The castAR Kickstarter has started!

[geneb]

castAR supports multiple tracking targets. This means that you're NOT facing a single target, TrackIR style. With multiple tracking targets in your environment, there's no reason you can't crank your head around to look directly behind you without losing tracking. Tracking is a 1:1 ratio - it does NOT work the way TrackIR does.

 

A VR rig like the Oculus Rift is totally useless for flight simulation. Sure, you've got a HOTAS, but what happens when you try to lower the landing gear, adjust the radios, pull a fire handle, select a menu item on an MFD, etc. If you have to interface with a physical environment, VR is more of a problem than a solution because you can't see your environment to be able to interact with it.

 

I don't know what the horizontal and vertical FOV is yet, but I've posted that question on their forum about it and a few other things.

 

The castAR is going to completely revolutionize DIY cockpit building and fight simulation in general. If you don't understand that, then it's your loss and that saddens me. A friend and I built the only DIY collimated display ever built and the castAR junks it.

 

g.

[Vivoune]

castAR supports multiple tracking targets. This means that you're NOT facing a single target, TrackIR style. With multiple tracking targets in your environment, there's no reason you can't crank your head around to look directly behind you without losing tracking. Tracking is a 1:1 ratio - it does NOT work the way TrackIR does.

 

A VR rig like the Oculus Rift is totally useless for flight simulation. Sure, you've got a HOTAS, but what happens when you try to lower the landing gear, adjust the radios, pull a fire handle, select a menu item on an MFD, etc. If you have to interface with a physical environment, VR is more of a problem than a solution because you can't see your environment to be able to interact with it.

 

I don't know what the horizontal and vertical FOV is yet, but I've posted that question on their forum about it and a few other things.

 

The castAR is going to completely revolutionize DIY cockpit building and fight simulation in general. If you don't understand that, then it's your loss and that saddens me. A friend and I built the only DIY collimated display ever built and the castAR junks it.

 

g.

 

It's your opinion that the Oculus Rift is useless, personally I never touch my keyboard in DCS and besides, multiple hardware solutions are being developed to overcome the fact that you can't see your hands, much like CastAR had to develop that wand controller. Oculus Rift and CastAR aren't the same products, to my knowledge and humble experience the Oculus Rift would be my choice for an immersive entry to a true virtual reality over CastAR simply because I don't see any point in having to deal with a dimmed light environment, reflective panels installation and screen border limitations when I can just 'be in the game' in a matter of putting goggles on when using the OR. CastAR is still a really cool piece of hardware though. But yea, agree to disagree, no need to feel sad about it ^^.

Edited October 15, 2013 by Vivoune

[BHawthorne]

Problem is they're omitting a lot of critical information. How are they correcting the image? How are they aligning the AR to the material and IR LEDs and what is the latency? Those parts of the puzzle are make or break type of things with me. Most importantly, can this just be used in regular games without extensive modification by the developer?

[geneb]

Well get your ass over to the forum and ASK. :D

 

g.

[remon]

My credit card is shot. I can't even do a single package at the moment. I might be able to pledge the first week of november though.

 

Did you watch the video I posted in the previous page?

[BHawthorne]

Did you watch the video I posted in the previous page?

 

Yes, but I'd still like to mess with castAR too.

 

When I talk about IR auto-calibration I always think of the video you linked. Donno if he has any patents on it though which would interfere with it being implemented into Nthusim though.

Edited October 15, 2013 by BHawthorne

[geneb]

This was just posted to the KS page:

 

"The current prototypes need an IR marker every 110 degrees for seamless tracking if you wanted to make a dome or large wrap around. The sweet spot for retro distance is half meter to 3 meters."

 

"We will document the modulation scheme on the IR markers, so others can homebrew them. A marker for tracking only requires a inexpensive microcontroller and a IR LEDs. We will have more off the shelf options for IR tracking as the project matures and reaches production."

 

 

g.

[cichlidfan]

I am looking forward to getting my hands on this. At minimum, it should be interesting to experiment with.

[kontiuka]

Not too interested myself but I'm highly impressed that it's reached more than 3 quarters of its goal in one day!

[Panthro]

I think this is great will have to use this as a way to do VR and see my hands/pit.

[Deadman]

Gene I think your right this could be the perfect 3d outside of the cockpit view

 

 

This was just posted to the KS page:

 

"The current prototypes need an IR marker every 110 degrees for seamless tracking if you wanted to make a dome or large wrap around. The sweet spot for retro distance is half meter to 3 meters."

 

"We will document the modulation scheme on the IR markers, so others can homebrew them. A marker for tracking only requires a inexpensive microcontroller and a IR LEDs. We will have more off the shelf options for IR tracking as the project matures and reaches production."

 

 

g.

[acemark]

This looks very promising and about to go for one. Imagine the glasses with the lens clips on,in see through mode,displaying cockpit. Your are sitting in your refective fabric "Cube" ,with the outside world projected.

 

Cant find price of fabric, could be costly.

 

I think the max 720p will help FPS.

 

Most important, will it work with D.C.S.W.

They dont seem to be limited in supply so will wait till atleast sunday night before deciding. Its only been 1 hour since I heard about this device.

Must add that I thought Leapfrog was going to be wonderful , But I had not the erge to get one.

 

Thanks for pointing this out Geneb.

Edited October 19, 2013 by acemark

[Mr_Burns]

I designed (in my head) a projector that fired images at a rolled out piece of blank A4 so it looked like you were reading a newspaper (this was a few years ago). Seems this is taking my invention to the next level.

 

I also thought up firing jets of water in a small pool so you could swim in a space of around 2.5 meters long before they were invented.

 

I love it, and I love the redhead presenting it, I would until I was shooting dust.

[Mindz i]

Guys, I hear a lot of misconseptions in this thread from those with an uncertain view of the product. I found this interview from their company's website. The interview answers all your questions in addition to giving some insight as to where the products going in the near future.

 

In the interview, they say that airlines are contacting them because, currently, they are using expensive projectors to train pilots. They are now interested in CastAR because it will save them lots of money eliminating that expense.

 

For anyone who interacts with a functional sim cockpit, this is, with out a doubt, the way to go. The material used to send the light back to your eyes is the same stuff used on road signs and is extremely cheap. In addition, there is a paint that does the same exact thing, allowing for domed surfaces.

 

They said in the future, it will be capable of UltraHD and the images will continue to get brighter. But, if your in a domed canopy, light is not going to be an issue anyway.

 

I've been following Jeri Ellsworth for some time, she's brilliant. Here's the interview. It's well worth watching the whole show.

 

http://twit.tv/show/triangulation/124

Edited October 21, 2013 by Mindz i

[Mr_Burns]

I think I have just met the future Mrs Burns....excellent.

[Mindz i]

I think I have just met the future Mrs Burns....excellent.

 

LOL. Yeah, she reminds me of Lora from TRON. Very intelligent.

[StiC]

I think for this to work well you'd need a proper 360° circular dome projection and the projectors would need to have 180° FoV, and if with high enough resolution, then I agree it's likely to work very well. But then I wonder if very high FoV in game (taking DCS for example) you get stretched image on the corners and it won't look good... anyway,I'm bit skeptical about this.

 

The material is made up of tiny spherical particles which, in essence, turn light around and send it back to the source from almost any angle. Wrinkles, creases and corners should barely be perceived by the wearer. Since it is just a single projector, no alignment is necessary.

 

If they can nail down the headtracking, increase the resolution and FOV (all of which they are already working on) I can see a future of interactive, projected cockpits and environments.

[cichlidfan]

Message to backers, received today:

 

Technical Illusions wrapped up our castAR Kickstarter campaign a bit over two years ago. We can safely say that it was your enthusiasm that made Technical Illusions’ castAR one of the first Kickstarter projects to raise over a million dollars. Kickstarting castAR provided us with the foundation that Jeri and I used to begin building both a company and the castAR product. During the last two years we've learned a lot about the market we are in, how to put a business together, and the expectations set forth by you, our Backers.

 

In the last few months we’ve debated internally how we can best meet those expectations. On one hand, it’s become clear that many Backers want a product with full software experiences. On the other, our Kickstarter campaign was designed to deliver hardware that would be much more suited for developers looking to create those experiences. Simultaneously, we’ve been working on a consumer product that will deliver the experience many Backers have been expressing they want. But the reality is that a consumer product has a much more complex development cycle.

 

After much internal debate, we’ve decided to give everyone who was expecting castAR hardware a free pair of consumer castAR at release and will be fully reimbursing your Kickstarter backings if you follow the process we describe in a FAQ. You believed in us, so you get a castAR for free once the consumer product is released. To further express our appreciation, we’d also like to send you a couple small thank you gifts designed just for you, our Backers. We wear our Kickstarter success as a badge of honor, and we hope you will too. The link to the FAQ at the bottom of this update will explain the details.

 

We certainly would not be where we’re at without your generous support and trust. Respecting you and your expectations has been our guiding principal as we’ve discussed our next move. You committed to castAR with your emotional and financial support and we want to make sure we honor that commitment by showing you the same respect and commitment to you. We want to give you what you want to the best of our ability, and not unduly hang on to your backing while we work to make it happen.

 

Jeri and I want to sincerely thank you for embarking on this journey with us. The entire process has been very humbling and we have especially enjoyed interacting with all of you. At the start of any journey it is not always exactly clear where you might end up. While we've made some mistakes and course corrections along the way we think that they will ultimately lead to a better product.

 

Jeri and I aren’t going away and we will always make time to ensure that your questions are answered and that your comments are received. Always feel free to email Jeri [jeri@castar.com] or me [rick@castar.com] directly.

 

Once again, you’ve made this all possible. We’re excited to be sharing castAR’s success with our greatest and most trusted supporters.

Jeri & Rick

 

PS: You’ll be getting a Kickstarter survey so we can collect the information needed to get you your money. We have a FAQ that explains the details at http://castAR.com/kickstarter-faq/

 

Can't really complain about that. Consumer release in 2017.

[HornedGod]

Yeah, I'm happy with that. I was expecting delivery around now (it has been two years), but if it's going to be two more years, then getting my money back and a free castAR when it does release is cool with me.