Trackir, Freetrack...and now look FaceAPI

[A.S]

 

and here how it works and what it is !

 

http://www.seeingmachines.com/product/faceapi/faceapi-videos/

 

 

FREE !

[104th_Crunch]

Very interesting A.S, but what advantages does it offer over TIR in sims except no special hardware? Even that may be a disadvantage if it introduces CPU overhead.

[Boulund]

I've been waiting for a good application that can handle headtracking via face-recog. Saw this company display their stuff a while back and have been eagerly awaiting the result!

Think this can do it?

If only they could output into some standard head-tracking format so that it could work with all applications. Since Naturalpoint are a little edgy about using their interface it would be nice if someone else would propose a general purpose head-tracking interface format. (I know freetrack has one, but really don't know what is needed for a really open and flexible one). This could easily blow trackir out of the water if they can motivate buyers that they can spare the extra processing power...

 

Edit: Tried the software now and it's truly amazing how fluid tracking they can provide! I really love it! =D Using their test application it consumes approx 13% CPU power, so it's a rather expensive algorithm but hey, give me a hexa core and I'll be a happy boy using this anyway ;).

Edit2: Using Freetrack uses about 6% on my computer. I'm convinced the differences between the softwares are quite small when it comes down to it. FaceAPI demo application displays all the fancy stuff which is not needed for headtracking in games.

Edited February 27, 2010 by Boulund

[104th_Crunch]

...would be nice if someone else would propose a general purpose head-tracking interface format...

 

If it was good with low CPU overhead, then it would increase the popularity of head tracking software a lot me thinks. good idea!

 

Fo now I will pay Natural Point for the extra hardware that means better performance and less CPU overhead.

[Boberro]

If it really tracks your face correctly it will be fantastic :O

[Coax]

I don't know what Boulund is using, but in my experience FaceAPI is unreliable and imprecise.

[topdog]

FaceAPI is limited to some extent by the webcam quality and also the port used; most aren't really set to process high frame rates to create as fluid a motion as you can get from a 'real' headtracker unit, and firewire cams are rare for PCs, more common (in my experience) on macs.

 

With firewire cams FaceAPI utilization was able to get down to only a few % CPU, but with USB the whole setup required more, I think in the order of 12-25%, and that was mostly a camera thing rather than to do with their software.

 

You may get faster and more accurate tracking if you can lower the camera resolution and colour depth too, as processing greyscale smaller res streams would typically require less effort and bandwidth to capture and process, but it's all very much a 'depends' thing because of the independent parts all used in the setup vs. a 'one stop shop' solution dedicated and designed for the purpose.

 

I've seen many vids on FaceAPI (I was interested in writing apps with it too for fun but the SDK is estimated to cost around 3-4K dollars which is out of my league), and it has the capability to do the job fast and well, it also has the potential to capture more than 6DOF as it does fairly good face expression and lip movement capture in real time. Unsure what to use that for unless they mapped the sticking out of my tongue into the game at other pilots though :P :D

 

Edit: The non-commercial license I see only covers the 6DOF stuff, so presumably any hobby/community apps released would only have this capability too anyway.

Edited February 28, 2010 by topdog

[104th_Crunch]

... Unsure what to use that for unless they mapped the sticking out of my tongue into the game at other pilots though :P :D

 

...or make a hand tracker and have it track your fingers so when you are cut off online while landing by someone taking the runway, you can wave nicely to them. Or make other appropriate hand gestures :D

[Boulund]

After a more thorough playthrough with the demo software I realized that the tracking is not at all perfect at the extremes (far right or left for example). The tracking is imprecise in these regions and sometimes loses track totally. What more is that this method of head tracking requires that you are properly lighted, something many gamers most probably are not =). Obviously the tracking is limited to <30fps or whatever your webcam can produce. The CPU-utilization is of course higher than any dedicated hardware (e.g. TrackIR) but what says we won't see dedicated highres highfps webcams coming about?

The main point I see to this is that there is totally no need for extra hardware on your head (reflectors, ir-clip, big white paper on cap etc...).

 

Lip and eyebrow tracking is very nice, but I fail to see usage make any difference in any regular game (thinking like lipsync in games like Arma or whatever).

[Alex_rcpilot]

Since Naturalpoint are a little edgy about using their interface it would be nice if someone else would propose a general purpose head-tracking interface format. (I know freetrack has one, but really don't know what is needed for a really open and flexible one).

 

That's soooo true. Introducing a free and generic head tracking interface will be a mutual benefit for both game companies and game players in the long run. I presume currently what's holding us back is Natural Point patents?

 

I've heard (can't confirm) that free track also takes advantage of Natural Point interface through reverse engineering. And that makes it illegal for anyone to build new hardware based on it.