24 replies to this topic

[djned]

what would they be for then? discuss.



article: http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/80649

[Xaus]

Probably 3D glasses.

[Slowinfastout]

I personally can't believe that was the best picture they've shot to tell us about the simulator, lol..

Gotta call Merry Christmas on that ;)

[ZenSpeed]

the software for the simulation is downloaded directly into the driver's head......

[feynman]

Head tracking I'd assume, InfraRed LEDs above each eye, IR filtered camera looking back at driver, which gives the video image of two moving dots to the renderering computer and it moves the on-screen video perspective in sympathy with the drivers head position.

Watch the monitor on this brilliant maniac's home-made simulator ... his cap has 3 LEDs for pan and tilt:


or Johnny Chung Lee's famous Wii Sensor bar version:

[Slowinfastout]

Head tracking I'd assume, InfraRed LEDs above each eye, IR filtered camera looking back at driver, which gives the video image of two moving dots to the renderering computer and it moves the on-screen video perspective in sympathy with the drivers head position.

It's obviously quite simple, and even not knowing exactly whats going there, it's a minor inconvenience....

main objective:

- take a good picture.

- show how technologically superior we are.

[pingu666]

umm why use those glasses when you could just use a trackir?

[feynman]

yeah, it's all a little bit sketchy looking, can't be that comfortable over a long session

... i'd have thought it'd be much better to have the LEDs mounted in, or on, a race helmet, both for a better mounting solution, and for a more accurate overall simulation experience.
(watching video of Nick Wirth's simulator, the drivers wear their racing gloves too).

[Captain Tightpants]

Probably 3D glasses.

"On this channel, our drivers can do a hot lap of Monaco - and on this one, they can watch James Cameron's 'Avatar'!"

[Gagá Bueno]

"On this channel, our drivers can do a hot lap of Monaco - and on this one, they can watch James Cameron's 'Avatar'!"

[potmotr]

I think it's augmented reality isn't it?

[airwise]

Kimi introduced them - along with a direct link to YouPorn.

The engineers remain eternally grateful - unlike the management

[Boing 2]

what would they be for then? discuss.



article: http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/80649

you've got it all wrong, it's a simulated mono-brow.

don't know why gene is wearing it though...

[Max!]

you've got it all wrong, it's a simulated mono-brow.

don't know why gene is wearing it though...

It´s a habit. He´s wearing it in the windtunnel to simulate Alfonso´s aerodynamic performance.

[mstar]

i thought mclaren had the best simulator i wonder how good this is to theirs?

[ZenSpeed]

i thought mclaren had the best simulator i wonder how good this is to theirs?

being brand new, I doubt it's far behind.....

[mclarensmps]

Apparently, with this simulator, you can also turn the steering wheel by just tilting your lips.

[ZenSpeed]

Apparently, with this simulator, you can also turn the steering wheel by just tilting your lips.

and you have a big chin, you can chop opponents at the start without doing anything else..............

[Madera]

H.U.D.?

[BinaryDad]

The LED's on the glasses are for head tracking.

Basically, F1 drivers move their head back and forward and around, to the sides etc and the glasses let some very simple hardware measure that movement, and adjust the cameras view point accordingly. It actually increases the feel of the 3D rendering a great deal, if the camera moves a little bit to mimic the head movements.

I've done something very similar with a Wii controller, and the sensor bar LED's glued to a an old pair of my wifes lab specs, and hooked it up to my own little rendering engine. It wasn't my idea though, there's a video somewhere of some very smart PhD computer scientist who came up with the idea originally.

I would imagine that the LED's also make it eaiser to track the pupils of the person sitting in the sim. A really important thing in rendering a 3D scene that feels like the real thing, is depth of field. This is basically when our eyes focus on a certain area, and anything before and after that target area, is out of focus for us. It's an easy thing to do in 3D graphics; you just save the depth of each pixel and then perform a post processing step to do the blurring.

The trick is, to decide where the person wants to focus. You can sort of fake that by saying "at a certain speed we will most likely be fiocusing x meters in front of us". But it's not accurate, and easy to get wrong during braking and taking a turn. So the best thing is to measure the positions and dilation of the person pupils to work out the target point from there (as well as field of view). The problem is, face tracking software is still not that great when it comes to small movements. But with the LED's you could configure the software to scan a very small area between them for the pupils, and track them accordingly for small movements.

I don't know if the "depth of field" stuff is what they're doing; it's certainly something I'd be doing if I were fortunate to get a job in working on proper racing simulation for a team. But I can say with 100% certainty that head tracking is definitely what it's being used for.

Edited by BinaryDad, 27 December 2009 - 12:06.

[Sabre1977]

H.U.D.?

H.M.D.

[prty]

I don't know if the "depth of field" stuff is what they're doing; it's certainly something I'd be doing if I were fortunate to get a job in working on proper racing simulation for a team. But I can say with 100% certainty that head tracking is definitely what it's being used for.

That's something I'd avoid, as it's not necessary and artificial. We blur peripheral parts of our field of view, we don't need to have them blurred out before we see them. I think it makes no sense when having a concave large plasma screen around you, which covers all your horizontal peripheral vision. You naturally blur the parts you don't focus at.

About the eye tracking system, it makes (a little) sense if used like this, and I say little because if you are in a cockpit your head position relative to the screen will move very little. If it's used like this it doesn't make any sense at all, specially with the concave plasma screen around you. It doesn't even make sense for the guy in the video, as if you want to look up with that system, you would have to move your head up and look down with your eyes if you still want to be looking at the screen, something not natural. It has been demonstrated that if a person wants to look at one point, moves his/her head a little in that direction and completes the remaining angle moving his/her eyes, but in the same direction.

Edited by prty, 27 December 2009 - 15:48.

[KWSN - DSM]

you've got it all wrong, it's a simulated mono-brow.

don't know why gene is wearing it though...

I don't think that is Gene.

[Victor_RO]

I don't think that is Gene.

It is;the article says that Andrea Bertolini was the first to test the simulator, but that is definitely Marc in the photo. Also, we know for a fact that he has been wearing glasses when in the car, look at onboard footage from the #9 Peugeot at Le Mans this year and see for yourself.

[KWSN - DSM]

It is;the article says that Andrea Bertolini was the first to test the simulator, but that is definitely Marc in the photo. Also, we know for a fact that he has been wearing glasses when in the car, look at onboard footage from the #9 Peugeot at Le Mans this year and see for yourself.

I have to 'read' up on the looks of drivers then. I read the Bertolini reference and convinced myself that I was looking at Andrea :-)

But I agree that is Gene (I have 'read' up now).