CES 2014: Oculus Rift pairs with PrioVR body-tracking suit for immersive gaming

January 7th, 2014, 00:25 Posted By: wraggster

The firm behind a motion-tracking body suit has partnered with Oculus Rift to provide more immersive control to gamers.
YEI Technology previously attempted to fund the PrioVR, which uses a combination of sensors to track limb and body movement, through a Kickstarter campaign in September. Despite raising over $110,000, the company fell short of its $225,000.
However, with the backing of Oculus, which is also present at CES, the exoskeleton is to attempt another funding run in February, claiming to have learnt from its past mistakes.
"We learned from the gaming community, who are brutally honest, what they expected to see and what they wanted," said Paul Yost, YEI's chief of research and development.
The most simplistic iteration of the suit uses sensors on the user’s head, elbows and wrists, with a more complex version adding trackers to shoulders, waist and legs.
"That allows you to drop on the ground, roll around, shoot under your leg, curl up into a fetal position," explained Yost.
“We have this collection of inertial sensors that combines with a software that ties all that together into this skeletal model. All that happens on the system itself, so there's no computational load on the PC other than the communication."
Yost added that he was sure the PrioVR would be in mass production by August. The consumer version of the Oculus Rift is also due for release this year, although whether gamers will have to wait until Winter for total immersion into games is yet to be seen.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...-gaming/032855

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