Building new Hardware for Head Tracking


With the first demo setup we showed the potential of the Wiimote tracking but also found limitations. The most inherent promblem that did not cross our minds beforehand was, that the glasses we used were good for the use with a vertical screen, not so much a horizontal digital surface.
First, the IR lights on the glasses were pointing in the direction the user was looking wich made it difficult to place the Wiimote correctly. Secondly, the IR lights on the glasses would get registered by the table's camera and mess up touch detection.
The solution was to wear the glasses on the forehead pointing diagonally upwards. That made the need for glasses vanish. Also the detection range and accuracy was pretty low, so we had to improve our tracking hardware.
We started our third iteration of the hardware with a hair circlet instead of glasses and the general idea of more power, since our first battery powered solution was far too weak and even the second one with a power adapter was still not tracked appropriately.
We would now fit three IR LEDs on each side of the circlet, both mounted inside a turnable module. With voltage tripled these lights now produce far brighter spots, easily tracked by the Wiimote. We also increased the length of the power cable to allow for more flexibility.
All in all, the circlet is much lighter, more comfortable to wear, and doesnt obstuct the field of vision.