Immersive Visualization / IQ-Station Wiki
This site hosts information on virtual reality systems that are geared toward scientific visualization, and as such often toward VR on Linux-based systems. Thus, pages here cover various software (and sometimes hardware) technologies that enable virtual reality operation on Linux.
The original IQ-station effort was to create low-cost (for the time) VR systems making use of 3DTV displays to produce CAVE/Fishtank-style VR displays. That effort pre-dated the rise of the consumer HMD VR systems, however, the realm of midrange-cost large-fishtank systems is still important, and has transitioned from 3DTV-based systems to short-throw projectors.
ART SMARTTRACK
ART SMARTTRACK
The SMARTTRACK device from Advanced Realtime Tracking GmbH is a moderate cost tracking system that makes use of a pair of cameras fixed relative to each other to minimize calibration requirements. The tracking precision is quite good, while the spatial coverage is more limited than other camera-based tracking systems which make use of a larger camera array.
How to Configure a SMARTTRACK
A few aspects of a SMARTTRACK system must be configured/calibrated before the system is operational. In many cases, once a SMARTTRACK is configured, it will retain all the information, so only minor tweaks may be needed when changing environments.
Network Configuration
The SMARTTRACK has an embedded computer which communicates with the VR system over the network. Thus the first step is to configure the network. You can choose to provide a pre-assigned IP address, or use DHCP to have the network switch assign one for you.
DHCP: Ready-to-go Option
If you're fortunate to be able to use DHCP to acquire an IP number for the SMARTTRACK, and further fortunate to have a router that can report what IP was assigned to the device, then you will know the address without any further work, and you can proceed with the tracking configuration and calibration.
But first you may want to do a quick confirmation test that you can communicate with the device at the known IP address:
% echo -n "dtrack2 get system version" | nc -w 1 -v <IP-address>
If it works, you should get the response:
Connection to <IP-address> 50105 port [tcp/*] succeeded!dtrack2 set system version <version> <date>