Summary
- Trackers and very low latency to achieve this feat
- Disney Research: the stunning target prediction system
Disney laboratories are closely interested in virtual reality and augmented reality with projects for animated films but also for its amusement parks. In a press release, "Disney Research" presented the results of its experiment in video. However, no mention was made of any future use of this technology.
Trackers and very low latency to achieve this feat
To carry out this experiment, the “Disney Reseach” laboratory used a very low latency virtual reality headset (8 milliseconds), gloves with position sensors, a tennis ball equipped with trackers and a Room Scale. The guinea pig was wearing a pair of VR gloves as well as the virtual reality headset. Another person, placed a few meters away, threw the ball in the direction of the volunteer wearing the VR headset.
Firstly, the ball was thrown in the direction of the guinea pig and the latter could visualize it in his VR headset and catch it, a little awkwardly, in flight. Then the user could visualize the ball as well as the trajectory of this one represented in the form of a curve. Various experiments were thus carried out with or without visualization of the ball and its trajectory while by measuring the performance of the guinea pig to catch the tennis ball in flight. All in all performance quite close to reality, as if the user was not wearing a helmet.
Disney Research: the stunning target prediction system
A little later in the experiment, the volunteer can no longer see the ball or its trajectory but a white zone indicates to him where to place his hand so that the ball lands in the hollow of this one. In a totally bluffing way, the guinea pig succeeds, with great precision, place the palm of your hand exactly where the ball will land a few moments later. A powerful system where the user, blind, knows exactly where to place his hand to catch the projectile in flight without seeing it coming. The precision is even much better than that obtained by visualizing the trajectory of the ball.
Other experiments have been tried by also adding the trajectory to the place where to place the hand but without, however, improving the catching precision. A particularly interesting result where the guinea pig showed better precision in capturing an object in flight than if it was not wearing a VR headset.. However, no mention was made from the Disney laboratory on a possible future application of this conclusive experiment.
