During winter semester 2008 a new commercial tracking system by the company WorldViz was installed in the VRLab. This system – named after the manufacturer WorldViz – consists of four high-resolution cameras and a tracking computer. The team members are currently developing virtual reality applications in the programming language python. For development they use Vizard, a powerful 3D development platform. These applications, displayed on a powerwall in the laboratory, enable the processing of tracking data which are provided by WorldViz.
A Vizard demo application which allows users to play a virtual drum with a computer mouse and keyboard has already been extended: So now the VRlab team is able to play with two real drum sticks on the powerwall. Infrared diodes are attached to the sticks as to enable WorldViz to track their position in front of the powerwall on which the animated drum set is projected.
A head tracking application allows users to visit a virtual museum. In order to calculate the current position in the virtual museum, the user has to wear a helmet equipped with several infrared markers.