From: waleed@cse.unsw.edu.au (Mohammed Waleed Kadous)
Subject: Re: TECH: wireless tracking and some fighting
Date: 6 Jan 1997 04:09:49 GMT
Message-ID: <5aptud$45a$1@mirv.unsw.edu.au>
Organization: University of New South Wales


Aaron Brancotti (aaron@INET.IT) wrote:

: I have been asked to extimate the possibility of building a kind of
: virtual "sport fighting game" and I need to track the head and the
: hands of a player. I was thinking about Polhemus and similar devices,
: but obviously the wires are a problem. Does anybody knows of some
: wireless device ( optical? ) which could be used and does not cost
: like a Ferrari?

I suggest you have a look at Ascension Technologies' page
(http://www.ascension-tech.com). They have a system called the
"MotionStar Wireless". It is based on magnetic field technology; and
consists of up to fourteen sensors, each sensor about an inch square,
connected via wires to a small bumbag that goes on your waist. Each
sensor provides 6 data: x, y, z, roll, azimuth and elevation. Up to
fourteen sensors can be used. The circuitry in the bumbag transmits
back to the base station, which is then connected to a computer. I
don't know how much it costs, you'll have to e-mail them; but I
certainly wouldn't expect it to be less that US$30,000.

Other than that; the only other technique I know would be to use MLDs
(moving light displays); where you attach an LED to each joint of
interest, and track their motion using cameras. This has some
significant problems as well, e.g. getting 3D to work is hard, there
is no orientation information easily obtained, you need some video
processing grunt to obtain the data, especially if you wish to reduce
latency, and getting high sampling rates is very difficult as well. I
don't think you could build a reliable effective system for less than
US$30,000 either, so you'd be better off using the MotionStars.

: Also, BTW... is there any place on Internet where I can find some
: motion capture data of boxing people ( like Virtua Fighter, for
: example )?

No idea; but I suspect that the cost of collecting such data means
that it would not be freely available, and would in some cases be
guarded jealously. I doubt you'll be able to find anything. However,
if there is anything, you may find it at Graeme Sweeney's Gesture Data
Repository (maybe). The URL is: http://peipa.essex.ac.uk/gesture/

Hope this helps, 


Waleed Kadous. 



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|>  Waleed Kadous. RAVE Lab, AI Dept, Computer Science & Engineering, UNSW  <|
|>  e-mail: waleed@cse.unsw.edu.au URL: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~waleed  <|
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