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Oculus Rift-Based System Brings True Immersion To Telepresence Robots

Posted by samzenpus on from the from-the-comfort-of-your-own-home dept.

An anonymous reader writes: University of Pennsylvania researchers have built an Oculus Rift-based telepresence system that attempts to bring true immersion to remotely operated robots. The system, called DORA (Dexterous Observational Roving Automaton), precisely tracks the motion of your head and then duplicates those motions on a mobile robot moving around at a remote location. Video from the robot's cameras is transmitted to the Oculus headset. One of the creators said that while using the system you "feel like you are transported somewhere else in the real world."

34 comments

  1. Wouldn't it make more sense... by popo · · Score: 2

    To film an entire "sphere" of video simultaneously, and then have the Oculus (client) display a subset of that data depending on where the user was looking?

    That system would not only involve fewer moving parts, but less movement-related lag. It would also allow multiple simultaneous users to access the vantage point.

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
    1. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem is that you need stereo image information for oculus. A simple 360 degree panaramic image is not enough.

    2. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Depends on the application.

      First off this is not new at all. University of Tsukuba/Cyberdyne in Japan have developed a similar system, except it goes far beyond that into also using a master/slave system using an exoskeleton with VR googles linked to a robotic platform (http://cyberdyne.jp/company/PressReleases_detail.html?id=2783).

      As for the actual, camera system, it's important to realize that 3D vision is not just stereo vision.
      Being able to focus your eyes in different objects is also a very important element in perceiving a realistic 3D effect. Using a robot that can focus the camera and move them the same way humans move the eyeballs provides an enhanced 3D experience.

    3. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by michelcolman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You could put on three spheres, so that any objects are always visible by at least two of them. Then you can do some processing (quite a lot of processing, actually) to synthesize the images that would have been seen by two cameras at a fixed distance from each other pointing in any particular direction. I'm not saying it's easy, but certainly feasible with today's processing power. And it would result in less lag than actually having to physically move the cameras. Also, multiple people could use the same feed like popo suggested.

      There are obviously some disadvantages, one of them being the much higher bandwidth required to capture 360 degree vision from three cameras in sufficiently high resolution so that a relatively small view window still keeps enough pixels to look good.

      But lag is an extremely important issue if you don't want people to get seasick within minutes of using the device.

    4. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is for the Rift, which doesn't have eye tracking let alone eye focus tracking, so your concerns are rather irrelevant for the time being. Your solution sucks anyway. Capture of the lightfield around the object is necessary because the latency of (detect movement -> transmit -> move camera -> acquire image -> transmit -> display image) is WAY too long for VR, and if you think latency of that magnitude is less important than subtleties like focal depth or pupil translation then you're not really paying attention.

    5. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's not really as hard as you make it sound. You don't need 360 capture, you only need the visible frustum plus 5/10 degrees each way, so 180 capture would look over engineered, and 120 capture would probably do it at a pinch. You only need the data that you don't have time to reacquire, and heads can't move that fast, while servos can move faster, so you're only covering latency really. And if you capture from two cameras the right distance apart, you don't need any fancy postprocessing, just basic Carmackian timewarp processing on each eye. This also solves the bandwidth issue - you only need enough to match the display panel of the Rift, plus a bit more for the expanded viewpoint. 360 capture is only needed for still scenes, really, or scenes where you want to allow reviewing at another viewpoint and/or multiple viewers.

    6. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by lordofthechia · · Score: 2

      You don't need 360 capture

      Sure you do. What if the user decides to rotate their head 360 degrees in less time than the current latency to the remote system?

      --
      Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
    7. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if the user decides to rotate their head 360 degrees in less time than the current latency to the remote system?

      Arrange for an exorcism?

    8. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beetlejuice?

    9. Re: Wouldn't it make more sense... by slick7 · · Score: 1

      Using 6 fixed Oculi ? in all three axes, front, back; left, right; up, down; would possibly create a basic overlay for the primary, movable Oculus; so that any lag time would be shortened or eliminated.

      --
      The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
  2. Oculus and Facebook so happy for you guys! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Hey Mr Zuckerberg and Facebook And Oculus. Great job guys hyping a product for consumers for years now. Fantastic really, but yea it turned out you weren't there yet... in fact not at all... so you decided fuck it will we just make them for robots. And so you did, and now were supposed to rally and discuss whatever is your latest change the world shit fuck product riding on in along with the rest of the automation apocalypse. Hip hip hooraaaayy

    1. Re:Oculus and Facebook so happy for you guys! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      It is Zuckerfuck. Please get it right.

  3. Microsoft to mop the floor with O/R by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sell your occulus NOW! Get OUT while you CAN!

  4. Now you can hammer nail over internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It seems to me that old saying "You can't hammer a nail over internet" will not remain true for long time.
    H-1B will remembered with love when remotely operated surrogetes will come into labour market.

  5. hardly novel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This has been done before, even published. One example from 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnnMg1TuvEI Another from the same group with very different purpose: http://www.euronews.com/2012/11/13/a-world-without-limits/ I'm almost 100% sure there are earlier examples of tracked head movements changing the view.

  6. Combine with f**king machines.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ..... instant robo-porn. Like you were really there :)

  7. Surrogates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IT BEGINS

  8. Some haptic feedback missing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For example, if someone whacks the robot on the head, there should be some strong solenoids in the helmet to transport that.

    Bad AC, bad.

  9. cannot be sold in europe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    wouldnt it be bigger headline to inform the ppl that oculus rift cannot be sold in europe anymore due to the fact that they lost a trademark dispute in germany?

    http://www.heise.de/newsticker...

  10. False. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "True" immersion would involve sensory input other than visuals and audio.
    Another nonsense headline from Slashdot.

  11. Honey, I shrunk the kids by renesch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Would be fascinating to have such a robot at a tiny scale, and then run around in your garden

    1. Re:Honey, I shrunk the kids by psithurism · · Score: 1

      Would be fascinating to have such a robot at a massive scale, and then run around your planet(s).

    2. Re:Honey, I shrunk the kids by antdude · · Score: 1

      Yay, robotic ants! :D

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  12. Prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember a story where Ebenezer Scrooge built tourist robots that allowed people to visit far away place while staying at home.

  13. Nausea by Graydyn+Young · · Score: 1

    As anybody who's used an Occulus will tell you, even slight differences between vision and head movement can cause a lot of nausea. So imagine what using this device is going to be like, where you not only have to deal with a slight lag, but also a delay based off the movement of the robot's head. I strongly suspect that nobody will be able to use this device for more than a couple minutes.

    1. Re:Nausea by Crookdotter · · Score: 1

      What if the rift was mounted on an arm that you couldn't move so fast, limiting the movement and hence the lag?

    2. Re:Nausea by Lennie · · Score: 1

      That doesn't work, probably makes it worse, it needs to be as close to what you are doing

      If you want to get an idea of how well it works or doesn't you might enjoy watching the panel:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
    3. Re:Nausea by Lennie · · Score: 1

      Recently someone found out a virtual nose helps a lot, so maybe that will help:
      http://arstechnica.com/gaming/...

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
  14. Re:False... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (How long until this comment gets deleted - like my last one that pointed this out - I wonder?)

    Your stupid comment wasn't deleted, it's still right there. You are not bravely defying a shadowy agenda that's out to silence you.

  15. This brings us one step closer.. by almitydave · · Score: 1

    This brings us one step closer to DUI Telepresence Crown Victoria Figure-8 racing!

    --
    my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their
    I'm, you're, he's/she's/it's, we're, you're, they're
  16. Teleconference by RyoShin · · Score: 1

    I've always wondered about something like this, but with a teleconference. Multiple locations around the globe would have a room with the exact same size/shape/furniture, but it's all rather mundane and painted green. The participants in each location wear VR goggles; cameras around the room take 3D visuals of the room's participants, and then combine all the rooms in VR along with giving nice decorum to the mundane room, customizable by group. (Want it to have giant windows so you can watch Godzilla destroy the city in the distance during your conference? Yeah, we can do that.)

    This gives something more "intimate" than even the robot, able to project body language and hand gestures. The only issue would be eyes, like a raised eyebrow when a person thinks something is odd, or a furrowed brow for a concern; cameras inside of the goggles, pointing at the eyes, might be able to get this, but I don't know how feasible that is at the moment.

    You could even have nifty holographic projections, which would be great for architecture firms (and make it useful for even local conferencing as well.)