Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1.
View through Oculus Rift (Carin-
thia/Austria)
Fig. 2.
Outdoor
A practical test arrangement showed that it is not possible to give the user complete
freedom of the control over his permit virtual eyes. For this reason, a virtual route in
the form of GPS waypoints must be predefined, on which the ARDrone travels within
certain tolerances. As a result the user directly controls only the flight speed of the
virtual tour, not the drone navigation directions. However, this allows a completely
free focus and control of the front camera orientation.
2.1
Navigation
Due to the small narrow field of view of 91 degree and the rigidly mounted front
camera a user-controlled direct navigation of the ARDrone would only be possible
after several exercise passages. The specification of a flight course, which on the one
hand is free of any obstacles (thus the risk of collisions decreases), and on the other
hand provides optimized designed sightseeing courses (i.e., they lie within the flight
range of the ARDrone and show the most important sights), allows the user to enjoy a
satisfactory experience without the need of having knowledge of the actual flight
behavior and functional ways of the quadrocopter.
2.2
Virtual Reality
The ARDrone 2.0 and the provided SDK already provides numerous possibilities for
real-time symbol or character recognition to developers. Necessary calculations are
made directly on the ARDrone hardware/firmware and the results are processed in a
client application. The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset, originally designed for
immersive gaming. To create a strong sense of immersion it is designed to almost fill
the wearer's entire field of view and to completely block out the real world. The pin-
cushioned image for each eye (640×800 resolution) is corrected by lenses in the head-
set. The used combination of 3-axis gyros, accelerometers, and magnetometers make
it capable of absolute (relative to earth) head orientation tracking without drift
[8,9,10].
