Head Tracking

Head tracking is one of the key technologies that makes the Reality Cube a truly 'immersive' virtual reality installation, letting the user feel as if the virtual 3D world is 'really there'.

When being head tracked, you can observe a 3D molecule from all sides by physically walking around it, or bend your knees to see it from below. You can even stick your head right in it and see what's inside. All the time, the molecule seems to keep it's position, 'floating' in the air.

Examples

For an example of the use of head tracking in the Reality Cube, see this movie, which shows a subject immersed in a virtual world (the engine room of a large ship). As the subject steps forward and looks over the virtual railing, the 3D perspective is continuously updated based on the position of the user's head. This makes the user feel like he is really looking over a railing and into the abyss below.

Another movie shows how a head tracked user in the Chicken Experiment, trying to avoid the avatar that is coming straight towards him. In this case, the head tracking is not only used for the correctly displaying the 3D scene, but also as an input to control the position of the virtual human.

Technology

An electromagnetic 'Flock of Birds' sensor, attached to one of the shutter glasses, measures the position and orientation of the head of the user approximately 100 times per second. Based on this position and orientation, the 3D software renders the projected images with the correct perspective, precisely as they should be as seen through the user's eyes.