Thread: TrackSkull - Motion capture for your 3-Axis Skulls

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UPDATE 8/18/09:
TrackSkull RELEASED!!!

Visit here for details:
RELEASED!!! - TrackSkull - Head and Joystick Motion Capture for Animated Props


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So I've decided to reveal what I have been working on.

I've called it TrackSkull and it allows you to use an IR camera (with funny head piece) and record your head's motion and transfer it to VSA.

The best way to describe it is to just show you... so here is a demo video. I'm a bit camera shy, so I had my dead friend stand in for me.
YouTube - TrackSkull Demo by MonkeyBasic.com

IR Camera: TrackIR 4:PRO - Premium head tracking view control immersion for flight racing and action simulator
Software: My own - (In progress)

Thanks go to evilbob and kennyw76 for their help, ideas, and suggestions.

So what does everyone think?

Cool! WIll you be offering your software to the public?

Absolutely. The software will be provided for FREE, you will just need to buy the IR Camera.

Oh so very cool! My animatronic army can grow considerably if I don't have to spend as much time programming them. This is awesome.

Will this program have the ability to set servo limits, since each skull has slightly different limits?

Originally Posted by crazybob

Will this program have the ability to set servo limits, since each skull has slightly different limits?

Absolutely... The program stores normalized values and you can set your servo limits when you export.

Nice job. Nice to have a simple user interface for this.
I looked into all the head tracking stuff about a year ago and developed my own system for free based on a cheapo webcam. The TrackIR was the first thing I looked at but I decided to find a cheaper way. There is a ton of open source stuff out there to choose from coming out of virtual reality controls for flight simulator programs. Basically just face or head positions translated into joystick or mouse movements. Mine looks for a single black dot (sticky) on my face.

I agree that this would make programming my skulls oh so much easier. I would for sure be interested. What about jaw movement, don't suppose that is captured also? That would make it completely over the top.

Very Nice!
How much?

Originally Posted by HomeyDaClown

Nice job. Nice to have a simple user interface for this.
I looked into all the head tracking stuff about a year ago and developed my own system for free based on a cheapo webcam. The TrackIR was the first thing I looked at but I decided to find a cheaper way. There is a ton of open source stuff out there to choose from coming out of virtual reality controls for flight simulator programs. Basically just face or head positions translated into joystick or mouse movements. Mine looks for a single black dot (sticky) on my face.

I looked into a bunch of different suggestions (one suggestion was even to try using the Wii remote hack). Only problem I found was that most systems only did a X,Y,Z translation. Which I'm sure with a bit of work, I could get to work. The TrackIR has built in Yaw, Pitch & Roll tracking which made my job very easy. Plus you can't beat the free SDK!