INPUT DEVICES

Position trackers, Gesture

Interfaces, Manipulation
Interfaces
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

INPUT DEVICES
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

Position trackers
• Input devices determine the way a user communicates with the
computer.
• Computer-aided software is responsible for managing I/O
devices, analyzing the incoming data and generating proper
feedback.
• The tracking devices are the main components for the VR
systems. They interact with the system’s processing unit.
• This relays to the system the orientation of the user’s point of
view.
• In systems which let a user to roam around within a physical
space, the locality of the person can be detected with the help
of trackers, along with his direction and speed.
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Position trackers

• “Three-dimensional objects have 6 degrees of freedom (DOF):

•three DOF for position coordinates (x, y and z offsets)
•three DOF for orientation (yaw, pitch and roll angles).
• there are two types of trackers:
•one delivers the absolute data (total position/orientation
values)
•other-one delivers the relative data (changing of data from
the last state).
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While choosing any 6DOF tracker, you must remember the following points:
• Range – Working volume, within which the tracker can measure position
and orientation with its specified accuracy and resolution, and the angular
converges of the tracker.
• Resolution – Smallest change in position and orientation that a tracker can
detect. Smallest possible values mean better performance.
• Accuracy – The measure of the error in the reported position and
orientation. It is usually in absolute values i.e. in mm for position or in
degrees for orientation. Smaller values often lead to better accuracy.
• Latency – The amount of time measured in ms between the user physical
action and the beginning of the transmission of the report that represents
this action. Lower values contribute to the high performance.
• Update Rate – Defines the number of measurements per second measured
in Hz. Higher update rate supports the smoother tracking of the
movements, but it requires more processing and more computational time.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality
Tracker characteristics

Accuracy

Resolution

Real object position

Tracker position
measurements
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality
Magnetic Trackers

• trackers contain static part, a number of movable parts and control unit
• static part recognizes as emitter or source or Transmitter
• movable parts as receivers or sensors.
• assemblies of emitter and receiver are quite similar because both have 3
mutually perpendicular antennae.
• each antenna works on direct current or alternating current , generates
magnetic fields
• Receivers collect these generated magnetic field lines and feed the data to
the control unit for the calculation of position and tracking.
• The most common magnetic trackers are in the following: Polhemus
Fastrak,Ascension Flock of Birds
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality
• They calculate magnetic fields generated
by bypassing an electric current
simultaneously through 3 coiled
wires.
• These wires are set up in a
perpendicular manner to one another
• system’s sensors calculate how its
magnetic field creates an impact on
the other coils.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality
Acoustic (Ultrasonic) Trackers

• tracking system senses and produces ultrasonic sound waves to identify the
orientation and position of a target.
• They calculate the time taken for the ultrasonic sound to travel to a sensor.
• Sound allows the determination of relative distance between two points by
using multiple emitters and receivers
• time taken by the sound to hit the sensors is achieved by the system.
• Either they use the measurements of time of flight (TOF) (Error) or that of
phase coherent (PC) or Hertz(Error due to humidity, air, temperature,
pressure)
• Two trackers are in the following: Mattel Power Glove and Logitech 6DOF
Ultrasonic Head Tracker
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality
Logitech ultrasound head tracker
• A direct line of sight is required between the
transmitter and the receiver of an ultrasound
tracker.
• This is another significant drawback compared to
magnetic trackers, which do not require direct
line of sight.
• If some object obstructs the line of sight
between an ultrasound transmitter and receiver or
the user's head is turned away, the tracker
signal is lost.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality
Optical Trackers

• Optical trackers use different configuration and methodologies.

• Explicitly, we can classify them into three main categories
Laser Ranging
• Onto an object, these systems transmit the laser light that passes through
the diffraction grating.
• A sensor analyzes the diffraction pattern on the surface of that object

Pattern Recognition
• these trackers compare the known patterns with the sensed ones.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality
Beacon Tracking
• methodology uses a set of beacons like LED and a number of cameras
capturing the image of beacon’s pattern.
• By using the known geometries of beacons, we can derive the position
and orientation of the tracked object.
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Mechanical Trackers

• use a mechanical linkage of rigid arms with joints

• we determine the angles at the joints by using potentiometers and gears
• linkage construction combined with the angles’ calculation helps us to find
out the required entities.

Fake Space Labs developed the following mechanical tracking device:

•Binocular Omni Oriented Monitor (BOOM)
•A BOOM display, an HMD, is attached on the rear of a mechanical arm consisting
2 points of articulation.
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Eye Tracking Devices

• Eye tracking in virtual reality (VR) is a technology that monitors the movement
and position of a user's eyes.
• The devices used for head tracking allow the proper rendering of images from
user’s field of view (FOV).
• visual acuity of the eye changes with the arc distance from the line of sight
• different technologies being used in eye trackers like image tracking, limbus
tracking, electro-oculography (EOG) and corneal reflection. Look at the
following tracker:
• NAC Eye Mark Eye Tracker
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Head Tracking Devices

• monitors a user’s head position and orientation.
• It’s often used alongside face and eye tracking to help and improve human-
computer interaction (HCI).
• Head tracking is often used to simulate the experience of freely looking
around in virtual (VR) or augmented reality (AR)
number of methods used for head tracking
• Screen quality and head-tracking
• Low end headset
• High End headset

• Head tracking is used in a variety of fields like security, gaming and medicine.
• It can also be used for computer-aided design, 3-D modeling and general
hands-free computing to improve computer accessibility.
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NAVIGATION AND MANIPULATION INTERFACES

• A navigation/manipulation interface is a device that allows the interactive change of
the view to the virtual environment and exploration through the selection and
manipulation of a virtual object of interest.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

• The navigation/manipulation can be done in either absolute

coordinates or relative coordinates. The trackers described so
far are absolute, as they return the position and orientation of a
moving object with respect to a fixed system of coordinates.

• The position of the VR object controlled on the screen is directly

mapped to the absolute position of the receiver in the world
(transmitter)-fixed system of coordinates.
• Navigation/manipulation in relative coordinates allows for
incremental position control relative to the object's previous 3D
position. The position of the VR object is incremented by six
signed quantities at every simulation cycle.
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NAVIGATION AND MANIPULATION INTERFACES

• Tracker-Based Navigation/Manipulation Interfaces
• Integrated within a structure that houses user-programmable
pushbuttons, trackers become navigation and manipulation interfaces.
Examples are the Polhemus 3Ball and the Ascension Technology 3D
Mouse
• Trackballs
• A class of interfaces that allow navigation/manipulation in relative
coordinates are trackballs
• Three-Dimensional Probes
• Users felt a need for an 1/0 device that would be intuitive to use,
inexpensive, and allow either absolute or relative position control of the
simulation
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GESTURE INTERFACES – Sensors ( Digital Glove)

• Gesture interfaces are devices that measure the real-time position of the user's
fingers (and sometimes wrist) in order to allow natural, gesture-recognition
based interaction with the virtual environment.
• Most gesture interfaces today are sensing gloves that have embedded sensors
which measure the position of each finger versus the palm.
• Sensing gloves differ in such factors as, for example, the type of sensors they
use, the number of sensors for each finger (one or several), their sensor
resolution, the glove sampling rate, and whether they are tethered or wireless.
• Commercial sensing gloves
• Fake space Pinch Glove , the Immersion CyberGlove
• the Fifth Dimension Technology 5DT Data Glove ,the Didjiglove
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GESTURE INTERFACES – Sensors ( Digital Glove)

• They have sensors that measure some (or all) of the finger joint angles.
• Some have built-in trackers as well, in order to measure the user's wrist motion.
• The resulting sensing glove work envelope is much larger than that of trackballs or
joysticks.
• As opposed to trackballs and 3D probes, which have single-point interaction with the
virtual environment, sensing gloves allow dextrous, multipoint interaction at the
fingertips or palm.
• This results in a more realistic simulation, especially for object manipulation tasks.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

Terminology of hand and finger motions

Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

Comparison of sensing glove work envelope and trackball

work envelope
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The Pinch Glove
• The drawbacks that most sensing gloves have are need for user specific
calibration, complexity, and high cost.
• Each person has a different hand size, with women generally having smaller
hand size than men.
• As a consequence, the glove-embedded sensors will overlap different finger
locations for different users.
• In order to reduce inaccuracies, most sensing gloves need to be calibrated to the
particular user wearing them.
• Users have to place their hands in predetermined gestures (such as a flat hand
or a fist) and the sensor output measured.
• These raw values are then converted to finger joint angles based on glove-
specific algorithms.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality
The Pinch Glove block diagram.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

The Pinch Glove block diagram.

• The Pinch Glove interface detects finger contact by applying a polling algorithm in
which each finger in turn receives a voltage Vi and the interface looks for output voltages
on the other fingers.
• At time Tl the thumb of the right hand is energized
• Since it makes no contact with any finger, all the other fingers of the right hand, as well
as the fingers of the left hand, will show 0 V on their output.
• At time T2 the index of the right hand is energized, and again no voltages are detected
on the other fingers.
• At time T3 the middle finger of the right hand receives voltage V1 and the interface
detects a voltage V,t on the index of the left hand, meaning the two fingers are in contact.
• Subsequently the right ring, right pinkie, and left thumb are energized and no
contact detected.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

The Pinch Glove block diagram.

• At time T7 the left index receives voltage Vl and the corresponding V,,t is
detected on the right middle finger, meaning the two fingers are still in contact.
• The voltage sequencing is done at high frequency, such that contacts are
detected even if they only occur for short durations.
• The interface box keeps a record of a gesture duration, such that compound
gesture sequences (such as double clicking) can be reported as a single
gesture to the host computer.
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The Pinch Glove – Advantages and Disadvantages

• The Pinch Glove has numerous advantages in terms of its simplicity, lack of a
need for calibration, confirmation of gestures though the hand haptic sensing,
and possibility to use both hands for gesture interaction.
• However, the glove can only detect whether a contact is made or not, and
cannot measure intermediary finger configurations.
• Virtual hands controlled by a Pinch Glove will not follow in real time the true
position of the user's fingers, with a negative effect on simulation realism
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

The 5DT Data Glove

Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

The 5DT Data Glove 5 gesture library

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The 5DT Data Glove
• Each finger has a fiber loop routed through attachments which allow for small
translations due to finger bending.
• Additional sensors for minor joints as well as abduction-adduction are available in
the 5DT Data Glove 16 option.
• The advantage of fiber-optic sensors is their compactness and lightness, and
users feel very comfortable wearing the glove.
• The optical fibers are joined to an optoelectronic connector on the back of the hand.
• One end of each fiber loop is connected to an LED, while light returning from the
other end is sensed by a phototransistor.
• When the fiber is straight, there is no attenuation in the transmitted light, as the
index of refraction of the cylindrical walls is less than the refractive index of the core
material.
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The 5DT Data Glove

• The fiber walls are treated to change their index of refraction such that the light will
escape upon finger flexion.
• In this way the glove measures the finger bending indirectly based on the intensity of
the returned light
• Another technological advance is wireless communication
• The wireless receiver gets 100 samples every second (fingers and tilt sensor data),
which are then sent to the host computer running the simulation.
• Different frequencies are used for right- and left-hand gloves, in order to allow
wireless communication without mutual interference.
• The glove uses an 8-bit A/D converter, such that it has a resolution of 256
intermediate positions between a flat and a fisted hand.
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The 5DT Data Glove

• The glove raw sensor data rawval needs first to be normalized, in order to account
for the effect of varying hand sizes.
• This normalization is carried out using the equation
• out = rawval - rawmin x raWmax - raWmin
• Calibration is done by having the user flex their hand a few times, while the system
updates the value of the glove dynamic range.
• This needs to be repeated every time the 5 DT Data Glove is put on at the start of a
new simulation session.
• Once the glove is calibrated the corresponding finger posture is obtained based on
a look-up table or based on the knowledge that finger joints are naturally coupled.
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The 5DT Data Glove

• The 5DT Data Glove 5 software driver running on the host computer interprets the
glove readings as gestures
• The current gesture library uses binary open/close configurations for all fingers,
except the thumb.
• This simplifies user learning to only 16(2 4) combinations
• Thus a finger is considered unflexed (opened) if its normalized flex sensor value is
smaller than a predetermined threshold.
• Conversely, the finger is considered flexed (closed) if it is above an upper threshold.
• By keeping the lower and upper threshold values apart, the probability of erroneous
gesture interpretation is reduced
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

The Didjiglove
• Didjiglove, uses 10 capacitive bend sensors to measure the position of the
user's fingers
• The capacitive sensors consist of two layers of conductive polymer
separated by a dielectric.
• Each conductive layer is arranged in a comblike fashion, such that the
overlapping electrode surface is proportional to the amount of sensor
bending
• Since capacitance is directly proportional to the overlapping surface of the
two sensor electrodes, the bending angle can be measured electrically
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

The Didjiglove
•
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The Didjiglove
• The Didjiglove interface is located on the user's cuff, similar to the 5DT Data
Glove.
• It has an A/D converter, a multiplexer, a processor, and an RS232 line for
communication with the host computer.
• The 10-bit A/D converter resolution is 1024 positions for the proximal joint
(closest to the palm) and the interphalangeal joint (the intermediate joint of
the finger).
• Calibration is done similar to the 5DT Data Glove, by reading the sensor
values when the user keeps the fingers extended (value set to 0) and when
the fingers are bent (value set to 1023).
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The CyberGlove
• A more complex (and more expensive) sensing glove, which uses linear
bend sensors, is the CyberGlove .
• This glove was invented by Jim Kramer as a gesture recognition interface
in order to aid persons with speech impairments
• It subsequently became apparent that the same device could be
successfully used as a VR interface.
• The CyberGlove incorporates thin electrical strain gauges placed on an
elastic nylon blend material.
• The palm area (and the fingertips in some models) is removed for better
ventilation and to allow normal activities such as typing, writing, etc.
• As a result the glove is light and easy to wear.
Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

The CyberGlove
• The glove sensors are either rectangular (for the flexion angles) or U-
shaped (for adduction-abduction angles).
• There are between 18 and 22 sensors in the glove, used to measure
finger flexing (two or three per finger), abduction (one per finger), plus
thumb anteposition, palm arch, and wrist yaw and pitch.
• According to the manufacturer, sensor resolution is 0.5° and remains
constant over the entire range of joint motion
• It is further claimed that this glove has decoupled sensors so that outputs
are independent of each other
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Module 1 Virtual Reality Fundamentals and Architecture 21ITO01- Augmented and Virtual Reality

1.HMD Stands for ------------------------

2._________________ keeps tracks of position.
3.Meditiated Environment which creates the sensation in a of being present in a physical
surrounding.
4.A term to describe the user can modify form and content of a meditated environment.