FEATURE | SPACE RACE 4
MO-SYS AND HP TEAM UP TO TAKE VIRTUAL REALITY FROM THE STATIONARY TO FULL MOVEMENT
WORDS JULI AN M ITCHELL / PICTURES HP/MO -SYS
T he world of virtual reality is so open-ended that in years to come we won’t believe that at this point in time we couldn’t actually physically move in this space. But a new partnership is changing this. We’re not just talking about virtually moving in VR either, but actually walking or cycling while also moving virtually. HP, using its new mobile computing hardware, and London-based Mo-Sys, using the power of Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) and its new VR tracking technology, is empowering location-based entertainment, gaming, engineering, training and architecture visualisation. NEW POSSIBILITIES The enterprise-level system from Mo-Sys is called StarTracker VR, an inside-out tracking solution like no other. Inside-out
StarTracker VR is perfect for team or collaborative events as, thanks to the patented optical tracking method, it is not susceptible to occlusion (when another user is blocking your VR headset) or drift. Using reflective stickers stuck to the ceiling, an upwards-looking sensor known as StarTracker is mounted on to the headset, calculating its position in real time using the stickers as a reference. The camera sensor uses infrared to shine up at the stickers and they reflect back into that sensor. The data is processed using the Unreal engine, which gives you the real time rendering and the great quality. This new method is resilient to changes in light and enables wall-to- wall, multi-level tracking across the largest of environments, even when objects are partially obstructing the StarTracker sensor. Using the HP backpacks gives the system much more quality and the way that
tracking is when the sensor moves outside-in when it is stationary.
ABOVE The StarTracker VR is resilient to light and enables wall-to-wall, multi-level tracking.
52 DEF I N I T ION | DECEMBER 20 1 8
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