TrackIR
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Image:http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/02-products/0-resources-products/TRACKIR4-photo.jpg
NaturalPoint[1] TrackIR is a game controller that captures head motions with six degrees of freedom. Conceptually, it is a motion capture studio that has been boiled down to just use 3 markers, so it can be offered at a consumer level price. While TrackIR can emulate standard PC controls (mouse, joystick, and keyboard), it is most often used as its own input in the 70+ games which have programmed direct support for it.
Technical Details
TrackIR’s primary hardware component is a specialized infra-red camera with on-board FPGA. This usually sits or clips on a computer monitor, capturing images at 120 frames per second, and internally processing these images into simple data that is sent to the computer via USB. A small application runs in the background to let users adjust smoothing and motion scaling before it is sent on to the active game through shared memory.
TrackIR’s secondary hardware component is a rigid body with three featherweight markers (either reflective material, or IR LED lights), which are mounted somewhere on the user’s head. The most recent rigid body accessory is called TrackClip PRO, and is used to attach 3 IR LED lights to any standard headset.
Games Supported
In order for a game to recognize TrackIR as it’s own separate input, the game must be TrackIR Enhanced[2]. As of March 26, 2007 the most commonly played games with this special TrackIR Enhancement include: ArmA: Armed Assault, Test Drive Unlimited, and Microsoft Flight Simulator X.
All of the games with TrackIR Enhanced support are as follows:
18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin' Aces High II Air Battles: Sky Defender America's Army ArmA: Armed Assault Arvoch Conflict Rowan's Battle of Britain Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory Battleground Europe: World War II Online Colin McRae Rally 2004 Combat Flight Simulator 3 Condor: The Competition Soaring Simulator Crashday Cross Racing Championship 2005 Enemy Engaged: RAH-66 Comanche vs. KA-52 Hokum Driver's Republic EVE Online Evochron Alliance 2.0 F1 Challenge Falcon 4.0 Falcon 4: Allied Force First Eagles: The Great Air War 1918 Flight Simulator 2002 Flight Simulator 2004 Flight Simulator X Flyboys Future Pinball GTR GTR 2 GT Legends Grand Prix Legends IL2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (and Ace Expansion) Insurgency Jane's F/A-18 JetPakNG Live For Speed Lock On: Modern Air Combat Lock On 1.1: Flaming Cliffs Lock On 1.2: Black Shark LunarPilot Mediterranean Air War (MAW) Micro Flight MiG Alley NASCAR Racing 2003 Season NASCAR SimRacing netKar PRO Orbiter Pacific Fighters RACE: The WTCC Game RealFlight G3 rFactor Richard Burns Rally Rise: The Vieneo Province Ship Simulator 2006 Silent Wings Simax Simulation Driving Simulator Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed Stoked Rider: Alaska Alien Strike Fighters: Project 1 Superkarting Demo Targetware Series Test Drive Unlimited ToCA Race Driver 2 Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 Virtual Sailor WarBirds Wings of War Wings Over Europe: Cold War Gone Hot Wings Over Vietnam X-Plane / X-Cockpit
History
(TrackIR 1, 2, and 3) http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/02-products/0-resources-products/trackir-3pro-front-whiteBG.jpg
The most recent version of the product is TrackIR 4:PRO. Improvements over previous models include a larger field of view, faster response time, and smaller size. The TrackIR 4:PRO is approximately the size of a golf ball.
TrackIR is manufactured by NaturalPoint [3], who also use optical motion tracking for their Assistive Technology and ergonomics product, SmartNAV, and motion capture camera system, OptiTrack.
