Vive Tracker Research Articles

Feasibility of using a fully immersive virtual reality system for kinematic data collection

Commercially-available Virtual Reality (VR) systems have the potential to be effective tools for simultaneous visual manipulation and kinematic data collection. Previously, these systems have been integrated with research-grade motion capture systems to provide both functionalities; however, they are yet to be used as stand-alone systems for kinematic data collection. The present study aimed to validate the HTC VIVE VR system for kinematic data collection by evaluating the accuracy of its position and orientation signals. The VIVE controller and tracker were each compared to a Polhemus Liberty magnetic tracking system sensor for angular and translational measurement error and signal drift. A sensor from each system was mounted to opposite ends of a rigid segment which was driven through fifty rotations and fifty translations. Mean angular errors for both the VIVE tracker and controller were below 0.4°. Mean translational error for both sensors was below 3 mm. Drift in the Liberty signal components was consistently lower than drift in VIVE components. However, all mean rotational drift measures were below 0.1° and all mean translational measures were below 0.35 mm. These data indicate that the HTC VIVE system has the potential to be a valid and reliable means of kinematic data collection. However, further investigation is necessary to determine the VIVE’s suitability for capturing extremely minute or high-volume movements.

Real-time body tracking in virtual reality using a Vive tracker

Due to recent improvements in virtual reality (VR) technology, the number of novel applications for entertainment, education, and rehabilitation has increased. The primary goal of these applications is to enhance the sense of belief that the user is “present” in the virtual environment. By tracking the user’s skeleton in real-time, it is possible to synchronize the avatar’s motions with the user’s motions. Although current common devices implement body tracking to a certain degree, most approaches are limited by either high latency or insufficient accuracy. Due to the lack of positional and rotation data, the current VR applications typically do not represent the user’s motions. In this paper, we present an accurate, low-latency body tracking approach for VR-based applications using Vive Trackers. Using a HTC Vive headset and Vive Trackers, we have been able to create an immersive VR experience, by animating the motions of the avatar as smoothly, rapidly and as accurately as possible. An evaluation showed our solution is capable of tracking both joint rotation and position with reasonable accuracy and a very low end-to-latency of $$6.71 \pm 0.80\hbox { ms}$$ . Due to this merely imperceptible delay and precise tracking, our solution can show the movements of the user in real-time in order to create deeper immersion.

Agreement analysis between Vive and Vicon tracking systems to monitor lumbar postural changes

Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be an effective treatment for specific phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain. Combined with a 3D motion capture system, VR becomes a valuable rehabilitation tool giving the clinician real-time measurements of joint movements. While 3D motion capture is prohibitively expensive, a tracking system released by Vive in March 2017, provides an inexpensive method to provide 6-Degrees of freedom (DOF) motion data. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of position and orientation measures reported by Vive Tracker pucks in comparison to Vicon with movements in healthy adults performing trunk motions in a VR game. Light-reflective markers were mounted on custom designed 3D printed plates along with Vive Tracker pucks. The plates were attached to the thorax and pelvis with elastic straps. Movement of the marker clusters were recorded by twelve Vicon Bonita 10 cameras (spatial resolution of 0.1 mm) using Vicon Tracker and The Motion Monitor software packages. Position and orientation of the Vive Tracker pucks were tracked by two infrared laser emitter units and recorded using the Unity game engine. Both Vicon and Vive data were recorded at 100 Hz. The two data streams were aligned based on game event markers with custom designed Matlab programs. The root meat square error was then calculated across a series of trials. The root mean square (RMS) difference between Vicon cluster markers and the Vive Tracker pucks was, on average, 0.26 degrees for the angular displacement and 0.336 mm for the positional data. The Vive Tracker pucks provide an accurate measurement of angular displacement and position that is consistent with the gold standard of the Vicon opto-electric system. This finding will help in translating laboratory based VR treatments to the clinic at very little cost.