6 ms·

Show HN: DIY Position Tracking Using HTC Vive's Lighthouse

153 points by ashtuchkin 10y ago

thenomad 10y ago
Fantastic! Having been developing with the Vive for most of the last year for Left-Hand Path (http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760 http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760), and given I've got a lot of mocap experience before that, I can confirm that Lighthouse's tracking is ridiculously good. It's not just as good as something like an Optitrack system: it's significantly better. If this provides comparable tracking to what the Vive offers, it's an absolutely unbeatable price / performance combo.
- ashtuchkin 10y ago
  I was really inspired by that too! The tracking is comparable, but not on par yet - you need multiple sensors and IMU fusion to achieve the smoothness of Vive. This is only a first step :)
  - thenomad 10y ago
    Ah, they're doing sensor fusion with inbuilt IMUs? That makes sense... I have a colleague with some deep technical knowledge in this area - he's the guy who did the heavy lifting when I built an inertial mocap suit a while ago. I've pointed him at your project. If it turns out that it is of interest, perhaps you can get some useful collaboration / suggestions out of that!
ashtuchkin 10y ago
Hey, author here. I used the system described in the link for indoor stabilization of a drone, plus precise landing, to support an automatic battery swap station project (have a video there). Worked pretty well, so I decided to open-source it in hopes this would help fellow hackers. Let me know if you have any questions!
- detaro 10y ago
  Awesome project, and especially awesome README file: good explanations and images! If I read it right, a way to feed it position data is already integrated in the drone firmware, so you only have to send it the found coordinates and it uses them, correct?
  - ashtuchkin 10y ago
    Thanks! Yep, I'm using Mavlink protocol (specifically ATT_POS_MOCAP message) to feed 3d position to the drone autopilot.
- jskopek 10y ago
  The hot-swappable drone battery video is cool enough to be its own Shown HN submission. Would it be hard for the drone to be able to seamlessly switch between indoor/lighthouse tracking and outside/GPS tracking? How about the ability for the drone to orchestrate the battery swap autonomously with the charging unit? If you could add those two features you could produce a proof of concept video that would probably blow a lot of minds.
  - ashtuchkin 10y ago
    Thanks, that's nice to hear! Seamless switching is definitely doable and shouldn't be hard, just need some time to implement. I'm using PX4 autopilot and it's very friendly for adding new functionality. Orchestration is also close - in current demo both station and drone use Wifi to coordinate, so it's a matter of adding new logic. Currently the most limiting resource for that project is my time :) I'd be happy if other people would want to join!
    - CraigJPerry 10y ago
      Dude that video is an amazing demo. I left a comment on YT but you should take this further! P.s. I think the I-term in your pid control loop is too high on your quadcopter, that oscillation isn't really affecting your flight control too badly but it heats the motors more than a stable tune would which reduces the service life of the permanent magnets in them. Could be the P-term but the oscillation looks too slow for that, I guess one way to check for sure (assuming you don't have a blackbox on there) could be to increase your D-term and see what the response is
SuperPaintMan 10y ago
I've been mulling a installation work based on exploring video solids[1] around using cheap phone-VR mounts. This project is exactly what I need to find the viewers position in the video/space. Any cheaper way to do this without the Lighthouse devices? [1] https://theblackbox.ca/blog/vector-video/ https://theblackbox.ca/blog/vector-video/
- ashtuchkin 10y ago
  Nice project! There's a whole bunch of indoor positioning methods, having different precision/simplicity/cost profiles, so you might need to shop around. Probably cheapest and closest to my sensor is ultrasound sensors like http://www.marvelmind.com http://www.marvelmind.com
moron4hire 10y ago
I actually just arrived in Seattle to take the official HTC course on using the Steam VR positional tracking system, and this was one of the first things I saw as I got off the plane.
- ashtuchkin 10y ago
  That's so cool :) let me know if I got anything wrong with the device or geometry calculation! Also I would be happy to get any feedback from Steam VR people!
fest 10y ago
Great project! When listening to an interview with Alan Yates[0] (main designer of the Lighthouse) I was thinking about an application like this. I recently did shop around for motion capture system (cameras tracking markers) and one of the cheapest systems with comparable performance to OP's came out to cost $5-8.5K. [0] http://embedded.fm/episodes/162 http://embedded.fm/episodes/162
- ashtuchkin 10y ago
  That's crazy :)
emilburzo 10y ago
A bit off-topic, but I was wondering: How was the base station visualization[1] done? [1] https://camo.githubusercontent.com/d9241f231a03d177d215f98bdb2cdcd8e648ddab/687474703a2f2f692e67697068792e636f6d2f696a4d7a585246334f59425a362e676966 https://camo.githubusercontent.com/d9241f231a03d177d215f98bd...
- jaflo 10y ago
  https://youtu.be/J54dotTt7k0 https://youtu.be/J54dotTt7k0

153 points by ashtuchkin 10y ago

Fantastic! Having been developing with the Vive for most of the last year for Left-Hand Path (http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760 http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760), and given I've got a lot of mocap experience before that, I can confirm that Lighthouse's tracking is ridiculously good. It's not just as good as something like an Optitrack system: it's significantly better. If this provides comparable tracking to what the Vive offers, it's an absolutely unbeatable price / performance combo.

ashtuchkin 10y ago
I was really inspired by that too! The tracking is comparable, but not on par yet - you need multiple sensors and IMU fusion to achieve the smoothness of Vive. This is only a first step :)
- thenomad 10y ago
  Ah, they're doing sensor fusion with inbuilt IMUs? That makes sense... I have a colleague with some deep technical knowledge in this area - he's the guy who did the heavy lifting when I built an inertial mocap suit a while ago. I've pointed him at your project. If it turns out that it is of interest, perhaps you can get some useful collaboration / suggestions out of that!

ashtuchkin 10y ago

Hey, author here. I used the system described in the link for indoor stabilization of a drone, plus precise landing, to support an automatic battery swap station project (have a video there). Worked pretty well, so I decided to open-source it in hopes this would help fellow hackers. Let me know if you have any questions!

detaro 10y ago
Awesome project, and especially awesome README file: good explanations and images! If I read it right, a way to feed it position data is already integrated in the drone firmware, so you only have to send it the found coordinates and it uses them, correct?
- ashtuchkin 10y ago
  Thanks! Yep, I'm using Mavlink protocol (specifically ATT_POS_MOCAP message) to feed 3d position to the drone autopilot.
jskopek 10y ago
The hot-swappable drone battery video is cool enough to be its own Shown HN submission. Would it be hard for the drone to be able to seamlessly switch between indoor/lighthouse tracking and outside/GPS tracking? How about the ability for the drone to orchestrate the battery swap autonomously with the charging unit? If you could add those two features you could produce a proof of concept video that would probably blow a lot of minds.
- ashtuchkin 10y ago
  Thanks, that's nice to hear! Seamless switching is definitely doable and shouldn't be hard, just need some time to implement. I'm using PX4 autopilot and it's very friendly for adding new functionality. Orchestration is also close - in current demo both station and drone use Wifi to coordinate, so it's a matter of adding new logic. Currently the most limiting resource for that project is my time :) I'd be happy if other people would want to join!
  - CraigJPerry 10y ago
    Dude that video is an amazing demo. I left a comment on YT but you should take this further! P.s. I think the I-term in your pid control loop is too high on your quadcopter, that oscillation isn't really affecting your flight control too badly but it heats the motors more than a stable tune would which reduces the service life of the permanent magnets in them. Could be the P-term but the oscillation looks too slow for that, I guess one way to check for sure (assuming you don't have a blackbox on there) could be to increase your D-term and see what the response is

SuperPaintMan 10y ago

I've been mulling a installation work based on exploring video solids[1] around using cheap phone-VR mounts. This project is exactly what I need to find the viewers position in the video/space. Any cheaper way to do this without the Lighthouse devices? [1] https://theblackbox.ca/blog/vector-video/ https://theblackbox.ca/blog/vector-video/

ashtuchkin 10y ago
Nice project! There's a whole bunch of indoor positioning methods, having different precision/simplicity/cost profiles, so you might need to shop around. Probably cheapest and closest to my sensor is ultrasound sensors like http://www.marvelmind.com http://www.marvelmind.com

moron4hire 10y ago

I actually just arrived in Seattle to take the official HTC course on using the Steam VR positional tracking system, and this was one of the first things I saw as I got off the plane.

ashtuchkin 10y ago
That's so cool :) let me know if I got anything wrong with the device or geometry calculation! Also I would be happy to get any feedback from Steam VR people!

fest 10y ago

Great project! When listening to an interview with Alan Yates[0] (main designer of the Lighthouse) I was thinking about an application like this. I recently did shop around for motion capture system (cameras tracking markers) and one of the cheapest systems with comparable performance to OP's came out to cost $5-8.5K. [0] http://embedded.fm/episodes/162 http://embedded.fm/episodes/162

ashtuchkin 10y ago
That's crazy :)

emilburzo 10y ago

A bit off-topic, but I was wondering: How was the base station visualization[1] done? [1] https://camo.githubusercontent.com/d9241f231a03d177d215f98bdb2cdcd8e648ddab/687474703a2f2f692e67697068792e636f6d2f696a4d7a585246334f59425a362e676966 https://camo.githubusercontent.com/d9241f231a03d177d215f98bd...

jaflo 10y ago
https://youtu.be/J54dotTt7k0 https://youtu.be/J54dotTt7k0