immersight postional head tracking for oculus rift 2

ImmerSight is a positional tracking system, that can be used with any head mounted display, being produced by a company in Germany. Notably, this could be a solution for the Oculus Rift developer kit which currently lacks positional tracking. The tracking system, which utilizes a webcam and a fashionable pentagon worn on the head, tracks translational head movements which can be used to enhance immersion.

At first glance you might think that the ImmerSight sensor ring would be unwieldy, but it actually only weighs 100 grams (slightly less than an iPhone 5), according to Stefan Hörmann, one of three graduates in the University of Ulm’s Institute of Measurement, Control, and Microtechnology that are responsible for the system.

immersight positional head tracking oculus riftThis impressive weight is thanks to the use of ‘sandwich carbon’ which is a lot like foam-core except with carbon fiber instead of paper on the outside. For reference, the Oculus Rift weighs about 379 grams.

ImmerSight uses optical tracking from a 60 FPS camera that hangs above the user and tracks the white balls, made of cotton, that are mounted on the sensor ring. The camera detects the balls and the shape of the ring, and a computer does the computations to enable 6 DOF head tracking without an IMU. Hörmann has published a paper on the algorithm used for tracking which you can find here.

The walkable space is defined by the camera’s viewable area which has been seen in demonstrations as a circle about 6 feet diameter (though ostensibly it could be increased by raising the camera). A controller can also be used to navigate further inside the virtual world than the physical walking space would allow.

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ImmerSight’s positional tracking can be paired with any head mounted display. So far it’s been shown off with the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer (check it out in our HMD comparison chart), but Hörmann tells me it could be adapted to the Oculus Rift as well. The system takes about 10 minutes to set up, making it a viable replacement for more complex CAVE systems.

See Also: PosiTTron DIY Oculus Rift Positional Tracking Prototype

The video below (in German), gives an idea of how ImmerSight works.

The system is currently positioned for the architectural visualization field with small and medium sized businesses in mind. Hörmann told me that ImmerSight could potentially work for individuals as well, but they’re still working out the price.

For now, ImmerSight is likely to be optionally bundled with the PaletteCAD architecture software. With a one click, users of PaletteCAD can render their architectural plans with textures and lighting to be viewed in the ImmerSight system.

The company is currently running five pilot projects with customers in Austria and Germany and expects ImmerSight to be available alongside PaletteCAD in October 2013.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Jordi

    Hmm this solution looks kind of familiar :-)

    • Ben Lang

      Indeed! Note the button at the bottom of the article : )

      • Andrés

        To be honest, my mind tends to ignore those buttons at the end of articles in all blogs. They’re usually just Facebook/Twitter/Google+ buttons, so I disregard them unless I want to share the article. At first glance I didn’t notice your PosiTTron button. Perhaps you can mention it in the actual article text?

        Thanks

        • Ben Lang

          I’ll give that a shot!

  • Andrés

    This article says that the Oculus Rift weighs 379g. However, the RoadToVR HMD comparison chart that you link to says it weighs 220g. I think the chart is outdated.

    • Ben Lang

      This was a remnant from back when the Rift was going to be using a 5-inch display. Fully updated now : )

  • Andrés

    Awesome, thanks for the updates Ben! I love your blog, keep it up :)

  • Oliver

    Hmmmmm… Even though i like the futuristic look of that hat, i have the feeling this thing is overdesigned, no? Does it have any huge advantages over something homemade like a freetrack set? (http://www.free-track.net/)

    • Psuedonymous

      Tracking robustness. The point of having so many markers over a large area is that even if a large number of them are obscured, you can still fully constrain the orientation and position of the setup.

      Even with Freetrack’s 4-marker setup, you can very easily turn our head too far for the camera to be able to see any markers, let alone enough to determine your position and orientation.