Electromagnetic Tracker

Electromagnetic based tracking devices are used in 'fishtank' VR systems such as CAVEs, CUBEs and Hemispheres to monitor the viewer's head position and update the view they see as the user's head moves.

The tracker reports its position in relation to a fixed transmitter, the tracking range is limited to a half-dozen feet at best. Beyond this range, error percentages spike swiftly. Due to the intense processing required to work out an electromagnetic signal in terms of 6DOF position, they suffer from enough latency to be noticeable by the user, and can lead to simulator sickness over extended periods.

The disadvantage of an electromagnetic tracking system is that only one user at a time may interact directly with the fishtank VR, regardless of how many are immersed within it.

Below, we offer a selection of links from our resource databases which may match this term.

Tracking Device

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Mazan: Flash of the Blade
An early commercial electromagnetic tracker system that surfaced in of all places, the arcade machines of 2002.

Creating a Budget Head-tracker with the Wii-Mote
A demonstration of both the use of a Wii-mote as a cheap head tracker, and a demonstration of head tracking, rarely recorded

Pieces of the Sensor Web > AMPERE
AMPERE is one of the many dedicated networks necessary to protect and grow a fledgeling sensor web. Looking down from space, 66 satellites monitor the Earth's electromagnetic field - and watch for spikes.

GPS Tracker To Keep Pupils Safe
After the events at Virginia Tech University in the US, in April, a major push at using wearable technologies and sensor webs to improve student safety has been underway.

Putting the Chemical in Electrochemical Brain Interfaces
Neuroprosthetics along with less invasive brain machine interfaces have really gone from strength to strength over the past decade. However, all of them are still detecting or modifying signals that are electrical in nature, whilst the brain itself is electrochemical. Now, from a rather unlikely source, comes the first evidence that a chemical detector and tracker is actually possible inside a complex multicellular structure.

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