Oculus Rift + Baby Phone

[Dielos]

Hi. Now this might seems as a ridiculous question, but it is of the utmost importance to me.

I'm seriously considering purchasing an Oculus Rift Consumer Version when it comes out (don't think I can handle the actual low resolution vs my actual 4k monitor). Before doing this however, I'm weighing solutions for the Baby Phone problem.

I have a baby daughter at home and a second one incoming for april. When I have the time to play ED, it's always with the baby phone in front of me. Now I'm using FaceTrackNoIr and it works ok. I can see the blinking light of the baby phone if the baby wakes up, and hear it also as I place my headphones a bit with an offset. I do see a problem with the Rift though... Although I would still be able to probably hear the baby phone through it, I would surely not be able to see the light, which usually is the first warning I get.

Now, the baby phone is my most important part of my ED setup. It has absolute priority and needs always swift attention. Abandoning the ship to it's own fate for a while is a common thing with which I have to live (how I miss a Pause button...).

I would like to know if any other baby phone owners and users own also an Oculus Rift, and how they solved the problem.

I know there is no way to interface the baby phone with the computer, but I'm sure there has to be a way...

Ideally, and I can only dream here... Would for Frontier to give me a message right in the middle of the screen like the one of "Incoming Missile", but instead with "Baby Alarm!!!", but I know this is not going to happen...

A thought I had is that it might be possibe to configure something like VoiceAttack to give me a warning, and place the baby phone right by the microphone, but I'm not sure if it would work.

Anyway, any possible solutions are very gladly accepted!

 

[robdood]

Ha, the dreaded playing games with headphones while children are sleeping problem.

Personally, we never used a baby monitor of any kind, just leave the doors open and periodically check on them! If they're crying for a few mins before you notice it's not the end of the world..

I know this doesn't actually do anything solve you problem.. (other than to say "don't worry", hehe) so.. With the DK2 on, I can see a little bit if the real world if I try to look at the tip of my nose (there are gaps where the housing doesn't quite fit my face) which are good enough for me to notice the notification light on my phone blinking, for example, or to check my headphones are on the right way around.

Having said all that, you'd imagine the CV will not exhibit this same 'flaw' (as it can break immersion somewhat). Additionally, I wouldn't expect the cv1 to have massively better resolution; it'll likely jump up from 1080p, but probably only a little. The improved screen door on Crescent Bay was apparently due to new optics/lenses.

 

[Lestenio]

I don’t think you are going to find a solution with voice attack.
VA works by you typing in a phrase to recognise. It then uses voice recognition to determine what you said. For example, recognise “hello world”, you can then assign an appropriate response when that phrase is spoken. The problem you have is you can’t convert a baby cry in to a text phrase.

 

[Dielos]

Thank you robdood!

The problem with my daughter is that if you react fast enough, she'll keep on sleeping, so that it's only max 1 minute out of game, but if you get too late to her, she wakes up completely and you could have quite a long time to get her to sleep again.

I have some fiber glass lying around from some laser medical equipment, if I attach one end to the light of the baby phone and stick the fiber glass thread between the Rift and my face through one of those gaps you mention maybe I can get to see the light. Who knows, maybe it works. I'll have to try, although I doubt it will be comfortable...


[EDIT]: You're right there Lestenio... ):

 

[robdood]

Haha, using fibre hlass sounds pretty extreme! There is software out there you can use to overlay windows on top of your games, so I'd imagine if you were really pushed you could set up a webcam pointed at the baby monitor, and leave it, in a very small window, overlayed at the top corner of the game window. You could even set up a voice attack command to toggle it on/off.

 

[Dielos]

Thanks again robdood, that's actually a very good idea! I just looked a bit around and there really are software options already available. Great! Problem solved!

 

[Sir.Tj]

As my two are 11 and 14 I tend to get a smack on the back of the head when they want my loving fatherly attention.

But as mentioned with the DK2 you do get a small part of the outside world so a well positioned monitor could be a good answer.

 

[Lirezh]

Don't be over protective with the baby, it's going to be a brat and make your life very hard if you attent to every noise it makes.

There is nothing wrong with a baby crying for a while, they otherwise learn that being anoying works to get what they want (which continues for several years).
It should be a balance of care and ignorance, if a young kid is shouting/crying/anoying then ignoring it should be as considered as taking care


Aside that, the easiest way will be to just look through the lower part from time to time and you will be fine.
Everything else would require quite some work.

 

[Ægishjálmur]

Here's an elaborate and overly complex (but very entertaining) solution; build your own monitor using a Raspberry Pi (http://www.raspberrypi.org/), microphone and motor.

If the microphone picks up enough noise to suggest your little one's waking up, the Pi starts the little motor (stapped to your arm). One baby monitor alarm on vibrate!

P.S. If you have the bits already, this isn't such a crazy idea.

 

[Roscoe]

Drill a hole through the front of the Oculus rifts screen and tape the baby monitor to the front so you can see the blinking light through the hole !!

On a more serious note. I read somewhere that there was a possibility that the Consumer version may incorporate a camera in order to support augmented reality. This would then solve your problem. Alternatively by the time the Consumer Version comes out your little one may be at school and this wont be an issue!

 

[hurricanepilot]

The first thing I'd try would be to open up the recording devices dialog, and then the properties for the mic you're using for voice attack, and tick the box that says something like "listen to this device". You can then tell windows which output device to send the mic input to.

The downside is that you'll hear what you're saying to voice attack through your headphones, but you should also hear any other noise as well.

If I wanted to know when the LED's lit up instead, I'd buy one of them wireless doorbell things and wire up the important LED to the relevant terminals on the button

 

[xondk]

There's always the homebrew solution, arduino (or such) + light sensor, taped to monitor light or something better, make it activate something that will make you notice, I think there are vibration motors or such, and you could put such in a pocket and set it so when that led lights up it vibrates? should be quite simple.

 

[robdood]

Don't be over protective with the baby, it's going to be a brat and make your life very hard if you attent to every noise it makes.

There is nothing wrong with a baby crying for a while, they otherwise learn that being anoying works to get what they want (which continues for several years).
It should be a balance of care and ignorance, if a young kid is shouting/crying/anoying then ignoring it should be as considered as taking care


Aside that, the easiest way will be to just look through the lower part from time to time and you will be fine.
Everything else would require quite some work.

Oh man I don't really want to get into parenting on the Elite Dangerous forum of all places, but don't listen to this!

Especially when babies are very small (<6 months) they literally do not have the cognitive capacity to 'learn' that sort of thing.

And I know plenty of parents and people in the psychotherapy field who would definitely argue that it's ignoring your children that makes them brats, not being attentive and loving!

 

[Sir.Tj]

And I know plenty of parents and people in the psychotherapy field who would definitely argue that it's ignoring your children that makes them brats, not being attentive and loving!

If you could do me a favour and ask them why I'm attentive and loving and they just ignore me???

But I'd not worry too much while wearing a rift when needing to keep any eye on your little one, you'll probably be far too tired to lift it to put it on your head.

(Not kidding on that last bit. )

 

[Tavern]

Maybe look into a type of child monitor w/ a vibrate function. I know there are many monitors that utilize blue tooth & connect directly to your cell phone.