Screenshots
Engineers from IDV and MicroStrain® were able to rapidly interface an orientation sensor to Eye-Sys using the optional SDK to develop a new Eye-Sys object.
The Transform Sensor system demonstrates a custom Eye-Sys object that takes generalized inputs from an external sensor and makes it available for linking to other Eye-Sys objects.
In one example, the Eye-Sys object polls an RS-232 port to receive periodic orientation information from an orientation sensor, or inertial measurement unit (IMU). In this case, an Inertia-Link® IMU developed by MicroStrain® www.microstrain.com, Williston, VT) was coupled to the Transform Sensor System. The orientation information was compiled by the object and reported as Euler angles via its "Roll", "Pitch", and "Yaw" properties. The object's transform is adjusted accordingly so that any Eye-Sys object can be made a child of the sensor object so that it will mirror the orientation of the actual sensor in real time.
The story behind the development of the sensor object is of particular interest to those considering using the Eye-Sys SDK to develop custom objects. IDV and MicroStrain met while hosting booths at an SBIR related trade show and agreed to develop the object for presentation at the conference. Engineers from both companies headed off to a hotel room, returning in about an hour with a functioning demonstration system.
MicroStrain has since gone on to interface Eye-Sys with LabVIEW® to enhance their ability to visualize the output of this and similar wireless sensors. This software provides a real time, 3-D visualization of the motion of everyday objects, such as tennis racquets & golf clubs, over 360 degrees, on all three axes of rotation. The software also provides a 3-D translational position estimate based solely on the inertial data. The 3-D orientation and position data from wireless Inertia-Link® sensors may be archived and plotted as a function of time for detailed analyses.
We're very impressed with the power & flexibility of the Eye-Sys Transform Sensor System. The folks at Eye-Sys are extremely knowledgeable, and they've been a great help to our R&D engineers. They've made it easy to interface our sensors to their software, and we're really excited about their new software visualization tools.
Steven Arms, President, MicroStrain
The videos and screenshots presented in this case study represent a system assembled by IDV to demonstrate not only the sensor object but how it can interact with other Eye-Sys components (e.g., the particle system). The mixture of live data from an external source and standard, off-the-shelf Eye-Sys objects provide an excellent example of Eye-Sys' inherent flexibility and the ease and quickness with which Eye-Sys can be customized using the SDK.