Inside-Out Position Tracking Software For VR, AR Device OEMs: Eonite Announces Vantage Head Tracker

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Kevin Carbotte
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Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.

8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • problematiq
    That's funny, I was just thinking about this on my way to work this morning. "why don't they use multiple camera's and track movement for positional tracking." I didn't think about latency, but it appears that's not a problem.
    Reply
  • problematiq
    One problem I could forsee, How do you tell the device where position x-0 y-0 z-0 is? You can track position by movement, but can you track/reset your starting position?

    I suppose you could put a sticker on the wall.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    This is functionally equivalent to Google's Tango, MS' Hololens, and whatever Intel is using for their AR/MR HMD. Not to say it's not faster, more accurate, or doesn't do more. But, the core functionality is the same.

    BTW, it's no coincidence they didn't demo this in a room with blank, white walls. I'm sure the bookshelf was there to aid tracking.

    19147606 said:
    One problem I could forsee, How do you tell the device where position x-0 y-0 z-0 is? You can track position by movement, but can you track/reset your starting position?
    The origin is arbitrary. What's important is that the device maintains a stable coordinate frame. If you want to map a different point as the origin, that's just a simple transform you can apply to the pose determined by their SLAM system.

    Think of it like this: if you want to tell the app "treat this as the home position", it can take the pose (position + orientation) and simply offset all future pose readings by that amount.
    Reply
  • problematiq
    19227125 said:
    This is functionally equivalent to Google's Tango, MS' Hololens, and whatever Intel is using for their AR/MR HMD. Not to say it's not faster, more accurate, or doesn't do more. But, the core functionality is the same.

    BTW, it's no coincidence they didn't demo this in a room with blank, white walls. I'm sure the bookshelf was there to aid tracking.

    19147606 said:
    One problem I could forsee, How do you tell the device where position x-0 y-0 z-0 is? You can track position by movement, but can you track/reset your starting position?
    The origin is arbitrary. What's important is that the device maintains a stable coordinate frame. If you want to map a different point as the origin, that's just a simple transform you can apply to the pose determined by their SLAM system.

    Think of it like this: if you want to tell the app "treat this as the home position", it can take the pose (position + orientation) and simply offset all future pose readings by that amount.

    It becomes a problem when you boot the device while looking at anything less than level elevation. Then your home position then becomes off canter.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    19229492 said:
    It becomes a problem when you boot the device while looking at anything less than level elevation. Then your home position then becomes off canter.
    I don't follow.

    For one thing, these systems can usually detect the ground plane (and a lot of IMUs seem to have magnetometers, which also help detect orientation). If they wanted it to auto-level, they certainly could.
    Reply
  • problematiq
    19230756 said:
    19229492 said:
    It becomes a problem when you boot the device while looking at anything less than level elevation. Then your home position then becomes off canter.
    I don't follow.

    For one thing, these systems can usually detect the ground plane (and I'm not sure exactly what they get out of the IMU). If they wanted it to auto-level, they certainly could.

    You're talking about the ability to sense what is level solely based on a Kinect sensor. the HMD's themselves cannot necessarily tell what is level and what is not. Some have a level sensor, sure. But other HMD's rely on external camera's/lasers to tell the HMD where it is and where it is pointing.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    19230821 said:
    You're talking about the ability to sense what is level solely based on a Kinect sensor.
    From the article:
    Eonite’s Vantage Head Tracker technology combines depth information from embedded cameras and internal IMU sensors to track your headset’s position in 3D space.
    If the IMU has a 3-axis magnetometer, then it can trivially get orientation. Otherwise, it has to rely on ground plane detection. That should work well enough, for most cases.
    Reply
  • problematiq
    19230857 said:
    19230821 said:
    You're talking about the ability to sense what is level solely based on a Kinect sensor.
    From the article:
    Eonite’s Vantage Head Tracker technology combines depth information from embedded cameras and internal IMU sensors to track your headset’s position in 3D space.
    If the IMU has a 3-axis magnetometer, then it can trivially get orientation. Otherwise, it has to rely on ground plane detection. That should work well enough, for most cases.

    BAH! it has been a long time since I read the article. You are correct sir.
    Reply