Virtual reality platform

  1. A virtual reality platform using the nintendo wii mote and video glasses.

Prof. Bernd Porr, Paolo Di Prodi

The object is to develop a cheap toolkit for virtual reality
Methods: the system is composed by a pair of video glasses
(LCD\OLED 50″-80″ single or double channel) and a pair of wiimote controllers (from the gaming nintendo wii console).
Video glasses have to be modified adding IR emitters (left and right) so that the first wiimote (IR camera) tracks the head position.
The second wiimote is used to move the camera in the virtual environment.
Virtual environment can be modelled as a simple 3D space with some objects (primitive 3D objects). Additionally the student can develop interaction with objects but is not necessary for the project.
Skills:programming language: C\C++ or C#. Basic knowledge about forward kinematics (transformation matrix operations ).
Software to use:

For windows: WiiDesktopVR, DirectX SDK, wiimote library, and others

For linux (preferred): SDL library (Open GL based), and wiimote library.
Info on: http://www.wiili.org/ and also on http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

Specific tasks include the following:

  1. Making a survey about existing VR toolkit and evaluating advantages and disadvantages

  2. Making a survey of the existing software libraries for the wiimote interface and 3D libraries.

  3. Choosing the best configuration for the linux environment: parameters to take into account maintenance, support, documentation, interoperability.

  4. Adding two IR emitters (can be also common “laser” pointer) to the side of the video glasses

  5. Developing the software to translate the position of the player (head position + hand position) in the 3D environment

  6. Mandatory: introduce the interaction between the virtual hand and the virtual objects

Software,