Interfacing

The WalkMouse can be integrated into virtually any application. Full positional head tracking can be gained through a simple UDP interface. Alternatively a joystick driver enables the operating system to view the WalkMouse as a DirectInput joystick.

The user is tracked with a professional near infrared camera, Optitrack V120:SLIM, that detects the LED on the user's head. This positional information in X,Y and Z (meters) relative the floor center is sent through UDP as a minimal packet along with the walking speed in X and Y directions (meters/second). The positional information is then mapped to the virtual camera/viewpoint while the walk speeds are used to offset these values within the game coordinate system.

Scripts for popular engines such as Unity3D and Vizard are available. 

In applications where source code is not available, WalkMouse provides integration through an open source DirectInput driver that emulates a joystick in Windows. With the use of an additional rotation sensor, used for mouse emulation, any commercial first person game can be supported.

WalkMouse is best utilized in conjunction with a 360 degree visual system, which can be built with the use of projection technology, head mounted displays or planar displays in a polygon.