourself up against a white wall, and turn the camera on yourself, and feed the digitized video into a computer capable of doing edge-detection, you have a sort of data-suit, i.e. all your body motions can be observed. One project you can do with this is "tickle". One person gets digitized standing up, another person gets only his/her hands digitzed. The two images are combined on one screen which both participants can see. When the "hands" touch the "body" (using collision-detection on the combined image), some sort of "tickling noise" is heard. -Tom
jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (09/16/90)
In article <7607@milton.u.washington.edu> ins_atge@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Thomas G Edwards) writes: >Another piece of VR hardware is just a video camera and a high-speed >video digitizer. If you put yourself up against a white wall, and >turn the camera on yourself, and feed the digitized video into a computer >capable of doing edge-detection, you have a sort of data-suit, i.e. >all your body motions can be observed. Yet another piece of hardware already available for the Amiga. Mandala was shown at SIGGRAPH '90 (in the Interactive Art Show). You stand in front of a screen and watch yourself interact with graphics on a monitor placed near the camera. Their best software was the "drummer" setup, where you are surrounded by drums. If your hand intersects with a drum, a sampled sound gets played. Pretty neat stuff. -- J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120 Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Skate UNIX(r)
zippy@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Patrick Tufts) (09/17/90)
In article <7607@milton.u.washington.edu> ins_atge@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Thomas G Edwards) writes: >Another piece of VR hardware is just a video camera and a high-speed >video digitizer. If you put yourself up against a white wall, and >turn the camera on yourself, and feed the digitized video into a computer >capable of doing edge-detection, you have a sort of data-suit, i.e. >all your body motions can be observed. > >One project you can do with this is "tickle". One person gets digitized >standing up, another person gets only his/her hands digitzed. >The two images are combined on one screen which both participants can >see. When the "hands" touch the "body" (using collision-detection >on the combined image), some sort of "tickling noise" is heard. > >-Tom In fact, this very method was/is used by Myron Krueger, an "Artificial Reality" researcher at the University of Connecticut. UConn has an AR system in the Museum of Natural History in the Wilbur Cross Building at the Storrs, CT campus. Anyone can play with it. You stand in front of a projection screen. A camera feeds your image to a PDP-11, that sends your outline to the tv. Among other things you can: have a bug crawl over your outline. you can grab the sucker and toss him about, too. 'conduct' an orchestra. The number of pointy things on your outline determine the notes, you can wave your hands around and extend yout fingers to make different noises. Pat, who apolgizes for the terrible grammar of this post, and will probably be sent to the ninth plane of hell for his misspellings :)