Third Person Perspective Is Guaranteed To Mess With Your Senses

3rd person oculus rift

Third person video games are never really that realistic — you get a much wider range of vision, you can typically see around things your character can’t actually see… the list goes on. But what would it be like to have a third person perspective, in real life?

That’s exactly what some hackers in Poland decided to do! This is their Real World Third Person Perspective VR / AR Experiment. It makes use of an Oculus Rift, two GoPros, a microprocessor and a few servo motors. It’s essentially a glorified camera on a stick that you wear as a backpack, but nonetheless it has a really cool effect.

The project was built in under 2 days to get into the tight deadline for Intel’s Wearable contest, which has an impressive prize list, including a grand prize of $500,000 for business development! They didn’t place, but it’s still a Hack a Day worthy project!

Check it out!

[Thanks Itay!]

29 thoughts on “Third Person Perspective Is Guaranteed To Mess With Your Senses

  1. 1) I seriously want to try this.
    2) It would be really awkward to balance, but could the cameras be placed a few feet further back so more of the body or even one’s feet would be visible? I Can foresee some difficulties on rough terrain or steps while using this.
    3) Those cameras need a much sturdier articulation – wobbling on the end of two servos made me cringe.

      1. Its actually not against the law.. You may want to go back and see that they are suggestions and not regulations as of yet.. Even if they went into effect, their is so many organizations that would sue the FAA and Federal Government on those restrictions..

      2. Darn it Chris I was about to suggest this too! :-)

        However, I would add a power tether as battery power is only good for 5-10 minutes. A flat wire telephone cable is lightweight and flexible. It could supply unlimited power to the quadcopter drone until the motors overheat. And cameras are already built into let’s say the Brookstone Parrot (and others). He could use the VR Occulis device as a FPV goggle too. For those who can’t afford an Occulis just get one of those small old analog pocket TV’s with video jack and an old VR video game toy headpiece and mate them together. The SpyGear night vision goggle and also the SpyTank has it’s own FPV monochrome video monitor goggle. Both only cover one eye though not both.

        The FAA is not enforcing this anti-personal-drone-thing until 2015 (in deference to future US Congress’ rulings on this) and it’s only for commercial use they are concerned with. As long as you are no closer than 1/4 mile to an airport of any kind and less than 400 feet high you are safe from them getting involved. I heard they may consider FPV goggles a problem though but I am not sure about that. And this is only if someone reports you like a pilot or a super-nosy concerned citizen. Just don’t put any laser pointers on it or you will also get a visit from local police.

  2. Amazing!!
    What about throw away the servos and fix the cameras directly on a long stick on the back of the head? This should make it more videogames-like, as you turn your head the camera stay in line with you eyes. (Surely in this way it’s too much easy ;) )

    1. Head motion tracking would be really cool for something like this. Maybe even a up-down motion to raise and lower it too. Could use progressively smaller pieces of PVC or similar material to make the armature compact down into a backpack when lowered all the way.

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