DIY Head Tracker, "trash-digger" style

[Meritz]

Ok, so I managed to complete my very own, scavenger-style head tracker for ED today using nothing but what I managed to scrounge up around the house! I just tested it ingame and was immediately blown away by my own awesomeness. McGyver's got nothing on me! I feel like Tony Stark.

Yeah, never done something like this before. Does it show?

I call it Mark I "The Borg":

For those interested, the ingredients are:

1x cheap old "made in China" head lamp
1x old phone cable
4x rubber bands
1x metal drape clamp
1x plastic clothing pin
1x length of thick insulated wire
1x USB cable

Hardware:

1x webcam

Software:

FacetracknoIR with PointTracker, Accela filter and Freetrack settings.

Tools: swiss army knife, soldering iron, solder, soldering paste, lighter

Procedure:

1. bust open the cheap chinese lamp. Extract the circuit board and the LEDs. Use soldering iron to detach the LEDs.

2. Bend thick wire. Fuss over the shape. Bend it some more. Until you get something that looks like the point tracker clip model pic you found on the net.

3. Slice open the telephone cable. Extract small red and black wires.

4. Cut and prepare the thin wires. Solder them onto LEDs to connect them into a circuit. Get tangled up. Persevere.

5. Cut away one end of the USB cable. Pull out red and black wires inside. Solder them to the battery connections on the circuit board. The one from the lamp. Solder some more, solder like the wind!

6. Use rubber bands to attach LEDs to the thick wire. Use metal clamp to attach the central one because you didn't really think this through. Be careful not to short anything out!

7. Attach the whole thing to your headset using the plastic clothing pin.

8. Flip the switch on the circuit board to ON position. Insert USB cable into your computer.

9. Wonder at your own magnificence.

Anyone got something uglier to show off? Post a pic of your marvelous creations!

 

[Gwyvern]

Looked at the facetracknoIR website because of this, says it dosnt need the LEDs, why jury rig them to your headset?

 

[Meritz]

Looked at the facetracknoIR website because of this, says it dosnt need the LEDs, why jury rig them to your headset?

Because using face recognition tracking is an exercise in wobblyness. It is also much less responsive than point tracking, you get noticeable lag and it gets confused if the lighting on your face is not even. It all gets annoying pretty fast.

Point tracking, on the other hand, allows for very responsive, precise and stable head tracking experience, even when jury-rigged like this. Plus, when you use IR LEDs instead of common white ones I used, you can put a visible light filter over the camera and not have to worry about lighting conditions at all.

IR LEDs are pretty cheap, but I wanted to try this bad boy *today*.

 

[Gwyvern]

Because using face recognition tracking is an exercise in wobblyness. It is also much less responsive than point tracking, you get noticeable lag and it gets confused if the lighting on your face is not even. It all gets annoying pretty fast.

Point tracking, on the other hand, allows for very responsive, precise and stable head tracking experience, even when jury-rigged like this. Plus, when you use IR LEDs instead of common white ones I used, you can put a visible light filter over the camera and not have to worry about lighting conditions at all.

IR LEDs are pretty cheap, but I wanted to try this bad boy *today*.

I dont want wires hanging off my head...if this works I might just go walmart and tape some micro LED flashlights to my headset...or...something

That rig of yours is pretty gnarly

 

[Meritz]

I dont want wires hanging off my head...if this works I might just go walmart and tape some micro LED flashlights to my headset...or...something

That rig of yours is pretty gnarly

Of course it is. Mark II will have rusty spikes too!

If you don't want a USB connection, you can set up a battery pack, attach it to the headset as well. I prefer not to have to worry about batteries myself. Besides, when flying virtual spaceships, wires hanging off your head are kinda immersive.