A PSVR Headset Tracking Rig by GreatScott!
GreatScott! combined an OpenMV-H7 camera with a NEMA17 stepper motor to create a system that tracks his PlayStation VR headset.
As seen in the video below, hacker extraordinaire GreatScott! enjoys his PlayStation VR for games like Tetris... along with other titles that take better advantage of this advanced hardware. This, however, can be a bit of a problem if you’re moving around a lot, as you need to be roughly centered in the PlayStation’s camera view.
What, then, is the solution? Another camera of course! For his build, GreatScott! is using an OpenMV-H7 camera unit, which contains an STM32H743 Arm Cortex-M7 MCU. This allows it to run machine vision routines, including face and eye detection, though as his head will be covered by a VR headset, this doesn’t really work. Instead, he employed a blob detection function to sense and track a blue dot on the center of the PSVR headset.
With that sorted out, he was able to use the camera’s GPIO functionality to control a servo driver, which turns a NEMA17 motor left and right to track his obscured face. While certainly a prototype — the PlayStation camera may not respond well to continuous movement, and other blue lights tend to throw the tracking off — it’s an interesting experiment and shows just how far we’ve come with computer vision. Perhaps we’ll see something similar implemented in future VR systems, meaning you'll never have get off the couch to adjust the camera again!