{"id":377,"date":"2015-05-17T06:52:43","date_gmt":"2015-05-17T11:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/?p=377"},"modified":"2016-01-06T14:40:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T19:40:14","slug":"week-20-2015-i-can-see-for-miles-and-miles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/?p=377","title":{"rendered":"Week 20, 2015 – I Can See For Miles and Miles…"},"content":{"rendered":"

For quite some time now I’ve been interested in computer-generated stereoscopic 3D graphics and the required display technology… And for quite a bit longer<\/em> I’ve been interested in virtual reality. \u00a0As an extension of my previous work\u00a0on head-tracking<\/a> for Elite: Dangerous and thanks in no small part to my little sister’s generous donation of her old Samsung Galaxy SIII– Having upgraded to some manner of S5 –I decided to work on a DIY VR headset.<\/p>\n

The Hardware<\/h2>\n

First, I got this design<\/a> off Thingiverse, just to try it out… It was okay, but hard to work with. \u00a0I used these bi-convex lenses<\/a> off Amazon…which, at the time, were almost 50% less… \u00a0Later I settled on this design<\/a>, but had to scale it up slightly to fit the lenses I already had. \u00a0I used springs from this assortment<\/a> for the phone holder, and this 1.5″ elastic webbing<\/a> for the head straps. \u00a0The fasteners are all 14-4 Stainless Steel 3mm\u00a0SHCS, nuts, and washers, from Bolt Depot. \u00a0The webbing hardware is all printed as part of the headset design.<\/p>\n

It all turned out rather\u00a0well.<\/p>\n

\"BakaVR_mk2_01\"<\/a>\"BakaVR_mk2_02\"<\/a>\"BakaVR_mk2_03\"<\/a>\"BakaVR_mk2_04\"<\/a>\"BakaVR_mk2_05\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The foam was just some random stuff I had lying around because I couldn’t find what I wanted to use… I later DID\u00a0find where it was hiding, so here’s\u00a0what’s on there now:\u00a0McMaster\u00a0#8694K144<\/a> Weather-resistant Neoprene Foam, adhesive back, 3\/8″ wide, 1\/2″ thick.<\/p>\n

Overall everything was great…having to make it like 7.5% larger to accommodate the lenses I bought for the other design was less than ideal though. Obviously I need to experiment further. \u00a0I want to design my own headset along these lines, but with a mind given to sturdy manufacture and keeping dust out. \u00a0For starters I want to design it for heat-set threaded inserts. instead of fastening everything with nuts and bolts. \u00a0Another thing I will do is NOT make the cover that the phone is attached to rely on a friction fit to stay closed! That damned thing always flops open. :|<\/p>\n

The Software<\/h2>\n

For the software I was using TrinusVR<\/a>\u00a0in USB<\/acronym> mode…it was also less than ideal…but it was more than workable. \u00a0The software basically streams the currently focused application to your phone. It can even do ‘fake 3D’ if the image you’re sending isn’t already SBS3D, and it does lens correction, and can even fake head tilt. It can pass head-tracking back to the computer from the phone’s sensors in the form of FreeTrack, TrackIR, Mouse emulation, and other methods.<\/p>\n

Future Developments<\/h2>\n

Since the\u00a0major drawbacks of this current solution are resolution and the required processing power and bandwidth on the hardware side, and a combination of game incompatibilities and TrinusVR’s limitations on the software side, the next step in development should be to do away with the phone altogether in favor of a small high-resolution screen.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen 6″ IPS panels on AliExpress and and eBay for as little as $200 that offer 2560×1440, connect via HDMI, and are powered via USB<\/acronym>. That’d be perfect, especially paired with a USB<\/acronym> 9DOF tracker that emulates a standard joystick input… I wonder where I can get one of those<\/a>… ;)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For quite some time now I’ve been interested in computer-generated stereoscopic 3D graphics and the required display technology… And for quite a bit longer I’ve been interested in virtual reality. \u00a0As an extension of my previous work\u00a0on head-tracking for Elite: Dangerous and thanks in no small part to my little sister’s generous donation of her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[45,54],"wf_post_folders":[79],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-status-report","tag-3d-printing","tag-virtual-reality"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6NlLW-65","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":558,"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwf_post_folders&post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}