project motive
The rapidly emerging field of virtual environments, sometimes referred to as virtual reality, provides the possibility of a qualitative change in the way humans interact with computers. The combination of head-mounted displays and spatial input devices, such as gloves, gives a strong illusion of placing the user inside a computer-generated scene, as opposed to outside that scene, viewing the scene through the window of a traditional, stationary desktop display.
While many people have speculated that virtual environments are a more efficient way of interacting with three-dimensional computer generated scenes, few empirical studies have been performed. Most existing work has been point design, where a proof-of-concept application is constructed. These applications typically show the limitations of the current technology, and are not rigorously evaluated. The approach is to systematically subdivide the design space for potential virtual environment applications, and attempt to discern for which types of tasks these new interaction devices are most helpful. This knowledge should be of general use to designers of virtual environment applications.
I had a look on a user study comparing Head-Mounted and stationary displays for generic search task operations and drew the conclusion that head mounted display (A virtual reality instrument) is much better than a stationary display and hand held tracker.
Keeping this background in my mind and regardless of my humble capacity I have decided to take a crucial step of selecting “Motion Capture” as my project.
‘Virtual reality is twice as fast as desktop interfaces' at the same time a concurrent effort has been made to suggest a low cost model that solution using very interesting and very basic concepts on whom the most giant of the project can be based.”
Critical Thought
From the above lines of my thesis it seems that whenever I am talking about virtual reality or a MoCap System to be precise, I am actually looking at a device worth millions of dollars. After having a detailed study of the complexity and expensiveness of the hardware involved, I was motivated and decided to provide an easy, cheap and enchanting solution using the most basic of the concepts. In this regard I have also decided to disclose those areas that have never ever been thought of.
I am also looking forward to take a ‘small' step away from Electro magnetism and photonics and rely more on basic electronics for reducing cost.
Problem Analysis
Description of Sensors And Their Theory
The basic requirement of sensor in my project is to detect rotation. For that I can use any device which can change voltage levels with change in its position. And there should be some mechanism to feed that change to the computer or some intelligent device like microcontroller which can then take the decision according to the application and calculate the exact value of the degrees the body or the part of the body is rotated. The sensor can be analog or digital. If a digital sensor is used like digital compass then, life would be very easy as that digital value can then be directly fed to the decision taking device and the rest of the circuitry will become very simple. But one aim of my project is of providing the cheapest solution possible and digital sensors on the first part are not very commonly available in Pakistan and secondly if they are then they are very expensive.
On the other hand if the analog sensors are used; they are cheaper and easily available but the problem with these sensors are that if they are used for sensing purposes then the circuitry will become complex and difficult to handle.
Summarizing the Project Scope
The vision of the project is to create a low cost Electro Mechanical Motion Capture System, which serves the purpose of capturing motion from real time environment or objects. In this case the object is human motion. Human physics motion capture is perhaps one of the most complex motion systems in the world. The need to create realistic motion and simulations is increasing by the day. The current industry in media is struggling hard to create systems that can provide with real time motion data. Artificially creating this data requires too much time and resources, which is almost turning as a downside to such projects. This project will focus on two things mainly.
- To develop software that can read and simulate real time Motion Capture Data.
- To develop a low cost electro mechanical motion capture system, this helps us to demonstrate the use of the software.
- It must be noted that the hardware being developed will not be too complex or over the edge. It is only there to create the motion capture data for the software and thus remains a partial fulfillment to the project.
- To enable conversion of Mocap data to other formats other then regular formats.
The software will be able to read and simulate various motion capture formats and export them as well. This will be achieved by reading stream files collected from a Motion Capture source and then simulating it in a 3D environment. The importance of this software is a given when the current internet and media industry has no open source software that reads or converts these formats in an easy manner.
The Software has two sections.
1. A native program to handle Motion Capture Data
- Open GL based (C++)
- Motion Capture Stream (Handle, Export)
- Hardware interfacing is done through C.
2. To demonstrate, how the data obtained is used in existing systems.
- Real time Drawing and simulation
The data obtained from Mocap systems is also rare, and thus obtaining it to demonstrate it on our software is also a big hurdle. This is where the need to create a Mocap system comes into play. The hardware will not be a full fledged Mocap system, but rather a fulfillment for the whole project and will not necessarily incorporate a lot of functionality; therefore, to keep it simple and in budget for the project. The hardware will be simple and electro mechanical based.
- Microprocessor based
- Electro Mechanical
- Very Low cost but Portable and extensible
It must be kept in mind that the hardware is only a part of the whole project and thus due to budget limitations. The system may be more simple but cheap.