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Ascension’s SpacePad
Provides Tracking Solution
for Innovative New Immersive
Games
Burlington, Vermont
USA: June 17, 2003:
Maelstrom Virtual
Productions (Leicester,
UK) now has several ground-breaking
interactive virtual reality
games in circulation that
rely on motion tracking from
Ascension Technology.
Their soon to be released
virtual tennis game will continue
this successful pairing of
technologies.
Touring the United Kingdom,
Ireland, Spain and Italy,
both a virtual soccer challenge
and a cricket game use Ascension’s
SpacePad® tracking devices
for motion control. The forthcoming
tennis game will use SpacePad
as well. Designed for integration
into OEM products, SpacePad
is ideal for Maelstrom’s customized
hardware approach to complete
integration in their virtual
reality products.
The virtual soccer game is
set in Japan’s Yokohama Stadium,
location of the 2002 World
Cup Final. Wearing a headset
and foot sensor, the player
engages in a penalty kick
shootout against a computer
controlled goal keeper. The
headset allows the player
to look around the stadium
while the SpacePad foot sensor
accurately tracks the player’s
foot.
According to Matt Davies
of Maelstrom Virtual Productions,
“The tracker allows people
to swing their foot as they
would do to kick a real ball.
Calculations are made at the
virtual point they would kick
the football [soccer ball]
to determine the speed and
direction of the ball.”
SpacePad takes its name from
the design of its magnetic
field transmitting antenna
which is a completely flat
loop of wire locatable in
a pad near the user. SpacePad
is a 6 degrees-of-freedom
real-time tracker capable
of tracking up to four sensors
with one electronics unit.
In conjunction with UK’s
Channel 4 television, the
England and Wales Cricket
Board commissioned Maelstrom
to produce the first ever
totally immersive cricket
game. Players wearing an actual
cricket helmet incorporating
a VR headset try to hit the
ball by using a physical cricket
bat which SpacePad tracks
for speed, position and angle.
The game is designed to accommodate
different ball speeds which
gives younger players a chance
to hit the ball. As the player
swings to hit the ball, the
program calculates the speed
of delivery against the strength
and direction of the stroke,
which in turn determines the
distance the ball is hit and
how much the player scores.
In the forthcoming tennis
game, users will wear a VR
headset while they hit the
ball using a real tennis racket.
The racket will be accurately
represented and tracked for
speed, position and angle.
Eleven virtual soccer challenge
games were produced; five
are now still on tour. Cricket
tours as part of the Channel
4 Roadshow to all UK test
matches.
Maelstrom Virtual Productions
(Leicester, UK) manufactures
interactive virtual reality
software and produces immersive
virtual reality solutions
for architecture, entertainment,
pharmaceutical applications
and training simulations.
For more information, go to
www.maelstrom.com.
Ascension Technology Corporation
(Burlington, Vermont USA)
develops magnetic, optical
and inertial motion-tracking
solutions for 3D computer-graphics
applications in military targeting
systems, simulation, virtual
reality, biomechanics, animation
and medicine. For more information,
go to www.ascension-tech.com.
-end-
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jack Scully (802)
893-6657 or e-mail: jscully@ascension-tech.com
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