Oculus Rift feature request: Status sensor.

[marbas]

So, the team at Oculus has made it clear that they will listen to developer ideas and feedback about what makes sense in the consumer version of the Rift.

I want to propose a feature for detecting if the Rift is being strapped on and ready to use. It's not a ground breaking feature for VR, but it would make it easier for developers to write games that can switch output from monitor to the rift (and activate/deactivate the warp shader) when appropriate.

I'm working at the moment on an unannounced game title for the Rift, and I'm planning on mixing game interaction using both monitor and the Rift. Having the possibility to gather HMD status info from the Oculus SDK would make it easier for developers to adapt their games to the mandatory process of rigging on and off (Rift, headphone, gamepad/hydra). Ultimately it would lead to a little bit better experience for the end-user.

[2EyeGuy]

Read the accelerometers and gyros. I can detect that way whether a Wii remote is being held or on the table, even if they're trying to keep their hand still.

Look for the Rift being almost perfectly still, or precisely face down, for a period. Then recognise it as being off. Keep registering it as being off while they wave it around at strange angles, until it starts facing forwards and sort of still with normal biologically plausible levels of noise. Then register it as being on. etc.

With the number of samples and level of accuracy of the Rift, it should be possible to detect these things reliably using just the existing tracker.

[Cathodoluminescence]

Problem with just reading out the gyro and acc's would be that if you push the Rift up your forehead to look at your monitor, the data propably suggests that you are just looking up.

[zeroxygen]

This is very application specific. I don't see how the HMD itself would need to be involved. Couldn't you just display something that would suggest the user to take it off, or to give external input (keypress, etc) to switch the display and then take it off?

Reading the tracking data is a good idea but could have flaws with some game types.

How would the HMD know it should be in use?

[MrGreen]

and I'm planning on mixing game interaction using both monitor and the Rift.

[RoadKillGrill]

The Sony HMZ T1 has this, its pretty much a switch that is triggered when the forehead rest has pressure on it.

It doesn't report the status to the PC tho it just turns off the OLED displays and the unit off after a set time. Then it no longer shows up as a device and everything on your demo breaks :p

[MaterialDefender]

I have something similar in place like what 2EyeGuy suggested for the Hillcrest sensor. No reason why this shouldn't work with the Oculus sensor.

Might make sense for the SDK to offer something like this as a boolean state variable or so. But if not, it's quite easy for anyone to implement who needs this.

[marbas]

Yes I agree that looking a the motion is an okay way to software detect the status of the Rift. However it may be tricky to differentiate between picking-up/holding the Rift in your hands, as opposed to actually wear it on your head. The latter is what I specifically want to detect.

[Baristan6]

I have another feature request that would go along with the status sensor. A fade in/out so putting on or taking off the rift wouldn't be as jarring while switching realities.

[German]

I'd like a pony. Palmer, please put a pony into the Oculus Rift. Thanks!

[MSat]

Would a toggle switch/button somewhere on the housing that you manually toggle work? There's GPIO available on the tracker, so given that developers have some sort of access to them, wiring up a switch should be easy.

[ElMatarife]

You've got to think about it in bulk terms. Even if such a pressure switch only cost $1 or $2 per unit, I'd anticipate the first consumer version of the Rift to sell 30,000 units at least. The kickstarter said repeatedly, over and over "if you're not a developer, don't buy this" and still sold nearly 6,000 units. Is it really worth nearly $100,000 for any given edge case feature?

I can see a few uses like "conserving battery power" or just plain "being green and not using so much power" but there's also downsides like "the switch breaks and the unit has to be RMAed because it won't turn on anymore". They're going to have to weigh every single feature request carefully to see if it makes sense, and I don't know that you're making a strong case besides "this could have cool applications".

[KBK]

You've got to think about it in bulk terms. Even if such a pressure switch only cost $1 or $2 per unit, I'd anticipate the first consumer version of the Rift to sell 30,000 units at least. The kickstarter said repeatedly, over and over "if you're not a developer, don't buy this" and still sold nearly 6,000 units. Is it really worth nearly $100,000 for any given edge case feature?

I can see a few uses like "conserving battery power" or just plain "being green and not using so much power" but there's also downsides like "the switch breaks and the unit has to be RMAed because it won't turn on anymore". They're going to have to weigh every single feature request carefully to see if it makes sense, and I don't know that you're making a strong case besides "this could have cool applications".

Exactly so.

That a secondary port could be on the given production unit that is not used but possible to program into the unit. Future upgrades and so on. Add ons then become possible (flash the hardware as an update to enable the port, or similar), but not having to be built in.

[marbas]

I have another feature request that would go along with the status sensor. A fade in/out so putting on or taking off the rift wouldn't be as jarring while switching realities.

Yup! Thats exactly how I would like to integrate wearing the Rift on and off. By fading the graphics in and out, and therefore a more pleasant transition for the user.

I'd like a pony. Palmer, please put a pony into the Oculus Rift. Thanks!

I think you got that the wrong way around. You want a pony to wear the Rift?

Would a toggle switch/button somewhere on the housing that you manually toggle work? There's GPIO available on the tracker, so given that developers have some sort of access to them, wiring up a switch should be easy.

Yeah, a button could work equally well. I was thinking maybe the strap clip could also work as a switch. From ces videos there seems to be already a click button in place to release the strap.

[2EyeGuy]

I'd like a pony. Palmer, please put a pony into the Oculus Rift. Thanks!

Your arguments aren't as intellectual as you think they are. If you think developers shouldn't give suggestions for features in the consumer Rift, based on issues that came up in trying to develop for the Rift, after Palmer specifically asked for that kind of feedback many times, then you should give a reason, or at least put it politely. Or if you think it's a bad idea, despite other VR devices having a similar feature, you could say why you think it's a bad idea. Or you could suggest alternatives.

Mindless snark isn't very useful.

[TheHolyChicken]

I have another feature request that would go along with the status sensor. A fade in/out so putting on or taking off the rift wouldn't be as jarring while switching realities.

Yup! Thats exactly how I would like to integrate wearing the Rift on and off. By fading the graphics in and out, and therefore a more pleasant transition for the user.

In a lot of CES videos you can see one of the Oculus team getting someone's Rift set up on their face. Included in this setup is positioning the device properly on the head, so that eyes are in the correct position to see the image correctly. This feels like it would be incompatible with a "fade in" concept.

[German]

Mindless snark isn't very useful.

Agreed. I was responding to the guy who tried to hijack the thread and I should have quoted him.

I'm taking a step back from this forum for awhile. Too many arm chair, non-developers asking for features they don't understand can already be implemented with what the Rift devkit will support. Too much navel gazing on topics that are a waste of energy.

[Baristan6]

In a lot of CES videos you can see one of the Oculus team getting someone's Rift set up on their face. Included in this setup is positioning the device properly on the head, so that eyes are in the correct position to see the image correctly. This feels like it would be incompatible with a "fade in" concept.

Good point. Look forward to experimenting with the dev kit.

Mindless snark isn't very useful.

Agreed. I was responding to the guy who tried to hijack the thread and I should have quoted him.

I'm taking a step back from this forum for awhile. Too many arm chair, non-developers asking for features they don't understand can already be implemented with what the Rift devkit will support. Too much navel gazing on topics that are a waste of energy.

You must be talking about me, but I disagree with "hijack"ing marbas's thread. My Idea is related to the process of switching from looking at a monitor to using the Rift. I didn't think it deserves a thread of it's own and would fit in here.
Yes both the toggling of the warp shader and fading can be implemented with the devkit, but might be a nice feature standard in the SDK for the consumer version. Too many developers are lazy with game ports, and would overlook simple but not absolutely necessary features like this. I myself may not currently be a game developer, but am familiar with the process, and plan on testing them in Vireio's driver.