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Webcam head tracking, webcam to control in‑game FOV

67 points by mwit2023

by jai_

1 subcomments

Cool to see this, it's a cool in-between step for not having additional wraparound screens or a VR headset.
I used to run a similar software[1] for when I was really into playing F1 racing games. However one of the problems I found was the initial disconnect in your head and eye movement that took some getting used to.
For example, if you want to look left to see an upcoming turn, naturally your eyes move before your head, and your head follows after. With this software enabled, you have to consciously inverse the process where your head moves a direction, but your eyes still remain looking forward at the screen.
It took a some getting used to and resulting in some dizziness afterwards, but was fun.
[1]: https://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm

by hyperific

1 subcomments

Also check out the SmoothTrack mobile app. Same use case but the compute is done on a phone instead of the gaming machine. Head position data can be sent over local network or USB.

by fidotron

0 subcomment

You can do some related tricks to this in browsers too: https://github.com/atomirex/fishtank-js (example https://atomirex.github.io/fishtank-js/dist/index.html )
There is a greatly cleaner version of the same idea in the React Fiber libraries these days as well.

by oyagci

1 subcomments

by iamjackg

0 subcomment

It would be cool to use something like this or openfov to control OBS to automatically switch between different cameras/scenes when you turn your head. Either multiple cameras, or switching between screenshare/camera if you look directly into the camera.

by gchamonlive

0 subcomment

It would be nice to know the limits of this tech, like how does it tolerate head gears and garments like headphones or hoodies, beanies and glasses, long hard, different skin colour and facial features or even background contrast.

by fxwin

0 subcomment

Hmm, from the title i expected a tool to calibrate FOV angle to monitor size/distance

by cubefox

3 subcomments

Wouldn't it be better to use head tracking to get the position of the head relative to the monitor, so the monitor behaves like a window? Like in Johnny Lee's classic Wii demo [1].
The way it currently works (rotating the view upon head rotation) doesn't really make sense because a monitor is not a head mounted display.
1: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

by markun

0 subcomment

by itsthecourier

6 subcomments

when your head move, and with it your eyes, you move what's in front of them to your perspective inside the simulation, just as VR works
but in this case it is detrimental because the screen is fixed, the natural behavior would be not to move it
or at least do very little with it like a parallax
the current demo would cause nausea after a moment

by numpad0

0 subcomment

...why would webcam head tracking need a new standalone vibecoded project? I thought there are plenty of those already.