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TrackIR3 Pro Head-Tracking System For Gamers
simfan writes "Ars has a review of the TrackIR3 Pro up that's worth a look. Using the TrackIR cursor control system originally designed to help the disabled, the company made a device that tracks your head movements in games. It turns out that this works really well in flight sims and other games where you can replace mouse control. There's some video of the performance as well."
I'm just not sure if I want something that looks like a Might Morphin Power Ranger looking at me from the top of my monitor. Not to mention what stretching your neck might do to you while in game!
When I was a physiology student, we examined saccades - high speed movements of the eye. We do not smoothly transition our field of vision to something interesting, we tend to "snap" our focus instantly to catch a better glance.
Where this was interesting, I thought, would be if we could leverage this mechanism as an input device especially for FPS games. Instant targeting and pretty damned accurate aim.
However, there probably won't be too much of a market outside that though, since smooth and steady movements of the eyes are pretty difficult to achieve, if not impossible.
Being serious for a moment, maybe they could use that as a marketting point.
"For every 3 gamers who buy one of these, we give one to a disabled person who desparately needs it". Do it right, they may be able to set themselves up as a charity and get tax breaks
World Vision spends rediculous percentage of its donations on marketting, but they've worked out (I hope) that the net amount of money passing to the causes they promote is maximised in this way.
So how about a charity or company who works to provide benefits to the disabled? And to top it all off, we never need feel guilty about computer games again.
"Get off the computer"
"I can't, Mum. I'm helping a disabled guy".
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
The article makes a small mention of VR, but really, this has to be pretty damn important for the behind-the-scenes push for VR game consoles in the next decade. Every game company in the world with a brain should already be planning for an eventual shift to a VR system, even if it's 10 years away, and both the dropping price and increasing functionality of this TrackIR product makes the feasability of a low-priced, easy-to-use VR console that much more likely in the coming years.
They track head movement, but your monitor is stationary. It's natural to move your head left to see things to the left, but with this you have to turn left and simultaneously look right.
I've looked into the hardware for making a real HUD/tracker, which has a display and does headtracking, and how to integrate them. For gameplay, it's mostly limited by the resolutions of current goggle setups. It's easy to find 640x480 goggles, but higher resolutions for gameplaying are much tougher.
If $140 makes you balk on one of the crappy units in the article, you shouldn't even consider the $2000+ it'd cost for a decent Head-mounted display.
They need to build the display into the headset if its going to work. I see other postings talking about having to strain your eyes to look at the screen when turning your head, etc. This is no good. I remember in 1994/1995 I was at this arcade that had virtual reality games... there were a few different ones... you stood up in this ring with a headset on... the headset had a display built in, when you looked to the left you still saw the screen... you could also see the other players walking around (Networked)... it was more of a virtual reality deathmatch. They need to get this sort of technology back. It seemed like there was so much hype back in the mid 90s, and then it sort of dissolved. Companies kept promising cool new VR products for the masses but nothing surfaced... people let go of the dream.
In case some of you are wondering why this is so vital to the flight simmer, well, it isnt.
But what it does it supposedly does very well. Being a former member of the IL2 Sturmovik community, home to some of the most insane, fanatical, and hardcore legion of gamers in the world, Track IR is a godsend to those whose day is ruined when they lose a dogfight.
Instead of having one hand on a mouse and the other on a joystick, they can now concentrate on the joystick.
Since IL2 is life to many a gamer, track ir really sadly enhances many peoples lives and contributes tp their purpose in living.
...a system that would cheat at cards. :) Very entertaining if it could be done right, so really you don't notice but others do :)
Some game, 3 cards, poker, blackjack, whatever. A cam that tracks head AND EYEBALL movement of the player, and when the player is not looking the game attempts cheats. Not replacing card values it dealt to "its own hand" in RAM, just displaying all the tricks, like sneaking an ace out of the screen etc, so all the tricks would be visible to everyone watching the game, but the player
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