Upgrade your Consumer System to Research Quality

February 15, 2019

Sandra Bergmeir, Andy Beall and Matthias Pusch

WorldViz PPT motion tracking allows upgrading consumer HTC VIVE and VIVE Pro systems to accommodate research applications. Why, you ask? Well, let’s take a look!

WorldViz Precision Position motion tracking is about three times more accurate than the HTC Vive. If you are a researcher, there are many reasons why that might matter to the outcome of your study. Here are some:

In a given virtual environment, physical movement from one corner of the motion tracking area to another (4m by 4m) might result in as much as 6 centimeters of height difference in a corresponding virtual environment when using the HTC Vive Lighthouse tracking. On top of that, the height difference isn’t consistently in the same location of the motion tracking area. This means that once tracking is lost (i.e., when the system is turned off), the height difference might manifest in a different location. Subsequently, there is no reliable way to compensate for the issue programmatically.

By affixing our WorldViz PPT-Eyes to a VR headset, we can augment the VIVE Lighthouse data with the PPT position data to correct for the issue. A four sensor PPT system can easily correct an area of up to 10m by 10m (the current maximum Lighthouse volume for the Vive Pro).

Additionally, WorldViz' patented optical heading technology corrects for errors introduced by the magnetic sensor of the VR headset’s IMU (Inertial Measurement Units), and the WorldViz calibrated sensor technology corrects for position errors introduced by either non-calibrated sensors (for the Oculus CV1) or by the Lighthouse technology (VIVE and VIVE PRO).

If you are curious, you can very easily experience the accuracy limitations of your consumer system by trying a walking demo in your Vive system and checking your eyeheight against a virtual measuring stick. By taking this measuring stick to different corners of your room and measuring eyeheight, the differences of such a measurement across the motion tracking area will be clearly visible. Below video shows how you can easily try this yourself. We have plotted the pitch in addition to make sure we get a somewhat straight head when taking the eye height measurement. In the second half of the video, you can see how a system upgraded with WorldViz PPT tracking performs in comparison.

Talk to a specialist now to see how you can upgrade your system to fit your research requirements accurately! CONTACT US







Stay Updated
Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter
CONTACT US 
Phone +1 (888) 841-3416
Fax +1 (866) 226-7529
813 Reddick St
Santa Barbara, CA 93103