VR Game Gun

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ym0tZSWGMc]

Many of you have probably experimented with alternative gaming interfaces. Here’s a well done little hack where they created a gun with a display mounted on it, for video gaming.  At a glance you can probably figure out exactly what they’ve done. They’ve attached a gyration mouse to the gun for tracking and gutted a keyboard for the buttons.  We have to give them some credit, they seem to have packaged it all nicely. Since it’s a standard mouse and keyboard, it just plugs in and works with any game.  As you can see in their version, the screen works very well in this configuration, almost seeming like a giant scope. You can see the wireless version and hear their aspirations for projector based models after the break.


[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnGSpAZtm38&feature=player_embedded]

49 thoughts on “VR Game Gun

  1. Verry nice done.
    How did they get the video wireles?
    How long can you play whith that 4aa pack?
    Are they all in series or all in parralel or is it 3 volts?
    Greetz Oler

  2. That’s a common thought. The problem is, you are always aiming where you are looking. Disconnecting the view and the cross hairs on these games is not a simple task.

    Though this may not be as immersive, the feeling is much more natural. Physically moving your arms to aim feels much more normal than making minute aim adjustments with your head.

  3. The ultimate ‘VR’ game would be this:

    Players wear video goggles and have guns, both of which have a complete set of gyros, accelerometers and compasses. The goggles also have a GPS module.

    This now gives you complete information about where every player is and where they are aiming. All that remains is to map the terrain into the game somehow (perhaps webcams & some computer vision wizardry) and you have a real FPS.

    Respawning might be tedious. Might work well as a team game vs zombies type thing.

    When I’m rich I’ll do it…

  4. This is damn cool. I can’t wait to see how well they do putting 3 projectors on it. In the end, if you don’t need the ‘gun’ form factor, you could probably put it into some cool little ergonomic handheld controller instead and save on the weight and cost. I’m thinking something like the Nunchuck but bigger.

  5. If anyone remembers the game Ravage DCX, an old (WIn95) FPS where you didn’t control movement, only aiming, this would be absolutely perfect for it.

    Nice craftsmanship on how it looks, too.

  6. Actually it looks like he’s crouching because the camera he’s filming himself with if rather low … maybe if he sells a few of these he can invest in a decent tripod :D

    At any rate, this is the first game controller mod I’ve seen in ages that looks like it might be as good as a mouse and keyboard (and maybe better).

    Kudos!

  7. Yea, im new to this, so this maybe a dumb question.
    But how is he powering the wireless monitor off what seems to be a pack of 6 AA batteries? Also like f7 asked, how does the video get sent over?

  8. btw: notice all the collateral ads about guns and firearm training institutes that pop up on this page…. don’t we have enough killing in this country? just check the news on oakland city (CA) or other places.

  9. Would’ve been better if this was an augmented reality game. Have a video camera record the view in front of the gun and then shows it on that lcd monitor with zombies flying at you. Better yet, make it a game where you have to search out invisible ghost which is only viewable by your special gun which detect poltergeist. I can see myself running around the house playing that.

  10. @thach

    “make it a game where you have to search out invisible ghost which is only viewable by your special gun ”

    That would be so cool!

    Imagine playing a game like that in a pitch black room using the screen for night vision.

  11. Not to get off topic…but sansan, the second amendment to the Constitution was put there for several reasons. Not only to guard the Sovereignty of our Republic, but also for self defense. Police can only react to crime, they cannot (and should not) be omnipresent.

    In communities where the Second Amendment is not infringed upon, there are drastically lower rates of crime. Criminals simply will not bother with you or your family if they have to fear for their safety. Learn to protect yourself so that Police can go back to being “Peace Officers” instead of “Law Enforcement”.

  12. The topic of gun control is very off topic here, here we talk hardware innovation. The second amendment is there for many reasons and those reasons have their own websites.

    Back to this particular topic, I think Caleb Kraft has done an outstanding job and I can not think of a much better mod than that. He is driving a monitor, gyroscopic mouse, and a keyboard, with off the shelf batteries. Aside from 3D holographic projection systems, this is the next best trick. And the reason he ducks, is because his ducking is caught by that mouse. Caleb Kraft, hats off to you my friend, that is a very very nice mod.

  13. Sorry folks, but a gyro mouse only send mouse signals… (up, down, left, right)… There’s no 3rd dimension being tracked there (unlike a wii controller that tracks 3D), so ducking is purely for the physical effect, not for the actual game control/interaction.

    Feel free to prove me wrong, but you’d have to be pretty convincing since the functionality isn’t needed in a mouse to track that 3rd dimension.

    There are plenty of off-the-shelf wireless video transmitters/receivers, so that wouldn’t be too hard.

    Many portable LCD screens come with rechargeable battery packs, so I’d assume that is built into the screen.

    If you watch closely, it looks more like 8 batteries (double-sided 4 battery pack). I would assume the batteries are being used for the gutted keyboard, mouse, & wireless video receiver.

  14. Thomas is correct.
    The crouching will have no effect, based off of gyro mouse input. Who knows, maybe he’s rigged something else up, but I doubt it.

    It isn’t the perfect VR setup for sure. But it’s pretty freaking cool considering that it’s all “off the shelf” components that work effortlessly with current pc games.

  15. “The ultimate ‘VR’ game would be this:

    Players wear video goggles and have guns, both of which have a complete set of gyros, accelerometers and compasses. The goggles also have a GPS module.”

    or you could just go play paintball.

  16. While the gyration mouse gives a very easy way to do head tracking, it seems a webcam and some host software would be better in the long run… It’s the same technology used in optical mice, albeit with a much higher resolution.

  17. What I wonder is, how does he handle the difference in game angle and angle of the gun, because as far as I know, the mouse is used as a relative input device in fps games, as opposed to an absolute input, which this is.

  18. Well gutting a Wii controller is not that big of a leap, it is a slightly off version of Bluetooth, you get the up down left right, and we have seen them used for three dimensional projects. Powering them is simple, and adding them in may not be all that hard. The antenna are dirt cheap, so you can use the IR part as well. Plenty of alternate uses for them. I like that screen interface though, you could see him looking around in odd angles with it. This thing is probably close to polishing up and selling it. I am starting to get interested in it now I can get Duke Nukem to work on XP.

  19. This is pretty cool, but part of aiming with a mouse vs thumbs or this VR gun is that you can do a 180 almost instantly. This gun would actually require that you perform a 180. Probably get owned from behind a lot.

    Probably *really* tedious to get mouse acceleration set correctly for each game.

    Otherwise pretty awesome.

  20. I first though “I have to do this, but the screen will cost lots.” Then I realized that I could just use my netbook. Now all I need is the mouse and gun. I also need to know how to interface the mouse with the game so as to get 1:1 control.

  21. Throw a wiimote, nunchuck and motionplus into one of those rifle shells (modified to fit the motionplus, obviously) and stick the lcd screen on top! I’m sure a lot of us have most of those lying around already, and it’s far more capable than the gyromouse solution. Heck, you get a full 6dof imu!

    I’m off to buy myself a motionplus today…

  22. That is a quite a cool gadget to have, and the best thing is that it is quite easy to build from all the electronic components you might have at home already. The only worry would be, if you tackle you mother by accident.

  23. really awesome. I’m trying to transform my android htc wildfire into a gyroscopic mouse (there is already software for that). And maybe I’ll by movie glasses like the vuzix wrap 230.

    Really cool

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