i saw somewhere about a diy track ir involving any webcam and a free tracking program, does anyone know anything about this? can anyone confirm that it works as good as the real deal..
diy track ir with webcam?anyone?
- Thread starter JamesBondage
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Yaffle
Volunteer Moderator
There's one here - http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=25988 using the PS3 cam.
gee whillickers thats a lot of steps haha
A year or so ago I made an IR led one using Freetrack, some LEDs from the local parts store (Maplins here in UK) and a WII remote as a receiver (using a Bluetooth connection the PC. Used it on some flight sims, and made a difference.
BUT batteries didn't last too long on the Wiimote and to be honest it was a faff setting up and I got tired of resetting the remote after the kids used it on the WII!!
The options I looked at then were the facetrackIR (new webcam), buying a webcam for the freetrack device or an alternative tool. In my case I plumped for the alternative - an EDTracker from these forums. Works very well, and really adds to the immersion factor. It doesn't give the full 6dof so may get an webcam to fire up the freetrack if I ever feel the lack (not feeling the lack yet!).
Waiting for a production model of the Occulus rift to come out TBH, keeping an eye on that as it seems the ideal match up for Elite
BUT batteries didn't last too long on the Wiimote and to be honest it was a faff setting up and I got tired of resetting the remote after the kids used it on the WII!!
The options I looked at then were the facetrackIR (new webcam), buying a webcam for the freetrack device or an alternative tool. In my case I plumped for the alternative - an EDTracker from these forums. Works very well, and really adds to the immersion factor. It doesn't give the full 6dof so may get an webcam to fire up the freetrack if I ever feel the lack (not feeling the lack yet!).
Waiting for a production model of the Occulus rift to come out TBH, keeping an eye on that as it seems the ideal match up for Elite
I use the Delan Clip.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331296415386
£24, PS eye cam £7. Much cheaper than TrackIR. I use FacetrackNOIR to support it.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331296415386
£24, PS eye cam £7. Much cheaper than TrackIR. I use FacetrackNOIR to support it.
Does this work well ? Its much cheaper than TrackIR, but still £25. I'd like to try this sort of thing, but between my pledge, new rig, new stick....ED is sucking the money out of my wallet faster than I can mentally cope with....Especially with Occulus on the horizon.
Would you say that headtracking is worth the investment for ED ?
Yes yes yes. I use the "Ed Tracker" which cost me less than au$50 and really enhances immersion and combat. I admit I felt a bit silly at first with a box on my head but you forget its there very quickly and it's incredibly intuitive to use.
I probably wouldn't spend big bucks on one of the expensive commercial solutions (better off saving it and getting an OR than an expensive head tracker) but if you use one of the cheaper DIY solutions it's worth every penny.
[edit] Even better, the computer sees it as a standard HID device, so anything that uses a joystick or mouse to control the view (like MS Flight Sim etc) can use this too.
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You don't need the DelanClip for FaceTrackNoIR.
It works perfectly well without the DelanClip - it just has a small amount of lag is all.
So all you need is a £3 PS3 Cam (you can get this from any CEX shop in the UK). And you are good to go with headtracking.
I will whole heartedly echo that thought!
I agree with the ED head tracker. Built mine this morning. Its really easy to put together if you want to try.
Or they do offer to build one for a little extra than the cost of the parts, its £25. The wait is 10 days to a couple of weeks at the minute but email to check.
It also works really well
Or they do offer to build one for a little extra than the cost of the parts, its £25. The wait is 10 days to a couple of weeks at the minute but email to check.
It also works really well
+1 for Delanclip, using with freetrack and it works perfectly no lag. Headtracking definitely worth trying and it frees up some joystick buttons too!
Yup FaceTrack Noir is working pretty good with a webcam set up. Most like to use the Playstation camera but I found other webcam to work well too. My webcam model is Logitech C270h , and beware one of the model I believe is C310 Logitech have issue with tracking the LED. Recently I made a new tracking LED that fitted on my spectacle which I wear, works really well and track very effectively...
Unassembled an old device that have many LED the circuit board and reassemble them into the 3point tracker. The facetracker is pretty impressive which works without the need of a 3point tracker ... but for faster effective and accurate responds 3Point LED tracker is the best option cheap to build too.
For the camera I place blue and red color gel sheet. 4 Layer stacked together in the day time and 2 lay for night time. Day time lights flooding the room usually cause track IR to detect more than 3 point and return error, but there is a slider threshold in the Software (FaceTrack Noir) to correct that as well.
Someone wrote in the forum about Opentrack and that it's better than facetrack... tried it but did not work well kept crashing with my setup. You can see my PC setup on my signature ... good luck commander!
The only thing you need to worry about an LED is that some LED may need a proper resistor calculation, which also means you have to attach a resistor to the LED or you will blow it. The best option is to get one that does not need any resistor and could work with a 9V battery.
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Why recommend making LED stuff to new users?
https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack/wiki/Aruco-tracker
Just track a piece of paper. Can't be more simple than that.
https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack/wiki/Aruco-tracker
Just track a piece of paper. Can't be more simple than that.
Pattern recognition trackers are not really good - they get easily confused and then your view just jitters around.
I made my own USB powered tracker for about 10£:
You need some LEDs (obviously), a resistor (a MUST), fine wire (I got mine from an extra telephone cable I has lying around), old USB extension cable, soldering iron and basic knowledge of Not Frying Electronics. There's a ton of guides on the net with step-by-step instructions, you can pick it up in no time.
And if you do fry a LED or two, well, they're cheap. Just make sure you don't short out your USB port.
It looks gnarly, but works great. I also use FacetracknoIR for tracking software, and I use max contrast camera settings (basic webcam) + a piece of semitransparent adhesive tape over the lens to lower the amount of light coming in so I can also use it during daytime. I use red LEDs - IR LEDs don't really work that well unless you open your webcam and remove the IR filter from it, otherwise they tend to be too weak and the tracker tends to lose them when turning your head. This may depend on the camera used.
Wide angle LEDs work best, of course, so if you're buying your own, make sure you get those.
I made my own USB powered tracker for about 10£:
You need some LEDs (obviously), a resistor (a MUST), fine wire (I got mine from an extra telephone cable I has lying around), old USB extension cable, soldering iron and basic knowledge of Not Frying Electronics. There's a ton of guides on the net with step-by-step instructions, you can pick it up in no time.
And if you do fry a LED or two, well, they're cheap. Just make sure you don't short out your USB port.
It looks gnarly, but works great. I also use FacetracknoIR for tracking software, and I use max contrast camera settings (basic webcam) + a piece of semitransparent adhesive tape over the lens to lower the amount of light coming in so I can also use it during daytime. I use red LEDs - IR LEDs don't really work that well unless you open your webcam and remove the IR filter from it, otherwise they tend to be too weak and the tracker tends to lose them when turning your head. This may depend on the camera used.
Wide angle LEDs work best, of course, so if you're buying your own, make sure you get those.
The past year or so I have had the PS3 eye cam (cheap on ebay) with the infrared filter removed, FTNIR and splashed a little bit of extra for the TrackClipPro (although I would advise against the TCP as it's incredibly flimsy and breaks with almost no effort, mine is currently held together with glue and rubber bands, Delan Clip would be a much better and cheaper option as others have said or make your own). Used that setup extensively in DCS and now in ED and have absolutely no complaints at all, works flawlessly. Cost in total was about 45 quid and does everything the 150 quid trackIR 5 does.
Aruco tracker doesn't get confused and there's no jitter-around.
I messed around with DIY point tracking and kind of gave up in the end.
Just didn't have the accuracy and stability I was after.
I used PS3 cams and bits of old disc platters and other filters with a Delan clip. Even replaced a lens with a wide angle IR one but still it went nuts if you moved your head too far round or out of frame or you had sunlight or a heater behind you.
The Oculus rift DK2 has 14 LEDs I think, to augment the gyros so it can combat drift effectively. Also for position tracking at all orientations with one camera.
Point tracking does work but really is so much hassle and prone to failure at critical moments in my experience. Latency might be an issue aswell.
I have built scores of EDTrackers and no one has complained apart from the post taking ages....
The EDTracker provides 3 axis orientation tracking but ED only allows us to use two at the moment. There is no position tracking in the current incarnation though the gyro / accelerometer chip is the same one as in the rift.
I'm not sure if there is a technical reason for that or if we are just tight on memory. Pocketmoon would probably be best placed to answer that or Brumster. I'm mostly involved in the manufacturing side.
We had a little bit of hassle finding a nice way to counter x-drift but that is pretty much nailed now with intelligent auto centring and the original per unit drift compensation. Software (GUI now, you don't have to muck about in the code changing variables anymore) is always being improved when Pocketmoon gets the chance and really it's just extra usability features.
Next thing we are thinking pretty hard about is Wireless, with X-drift stability augmented with a magnetometer and potentially some point tracking for fun. It also makes the Tea!
Not that its really needed, just that its cool to have.
Watch this space....
There are lots of videos on the tube now and you can get all the bits for about £15 if you can solder stuff. It's pretty easyto build and You just need the Arduino drivers so the GUI can flash the firmware. After that it just appears to windows as a joystick you can map to anything you want, no extra software required.
Not that I am biased or anything....
Just didn't have the accuracy and stability I was after.
I used PS3 cams and bits of old disc platters and other filters with a Delan clip. Even replaced a lens with a wide angle IR one but still it went nuts if you moved your head too far round or out of frame or you had sunlight or a heater behind you.
The Oculus rift DK2 has 14 LEDs I think, to augment the gyros so it can combat drift effectively. Also for position tracking at all orientations with one camera.
Point tracking does work but really is so much hassle and prone to failure at critical moments in my experience. Latency might be an issue aswell.
I have built scores of EDTrackers and no one has complained apart from the post taking ages....
The EDTracker provides 3 axis orientation tracking but ED only allows us to use two at the moment. There is no position tracking in the current incarnation though the gyro / accelerometer chip is the same one as in the rift.
I'm not sure if there is a technical reason for that or if we are just tight on memory. Pocketmoon would probably be best placed to answer that or Brumster. I'm mostly involved in the manufacturing side.
We had a little bit of hassle finding a nice way to counter x-drift but that is pretty much nailed now with intelligent auto centring and the original per unit drift compensation. Software (GUI now, you don't have to muck about in the code changing variables anymore) is always being improved when Pocketmoon gets the chance and really it's just extra usability features.
Next thing we are thinking pretty hard about is Wireless, with X-drift stability augmented with a magnetometer and potentially some point tracking for fun. It also makes the Tea!
Not that its really needed, just that its cool to have.
Watch this space....
There are lots of videos on the tube now and you can get all the bits for about £15 if you can solder stuff. It's pretty easyto build and You just need the Arduino drivers so the GUI can flash the firmware. After that it just appears to windows as a joystick you can map to anything you want, no extra software required.
Not that I am biased or anything....
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