Occipital Cracks SLAM with One Cheap Camera and an IMU
/One of the larger challenges in consumer 3D tech these days is tracking the position of an AR/VR device in space. For a number of years, companies solved this problem by offering complex technological infrastructure—like cameras or sensors—that a user could place around the room to help determine their location. Lately, however, a few creative developers are finding low-cost ways to incorporate the tracking into the devices themselves.
Occipital is one of the most noteworthy among these developers. Though the company already sells a $399 system that incorporates an iPhone and their $349 sensor for tracking, the company has recently shown a tracking platform that uses a single camera to track the headset in space.
The monoSLAM solution uses a single, cheap wide-angle camera and a low-cost IMU, and works quite well according to TechCrunch.