TrackIR: Difference between revisions
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* [http://www.naturalpoint.com/ NaturalPoint Inc. official website] |
* [http://www.naturalpoint.com/ NaturalPoint Inc. official website] |
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* [http://www.cachya.com Cachya Software website] |
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[[Category:Video game hardware]] |
[[Category:Video game hardware]] |
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Revision as of 18:42, 14 March 2008
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TrackIR is an optical motion tracking system created by NaturalPoint Inc. It is a game controller that captures head motions with six degrees of freedom and translates them into mouse/cursor movements. It does this by means of an infrared transmitter/receiver which is placed in front of the user and reflective spots or infrared LEDs which are worn by the user. The TrackIR software lets the user configure the ratio of actual head movement to virtual head movement. This allows the virtual head to turn 180 degrees whilst the user still looks at the monitor.
Conceptually, it is a motion capture studio that has been scaled to use just 3 markers. While TrackIR can emulate standard PC controls (mouse, keyboard, and joystick), it is most often used as its own input, in the games which have programmed direct support for it. The advantage of these supported games is that TrackIR can remember where the user's centre point is, so even if the user leaves the computer the view will still be centred.[1]
Technical details
TrackIR’s primary hardware component is a specialized infra-red camera with on-board FPGA. This usually sits or clips on a computer monitor, capturing images at 120 frames per second, and internally processing these images into simple data that is sent to the computer via USB. An application runs in the background to let users adjust smoothing and motion scaling before it is sent on to the active game through shared memory.
TrackIR’s secondary hardware component is a rigid body with three featherweight markers (either reflective material, or infrared LED lights), which are mounted somewhere on the user’s head. The most recent rigid body accessory is called TrackClip PRO, and is used to attach three infrared LED lights to any standard headset.
Supported games
In order for a game to recognize TrackIR as its own separate input, the game must be TrackIR Enhanced.[2] Otherwise, the TrackIR will be in Mouse Emulation mode which many other games support for view controls. As of 26 March 2007 the most commonly played games with this special TrackIR Enhancement include ArmA: Armed Assault, Test Drive Unlimited, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Live For Speed, Enemy Engaged 2, and Falcon 4.0: Allied Force.
History
The most recent version of the product is TrackIR 4:PRO. Improvements over previous models include a larger field of view, faster response time, and smaller size. The TrackIR 4:PRO is approximately the size of a golf ball.