Freetrack 2.0 - Your $10, 6dof TrackIR

[smokey23]

Im useing 2.2 software what ive noticed is the microsoft vx3000 webcam im useing seems to be overwhelmed by the IR led's and causes alot of jerky motion and if i look quickly to one side it has a tendancy to freeze in that position. Believe me ya havent lived till you try and land looking over youre shoulder not being able to return to center during youre approach. I have turned down the threshhold as far as it can go and the led's dissapear and just the slightest movement to the left causes the led's to become very bright. I messed with all settings and still couldnt remedy this the WII controller i believe will be less apt to get jumpy and freeze up because like was stated it recognizes upto 4 LED's Im useing a 3 point cap model and will be building a 3 point headset mount also and it has a higher frame rate recognition. Just a thought we'll see how it goes<S>

[potsNpans]

Im useing 2.2 software what ive noticed is the microsoft vx3000 webcam im useing seems to be overwhelmed by the IR led's and causes alot of jerky motion and if i look quickly to one side it has a tendancy to freeze in that position. Believe me ya havent lived till you try and land looking over youre shoulder not being able to return to center during youre approach. I have turned down the threshhold as far as it can go and the led's dissapear and just the slightest movement to the left causes the led's to become very bright. I messed with all settings and still couldnt remedy this the WII controller i believe will be less apt to get jumpy and freeze up because like was stated it recognizes upto 4 LED's Im useing a 3 point cap model and will be building a 3 point headset mount also and it has a higher frame rate recognition. Just a thought we'll see how it goes<S>

Try to Adjust point size pixels min. and max. for leds, I use 2min. 20max. yours might vary. Also in the calibration window the sensor width and focal length could be adjusted. Any camera buff's around to check, but sensor width I believe is determined by field of view you which to capture divided by taking the lower resolution (320x240 default for vx3000). Example 914.4mm(36inches approx. guess of led movement) div. 240 mult. by 2 = 7.62mm. Focal length would be determined by multiplying sensor size (240pixels =1/4inch=6.35mm default for vx3000) by working distance. I use the distance from camera to leds for distance value.. Your view lock up is caused by one of your leds going out of camera view.Increase sensitivity of and smoothing to allow less physical head movement but increase game viewing angles. I have mine set to Yaw 1.6sen. 134smooth; pitch 2.0, 134; roll 0.6, 15; X axis 2.0,120; Y axis 2.0, 65; Zoom 1.0, 171: It just takes a little tweaking to find your sweet spot. Also in set up for model 3pt. clip or cap, input correct distance from led to led if you have not. Cap setup is sensitive to placement of top led I've read on FT forums, so increase distance horizontal plane from side leds or decrease vertical height of top led from side leds.

[Fulmar]

As potsNpans said, you really need to tweak it.  I have mine at a good level now but it took some time.  The default sensitivity was set way too high for my rig and here are my settings.
Yaw = 7
Pitch = 7
Roll = .4
X = 1.6
Y = .8
Z = 1

Smoothing is set at 15 and on the Curves, if you fight click on the graphs, I use Medium deadzone IIRC.

[smokey23]

I'll give those settings a try see if it helps 

[The Fugitive]

Did you remove the filter inside the camera? Not sure if the 3000 has one, but I know my 2000 did and it seemed to pin point the beam better. Also and piece of 35mm film negative over the lens cut back on the ambient light in the room making it easier for the camera to focus on the LED beams.

[Eagler]

problem is with the 6 views .. any better with this than the trackIR?

noticed the ah youtube vid was only front /front quarter views

[smokey23]

Yes fugitive it does have a IR filter and it was removed the 35mm film wasnt enough to filter ambient light from the background so i replaced it with the disk from a 3 1/2 in floppy which worked much better. i was useing 950nm IR led's and thought they were just to loud for this app.

[Fulmar]

I used these LEDs in my setup.  Worked great.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062565

I also did the floppy disk filter as I don't think the 35 film would block out enough.  Plus who as 35mm lying around anymore?

[kotrenin]

well first of all IT IS FRACKING COLD HERE.   -3 Fahrenheit with a wind chill of -30!

Now then,  I finally broke down and built myself a free track system and now I'm completely dizzy


I used many of your suggestions.

Here's what I did:

I purchased a Wii controller http://www.amazon.com/Wii-Remote-Controller-nintendo/dp/B000IMWK2G/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1229913298&sr=8-1
and a set of safety glasses with built in LED lights from Amazon.http://www.amazon.com/AO-Safety-97490-Vision-Glasses/dp/B000S97ZW4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1229913370&sr=8-1
I also purchased a pair of inferred LED bulbs from radio shack http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062565, and a blue tooth USB dongle thingie with BlueSoleil software off of Amazon as well. http://www.amazon.com/2-4GHz-Bluetooth-Dongle-Adapter-Windows/dp/B0019SI266/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1229913235&sr=8-1
And lastly I downloaded Free Track v2.2.

I set up the BlueSoleil software first then set up the Wii controller ( that took a bit of figuring as I'm not to bright with computard stuff.)



Then I went ahead and replaced the bulbs in the lights on the safety glasses.




I filed the IR bulbs flat to give them a better profile for the camera.



I also had to bend and trim the leads of the bulbs to fit them into the light housing.


Finally I placed the Wii controller in front of me,

made sure it was connected to BlueSoleil, turned on FreeTrack, turned on the IR lights...

And low and behold, it worked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGP2YkXv5d4


Not well but it worked.

Free Track only recognizes 1, 3, and 4 LED configurations.  So I turned one light off and it worked better. I get 2 axis, pitch and yaw. I'm still working out the settings.

I worked yesterday and haven't slept in 2 days but I couldn't wait to try it out.  I haven't done any kind of little project like this in years so the 3 hours I spent working on it was worth it IMHO.

I spent less than $70 for the parts, shipping included.  Compared to something like $300 for TrackIR.

[smokey23]

Its gettin there man good job, Thats basicaly what im building although ive decided instead of messin with the building of the IR led's into glasses or a hat that ive done in the past im getting lazy in my old age im going to get a Trackpro clip from naturalpoint $34.95 that way it has the 3 points of light and 6 degrees of freedom.....man im gonna need more USB ports

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/02-products/product-TrackClip-PRO.html

[kotrenin]

Its gettin there man good job, Thats basicaly what im building although ive decided instead of messin with the building of the IR led's into glasses or a hat that ive done in the past im getting lazy in my old age im going to get a Trackpro clip from naturalpoint $34.95 that way it has the 3 points of light and 6 degrees of freedom.....man im gonna need more USB ports

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/02-products/product-TrackClip-PRO.html

I might do that after I try to build a third light, depending how that goes.  With the 1 light on my temple I lose the sensor when I turn to that side (somewhere around 20 degrees off center), I think my head and/or the glasses frame get in the way.  Because free track does not have a setup for 2 LEDs I have to leave 1 turned off.  It will recognize the sensor it just does not use it, so it gets confused when its on.


P.S.  The Wii controller does not come with detailed directions on how it works only directions for putting in batteries,  so it was confusing at first.  I needed to press the red sync button inside the battery compartment to get it to sync with BlueSoliel the first time.  This made all 4 blue LEDs flash while it was connecting and after it is connected.  The power button on the remote will turn it off but you need to press the 1 + 2 buttons to turn it on there after to resync.  You will need to press the 1 + 2 buttons again when you right click on the Wii icon and "refresh services." (remember you need to left click the mouse icon after refreshing services is completed successfully also while the 4 LEDs are flashing (1 + 2)) These buttons need to be pressed and the 4 LEDs flashing any time you try to connect, pair, or search for services with BlueSoliel.  Once it is connected to BlueSoliel and Free Track is running you should get a solid 1 and 4 blue LED on the controller.  I have also notice that I get a ghost signal (probably from the reflection from the glasses) when there is a lot of ambient light.

[kotrenin]

I guess if you forgo the glasses and IR bulbs you could build a system with a Wii remote ($30 + shipping), a Trackpro clip($39 + shipping), and blue tooth dongle ($2 + shipping) for less that $90 shipping included.

Not bad IMHO. 

[Fulmar]

When I built my 3 point cap system, it cost a lot less than $90.  More around $27.  It was $20 for an open box Webcam off Ebay, and about $7 for 3 IR LEDs and resistors.  I used an old baseball cap, a wire coat hangar with proper dimensions that later attached to the brim of the cap, a on/off power switch from an old hair dryer, a scavenged 9 volt battery connector, spare wire, velcro, and a 9 volt battery.

I did recently buy a rechargeable 9 volt for the times I left my cap on and drained the battery.  So that was $11.  I was worried that the 9v which is actually 8.4V would cause problems since Alkalines operate at 9.6 when brand new.  But so far so good.  Now the single charge battery life is not as good as a one time use alkaline, but I can recharge it whenever I'm done playing.  I can probably get about 4 hours of use out of one charge on the rechargeable.  Compared to probably 6 hours on the alkaline.  Plus I don't live in the same city anymore as my college Batteries Plus job, so I can't get the former employee discount (shh).  It was always nice getting bulk alkalines at $.80 a 9V and $.15 per AA/AAA.  Best deals I can find at 'consumer' prices are about $.30 a AA/AAA or $2.50 a 9v.

[kotrenin]

Yeah, I was just weighing the "low cost / low hassle " part of the equation.

[HomeBoy]

I guess if you forgo the glasses and IR bulbs you could build a system with a Wii remote ($30 + shipping), a Trackpro clip($39 + shipping), and blue tooth dongle ($2 + shipping) for less that $90 shipping included.

Not bad IMHO. 

That's actually getting close to TrackIR prices.  I saw the TIR 4 Pro for about $130 I think.  For $40 more I would be real tempted to just spring for the TIR4.

One really good part of all this is NaturalPoint is bound to be feeling the heat from all this Freetrack stuff and that surely will drive their price down.