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Head tracking seems to be all the rage at the moment. Joining the ever-growing array of applications is a free program by Free Track, who have released version 2 of their free head tracking software.
I’ve mentioned a couple of others in the past, namely Track IR 4 Pro (reviewed here) and Cachya (see previous post). Track IR 4 Pro is a hardware/software package and Cachya is commercial software. Free Track’s obvious advantage is that it’s free, although you’ll need a webcam and an LED device for the webcam and software to detect your head movement.
The web site offers instructions and a wizard to enable you to choose the right components to build the LED device that you’ll need to build, or have someone build for you. Various options are supported. A single LED module will enable yaw and pitch detection, whilst 3 and 4 LED modules will allows for full 6 degrees of freedom tracking.
It looks like a fun project. If anyone decides to have a go with this, let us know how you get on with it.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Traz 08.18.07 at 5:50 pm
It’s not just ‘fun’ it works really well and proves that TrackIR is a monopoly founded on a glorified webcam.
mark.avey 08.18.07 at 6:33 pm
I’m not sure that’s a particularly fair comment on TrackIR. For one, a lot of people wouldn’t have the skill and/or confidence to make a do-it-yourself kit.
Mark - FlightSimX
Traz 08.20.07 at 6:43 am
You don’t need skill and/or confidence, soon you’ll be able to buy kits or pre-built hardware on ebay for practically nothing. Headtracking is not a premium technology, no moreso than an optical mouse.