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A Closer Look At The AimTrak (with video goodness)

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syph007:
I've improved since I took that first video, but I still hold the conclusion that the gun isnt really usable without onscreen cursor.  I now hold the gun a tad below my line of site and soley rely on the onscreen crosshair, but I'm hitting what I'm trying to.  Guests that have tried have had alot of fun with it, so its for sure a fun addition.  Now if your expectations are greater than mine, then you might be disappointed, but it does what I expect, which is really to act as a gun like mouse.   I dont have any more trouble hitting the edges of the screen though than the center, I was just not trying as much at that point in the vid.  I'll take another to show you better.  The only thing I'm personally disapointed in is that I cant use dual guns to play house of the dead PC version, only one works.  Thats not the guns fault I know, but at least dual guns works in MAME.

Neverending Project:

--- Quote from: RandyT on October 12, 2009, 04:18:57 am ---This is an opinion based on what you are showing in your videos.  I don't have one of these (yet), so your videos (and Syph's) are what I am commenting upon.

--- End quote ---

Thanks for the disclaimer.  ;) Guess I jumped a little too much in the last thread. Sorry.


--- Quote from: AndyWarne on October 12, 2009, 06:02:54 am ---One issue might be screen overscan. When using an LCD monitor, the edges of the screen are the true edges of the picture so this is not an issue. On a CRT monitor with overscan it might be necessary to aim the gun outside of the screen edge when calibrating. It should be a very quick process to try some calibration cycles and get an impression of the best place to aim.

--- End quote ---

The other thing I was thinking about this morning is that my laser pointer is a half inch or more (that's 1-2cm for you other folk) above the camera lens. This means when the laser pointer is in the top-corner of the screen, the camera lens is actually just slightly inside the corner. Likewise on the bottom, the camera lens is actually pointing just slightly below the screen edge. I tried to adjust it as best as I can so it converges at the point the camera focus and laser pointer dot would hit the screen, but it is only a toy laser pointer taped to the gun so there's only so much I could do.

I will make some more attempts to get a better calibration.

The other thing I was thinking about was the fact that this Act Labs gun is designed as a toy and the sight is very wide. Even taking my time, steadying my shot and taking my best aim I am not going to be very accurate with the sight alone. The gun barrel is over an inch wide! I think that is what i was eluding to before... when I play arcade games I go more by feel, since that is going to give me the best results anyway. If the gun hits where I feel I am aiming but I miss my shot, I move slightly to correct.

RandyT:

--- Quote from: AndyWarne on October 12, 2009, 06:02:54 am ---But I am concerned about the first section of the accuracy video. This gives the impression that the gun is not accurate at the outset, towards the edges. It is. So something is not correct with the calibration. If the gun is not accurate then the calibration would need to be repeated, because it should be.

One issue might be screen overscan. When using an LCD monitor, the edges of the screen are the true edges of the picture so this is not an issue. On a CRT monitor with overscan it might be necessary to aim the gun outside of the screen edge when calibrating. It should be a very quick process to try some calibration cycles and get an impression of the best place to aim.

--- End quote ---

It looks to me like there is something amiss with the calibration routines.  If you look at the video, when the calibration routines are being performed, the mouse cursor goes right to the corner and is visible the entire time.  The "start" button is also fully in view at the XP desktop, so I'm not sure why you would come to the conclusion that "overscan" was the issue.  If it were, neither of these two things would be true.  "The best place to aim" should be the locations where the arrows are pointing, no?



--- Quote from: Neverending Project on October 12, 2009, 11:19:48 am ---The other thing I was thinking about this morning is that my laser pointer is a half inch or more (that's 1-2cm for you other folk) above the camera lens. This means when the laser pointer is in the top-corner of the screen, the camera lens is actually just slightly inside the corner. Likewise on the bottom, the camera lens is actually pointing just slightly below the screen edge. I tried to adjust it as best as I can so it converges at the point the camera focus and laser pointer dot would hit the screen, but it is only a toy laser pointer taped to the gun so there's only so much I could do.

--- End quote ---

While something else might be amiss, something like this shouldn't be a problem.  It's simply an offset difference and should easily be accounted for.  It's no different than having the camera located a little lower in the barrel of the gun, or having the LED's a little higher (or both).  That's the purpose of the calibration routines.....it's supposed to make sense of these variables and adjust accordingly.  And it is pretty accurate in the center and top center, so if the laser sight placement was going to be an issue, it would be an issue there as well and it doesn't seem to be.

RandyT

FrizzleFried:

--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on October 12, 2009, 04:17:56 am ---
Thanks for the Vids.

 Very sorry to see... but not surprised...  that the accuracy is poor.
Basically, you can shoot most things in the center fine.  But anything on the edges
and you will be off Over an entire CM!  Heck, I think I saw over an inch off in the vids.
   
 Sorry.. but thats just unacceptable to me. I actually like to do well in the games I play.


--- End quote ---

Looks like you won't be buying then.  Oh well.  Thanks for the input.

Endaar:
Great videos.

Andy, if for whatever reason the edge tracking is off, could this be something that could be compensated for via software? In other words, if after calibration the user sees that the gun is tracking 1/2 inch to one side of the cursor, have the software adjust for that. Something like the mapping utlity on the U360, where a manual adjustment could be entered for each portion of the screen.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Endaar

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