[EgoAnt]

This cool little device can be attached to... well, pretty much anything. It mounts onto a peripheral and lets you use it in VR.

Want to track a camera in your scene?
DONE


Want to sell your game with a crazy gun?
DONE


This could lead to all sorts of innovation, and frankly I think it could be huge for training in VR, since you could model real-world items, model them, and then mount this on them.

Here's the full article.

[pjs37]

Just wish it was a little smaller. It just looks so big.

[papernut]

This will be big for sports gaming. Love it.

[iThunderbirt]

I want the rifle that gentlemen is using O.O

Will have to read more about this. Looks like a cool peripheral. Wonder what new things people will come up with outside of the world of gaming when using this thing...

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[GustavMahler]

Can it also be attached to any inanimate object , for example a wooden stick, or must the object first be designed in a certain way to work with it (like with guns)?

[Chemy JMHT]

This could lead to all sorts of innovation, and frankly I think it could be huge for training in VR, since you could model real-world items, model them, and then mount this on them.

Well in another post a guy was doing exactly that of the camera with a smartphone, maybe even cheaper if you already have a compatible smartphone, but it saves you a lot of work.

I want the rifle that gentlemen is using O.O

I saw the presentation (online) and somee interview, you can use a water pistol, actually the one used in that picture the guy who was interviewed about the tracking system said it was an amazon plastic replica for about $20 and then they simply putted the tracker on it.

Can it also be attached to any inanimate object , for example a wooden stick, or must the object first be designed in a certain way to work with it (like with guns)?

Can be placed even in a person, the principle is to assign a virtual object to the tracker and place the tracker in any object in real life in order to use it in VR.

[iThunderbirt]

you can use a water pistol

Bring it! LoL

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[Graham Devereux]

The design style doesn't really seem the best for a lot of applications. Guns for example will have it sticking it out a ton. I agree it will lead to a lot of cool peripherals but I wish it would have been a bit smaller and maybe a sleeker design. (I realize there are tracking issue that limit the design.)

[Chemy JMHT]

Some examples they showed:

[GustavMahler]

The thing I don't understand-how can it detect when you press on a gun's trigger? Or does it not detect it?
Because it just seems to make sense that it tracks the movement of the object, and that it would require some connectors to the gun in order to detect the trigger etc. .
Are there actually wires that connect to the particular object or you just mount it on the object and that's it? And if you mount it, can it detect functions other than movement and how?

[Chemy JMHT]

Well I saw a wire from the tracker to the gun, but being honest I don't know now.

[GustavMahler]

It could be interesting to know how it functions, because it could make a huge difference. If it is indeed connected with a kind of a wire that might mean that the developers must actually develop the gun especially for the Vive, and therefore absolute freedom will not be there.
Also, is connecting the tracker to an inanimate object is basically just the same as sticking the wand to this object, but just smaller? Or can it track the object more accurately across its surface?

[Cale Hunt]

Paging Dr. Holly - I know he tried out a rifle at CES. Said it had kick and everything. If I'm not mistaken, the rifle had a wire running from the tracker, which I'm guessing records trigger pulls.

[pjs37]

If you read VR Head's preview: "HTC has built a small Vive controller with a data port on the bottom that third-party accessory manufacturers can add to just about anything, making it possible to then add that physical object to the virtual world you're playing in."

So its a IR tracker that the sensors can pick up just like the controllers except you can relay data through it to the systems interface and presumably software to detect specific responses from whatever happens to be connected to it. Most likely in some form of a switch of some sort but I imagine any variety of sensor inputs can be applied.

[Chemy JMHT]

They even create a virtual Camera for VR, I mean a camera you hold in real life and takes pictures of the virtual reality you are watching



And as psj37 and Cale Hunt said, it has a transfer port and a cable.

[Cale Hunt]

The camera thing is pretty cool, but that rifle has me salivating.

[Chemy JMHT]

The camera thing is pretty cool, but that rifle has me salivating.

In the interview the HTC guy said something like "we just bought a $25 rifle on Amazon and use it" so maybe will be more easy to have your dream toy/gun soon.