A team from the University of Texas wants to create virtual reality and augmented reality systems that can better integrate with the real world. Along the
way, ШУУД ҮЗЭХ they just might
revolutionize the geolocation systems we all use on our mobile devices.
We first met Todd Humphreys and his students in the Cockrell School of Engineering a few years ago at South by Southwest in Austin. At the time they were working with a goofy, bulky proof-of-concept augmented reality system that was about the size of a desktop computer with a dish-sized GPS antenna sticking out of it. It seemed like the team was making interesting advances, but was still way behind an augmented reality trend that was dominated by buzz around Google Glass at the time.
Two years later, Glass is on hiatus, and Humphreys' group has a new
software-based system that could improve the accuracy of the GPS enough
to open up a wide array of new uses for mobile devices, virtual reality
headsets, automotive navigation and perhaps even the next generation of
Google Glass.
For years now, the team members have been working on harnessing what's
called carrier-phase differential GPS (CDGPS), which can be accurate
down to a centimeter. Previous prototypes like the one we saw in person
required a big, clunky, expensive antenna to achieve this, but now they
claim to have a breakthrough software-defined GPS receiver that can
attain the same level of accuracy using the cheaper antennas currently
found in mobile devices.
Humphreys
envisions using this technology to enable drones to deliver packages to
a hyper-specific spot and to improve automotive collision systems, but
his team is especially interested in merging real-time geolocation data
with virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, which
currently does not use GPS (and is tethered to a PC), limiting it to
indoor use and accuracy within only about two-to-three feet (roughly .75
meters).
"Imagine games where, rather than sit in front of a monitor and play,
you are in your backyard actually running around with other players," he
says.
Humphreys and his team are now working on a specialized receiver called
GRID, that extracts centimeter-level accuracy from mobile device
antennas. The receiver currently operates outside the phone, but is
expected to eventually run on a smartphone's internal processor. The
team has recently spun off a startup called Radiosense that is working
with Samsung to develop a snap-on accessory that will provide more
accurate location information for devices, including VR headsets.
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