By Julie Beck Posted 05.02.2011 at 11:58 am 6 Comments

Must-Watch Machine

By connecting a pico projector and an eye-tracking camera, students from the University of Texas at Austin have created a virtual reality gaming setup in which the player cannot tear their eyes away from the action – literally.

The pico projector is motorized, so as the camera tracks a player’s line of vision, the view of the gaming world shifts to follow their gaze. It does not require them to hold anything, or have anything attached to them. The students have tested the system with a first-person shooter game, which this system seems perfectly suited for, as well as a flight simulator where the player controls the pitch and roll of an aircraft by moving their head.

In this early stage of development, players have to sit precisely in front of the eye tracker in order for it to work. Not to mention the display looks a little meager at this point. However, with time and a little work, this system could allow for the next generation of Kinect-like gaming to be even more immersive.


[PicoProjectorInfo via Engadget]

6 Comments

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williamlweaver
05/02/11 at 12:40 pm

Julie, It's even more awesome than your story suggests. Rather than just keeping the image in the line of sight of the player, the system actually displays a different portion of the panoramic vista. It would be like turning your head to look out the right window of the cockpit. =]

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-my name here-
05/02/11 at 12:52 pm

behold, a new area of brainwashing people.

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Addictedtotheline
05/02/11 at 1:31 pm

That would be insane with the Kinect, then you could actually make a life like shooter, cant wait for them to finsih this and get this on the market! Hopefully Microsoft will buy the technology and intergrate it with the Kinect. All in all, this is beast.

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antaro
05/02/11 at 3:09 pm

What about peripheral vision? I would rather have that whole wall full of images and my head position right in the center. So I'm fully immersed in the image. The eye tracking could be used as a secondary info display. Like the revers setup in the Apache. You move your head and the gun moves. While you use your eyes for vision.

None the less it's a cool tech.

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xalar
05/02/11 at 11:52 pm

First off, when until they generate it with a 3d (2 screen overlapping for 2 eyes) projector and the person have 3d glasses. better yet, if they can track the eyes, then why not have it like the Nintendo 3DS.

if only, if only.... OK, ten years from now I'm in the shopping line

These guys should team up with Zdenek Kalal and his predator tracking system.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-04/video-predator-camera-learns-and-tracks-objects-any-position

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xalar
05/04/11 at 7:15 pm

Then there was the guys who created the sun blocking glasses via some liquid crystals. with this they could actually implement it on the window shield.



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