Got a message that a package requiring a signature will be arriving today. Expecting that this is my Vive. Looking forward to trying it out. Expecting that it will be a while before I have time to seriously start coding things for it.

I’ve ordered an HTC Vive headset from the HTC Vive site. They offered it at list price while Amazon had it listed far higher. Reading through what I could find on the APIs, it became clear that I’d do better getting the hardware and then seeing what I could accomplish. The docs look fragmentary enough that experiemtation seems more likely to be helpful than deep dives into the docs.

I’ve also been considering what could be done to locate items in three space with one or more web cams. Looking at OpenCV in a bit mroe detail than I did last time around, it looks like it has either become more capable or I didn’t look deeply enough. I’d like to see if I can manage depth cueing using two cameras and some processing. Being able to pick out hands (even hands in white gloves to give better discrimination against backgrounds) would be a wonderful adjunct to the VR goggle.

Continue reading Poking at video and VR →

I just read a review of VR headsets over at Tom’s hardware. They covered the HTC Vive the Oculus Rift and a dark horse candidate I hadn’t heard of before the OSVR HDK 1.4.

They preferred the HTC Vive by a good margin. At the price they listed which was about $200.00 above the Oculus Rift, I’d likely have been inclined to follow their lead. In particular, the ability to move around a room and manipulate or see things would be amazing. At the moment, Amazon lists their device at $1118.00 (list is $799.00) against $599.00 for the rift. All things considered if the prices are still at this point when I decide to do something, I’ll likely wind up going with the rift.

I would love to play with human/VR interaction coding. Being able to sculpt 3D objects with the VR system and walk around them while working would be absolutely amazing. Continue reading Thinking I may wind up with a VR headset sometime soon… →

here on the site. I’m trying to ramp up some sandbox projects and for those that involve significant C++ coding there are quite a few open source packages that are of some interest. Trying to keep a comprehensive list here as a convenience for me and as a place to share them with others…