3D Fpv

gearwolf

Junior Member
Was wondering if you guys could do a 3D Fpv video. 3D in the sense of viewing and not acrobatics. I know there aren't many products out there but the experience would be cool. Maybe this is too early?
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
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David filmed several flights back in 2011, but no idea if he's done the FPV in stereo or only recorded the flight in stereo:


it should be doable, but would need a second video transmitter or some type of mix/unmix on the video signal, and a goggle system where the screens are split between two inputs (either natively or after a mod).
 

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
I used to make 3D pictures. Actually capturing the picture is easy. I don't know how to get it the red/blue so I could see them with those crappy 3D glasses.

But as Crafty Dan said, it's really just having two set ups and one seen on each side of the goggles. Might even be nice just to have the redundancy incase one FPV set up fails, you can still fly it home with one.

There has to be a better way of viewing the results than with red/blue glasses. Those always distort the color. But most people, like me, don't have access to anything better. I mean can't afford anything better.
 

gearwolf

Junior Member
Capturing is fun but I'm wondering about low level flight real time. Do you guys think the woggle coarse would have had more points across the board if it was done in 3D.
 

RoyBro

Senior Member
Mentor
Maybe, but I think a wider angle view would have made a bigger difference. And I don't mean like fisheye. I mean having a wider field of view. That would have made lining up the flight paths through the obstacles easier. Depth of field may have helped, but being able to see where you're turning is way more useful.

My opinion.
 

RoyBro

Senior Member
Mentor
Roy, do you mean cameras further apart, or smaller mm lens for a wider shot?

I like the opinion. Was hoping for a way to test it. I guess it comes down to the goggles right?

OK, verbose mode (sorry).

Since the cataract surgery, I've switched to more protective eyewear when riding the motorcycle. These goggle infringe on my peripheral vision somewhat. So I find that instead of shifting my eyes to the left or right, I have to turn my head when making turns. With FPV, we are restricted to an even narrower field of view. I don't think that using a shorter focal length lens will do the trick because although you increase the field of view, it also distorts the image. Which can actually make flying accuracy more difficult.
What would be more ideal, would be a camera setup that would provide a semi-panoramic view, undistorted, that we could scan with eye movements. Less ideal, but perhaps workable would be head-tracking, which sort of mimics what I have to do now while riding my motorcycle.

The most ideal would be a method of mimicking natural vision. Wide field of vision, undistorted, peripheral vision. Of course there is nothing out there right now that will do that. So of the technologies that do exist right now, I would guess that head-tracking (if responsive enough) would increase flying accuracy more than depth of field (stereo vision).

I am hoping that with the HD technology coming to FatSharks, that they don't simply increase the resolution while maintaining a 4:3 aspect ratio. If they went to a 16:9 aspect ratio, we might have something that provides a wider field of view that will actually enhance our flying ability.
 
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xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
No apologies necessary, Roy. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to hear the answer! :)

I have to agree that a wider view would be ideal. The optics would have to get a lot better and I just don't know how they will manage that on the small cameras. I have wide angle lenses for my DSLR's that provide a nice wide field of view with very little barrel distortion(fisheye) you speak of, but my keychain camera has a ton of it. well, ...it did... The funny thing is, barrel distortion is frowned upon in lenses, but then a true fisheye is something the lens companies are VERY proud of!

I haven't been able to try the fatsharks yet as the budget just can't squeeze that far right now. They are popular so I guess that says something. Personally, I'd like to try them first before I drop that much cheese on them.
 

RoyBro

Senior Member
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Too bad you live in a southernmost state of the US and I live in a northernmost state. I'd be happy to let you give them a try. Hey, you want to meet in Colorado? They should have some good hobby shops in Denver... :rolleyes:
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
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It's designed for PC gaming, but I'm sure they must be hackable. Too soon??

If you can hack it, it's just in time!

Most of our hobby's creep forward are from the folks in the ranks pushing on a new gadget -- someone figures it out, shares the wealth. If others are convinced it's progress, they'll lend a hand to move it forward.

It doesn't always generate the best solutions, but the ones we keep are the ones that work!
 

RoyBro

Senior Member
Mentor
I noticed that the goggle unit had a rather bulky unit with a DVI and HDMI input on it. So I think (without having one to play with), that the hard part would be to get the data to feed into these inputs. That is, the video signal from a stereo video camera, or two video cameras would have to be mixed to the correct signal for the goggles. I'm sure that's why they're selling software developer kits so that they can build the protocols into the games themselves.

But it does address what I was talking about as far as turning your head left or right to look into the turn.
 

gearwolf

Junior Member
It's funny you guys mention the rift. There are two things in the making right now that will be able to use the rift even the head tracking on one of them. It should be interesting in the future. I can't wait to use my rift for fpv. I tried it once but I couldn't set the ipd from those 2d to 3d converters.