OptiTrack debuts tracking solution for VR work
March 1, 2017

OptiTrack debuts tracking solution for VR work

SAN FRANCISCO — At GDC 2017, OptiTrack (www.optitrack.com) introduced OptiTrack Active, a solution tailored specifically for out-of-home, theme park scaled virtual reality (VR) experiences. This advancement enables greatly simplified manufacturing and deployment efforts for large-scale, multi-user VR experiences. 

OptiTrack Active is being showcased using Oculus HMDs, Striker VR weapons, and MSI VR One Backpack PCs in the OptiTrack booth at the 2017 Game Developers Conference, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. At the core of OptiTrack Active is a set of infra-red LEDs synchronized with OptiTrack’s low latency, high frame rate, Slim 13E cameras, delivering realtime marker identification as well as positioning. This differs from OptiTrack’s passive solution, which requires that reflective markers be configured in unique patterns for each tracked object. This can add a great deal of complexity for high volume manufacturing and large-scale deployments of HMDs or weapons. With OptiTrack Active over 100 objects can be tracked simultaneously over areas greater than 100-feet by 100-feet while maintaining high precision and low latency.

“We heard the market loud and clear – the leaders in the out-of-home VR space wanted all the tracking performance that OptiTrack systems deliver, but with a way that allows them to build and deploy 500 identical HMDs, not 500 slightly different configurations,” says Brian Nilles, OptiTrack’s chief strategy officer. “The result is the best active tracking system ever built and the lowest cost to rollout to dozens of sites. The Slim13E camera, designed specifically for OptiTrack Active, delivers 240fps freeze frame capture and is also 40 percent lower cost than its passive tracking equivalent.  We delivered in every category, one SKU manufacturing, dramatically lowering overall system cost, and we even improved the tracking quality.”