Aura: Inside-out electromagnetic controller tracking
Proceedings of the 17th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems …, 2019•dl.acm.org
The ability to track handheld controllers in 3D space is critical for interaction with head-
mounted displays, such as those used in virtual and augmented reality systems. Today's
systems commonly rely on dedicated infrastructure to track the controller or only provide
inertial-based rotational tracking, which severely limits the user experience. Optical inside-
out systems offer mobility but require line-of-sight and bulky tracking rings, which limit the
ubiquity of these devices. In this work, we present Aura, an inside-out electromagnetic 6-DoF …
mounted displays, such as those used in virtual and augmented reality systems. Today's
systems commonly rely on dedicated infrastructure to track the controller or only provide
inertial-based rotational tracking, which severely limits the user experience. Optical inside-
out systems offer mobility but require line-of-sight and bulky tracking rings, which limit the
ubiquity of these devices. In this work, we present Aura, an inside-out electromagnetic 6-DoF …
The ability to track handheld controllers in 3D space is critical for interaction with head-mounted displays, such as those used in virtual and augmented reality systems. Today's systems commonly rely on dedicated infrastructure to track the controller or only provide inertial-based rotational tracking, which severely limits the user experience. Optical inside-out systems offer mobility but require line-of-sight and bulky tracking rings, which limit the ubiquity of these devices. In this work, we present Aura, an inside-out electromagnetic 6-DoF tracking system for handheld controllers. The tracking system consists of three coils embedded in a head-mounted display and a set of orthogonal receiver coils embedded in a handheld controller. We propose a novel closed-form and computationally simple tracking approach to reconstruct position and orientation in real time. Our handheld controller is small enough to fit in a pocket and consumes 45 mW of power, allowing it to operate for multiple days on a typical battery. An evaluation study demonstrates that Aura achieves a median tracking error of 5.5 mm and 0.8 degrees in 3D space within arm's reach.
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