So now that we're all VR-crazy because of the Rift, everybody is trying to figure out 6DOF tracking solutions. Every thread gets off topic occasionally talking about the need for position tracking and I've been involved in a lot of those discussions. Many people are coming to the conclusion that the Hydra is currently the best solution - and they're probably right. It's fast, mostly accurate (despite Carmack's concerns), and does not suffer from occlusion. So magnetic technology is one of the best solutions to this problem - probably why the military uses it for many of their tracking needs.
Great - except that we're stuck with the Hydra as the only consumer level magnetic tracker which severely limits the applications because it has only two tracked points (which cannot be disassembled or repackaged easily) and must be wired. The only other options are companies like Polhemus that provide medical and military solutions at insane prices. I contacted a rep and asked about a basic wireless system with 4 tracked points - and they quoted me almost $10,000!!!
That is insane! There is nothing fundamentally expensive or secret about magnetic tracking. This stuff was developed decades ago using radio-era technologies. Look. Here's what it is and the basic recipe for making one...
http://www.na-mic.org/Wiki/index.php/6D ... tion_HOWTO
http://www.virtualreality.net.au/6DOF_Tracker
http://www.na-mic.org/Wiki/index.php/20 ... penIGTLink
![Image](http://www.na-mic.org/Wiki/images/a/af/Dry_elphel_model_1_rcvr_coils.jpg)
I'm not even a hardware guy and it sounds like something that I might be able to pull off. Which got me thinking...why aren't these things widely available? All sorts of motion applications could benefit from them. I assume it's just like fused inertial sensors a few years ago. Those were exotic expensive devices as well until game and phone companies figured out you could use them. Now there are plenty of cheap sources for those devices. So hopefully there will be a VR movement that will push this technology cheaper and more widespread as well. Maybe Sixense will start selling wireless modular tracking kits. But until that happens, we've got nothing except the crummy Hydra to work with.
So why not make them ourselves? There are a lot of skilled people around here with a lot of motivation for tracking solutions. I wonder if we could pool talent and develop a sort of open-hardware magnetic tracker device? I'm envisioning a system with a base transmitter that could be paired with up to 4 or 8 wired and/or wireless modules. A generic system like that would be amazing for VR applications. Head tracking, weapon tracking, hand tracking, feet tracking - all sorts of motion controllers and applications could be powered by a device like this.