DIY lego headtracker work(ing) in progress

[Bloyamind]

So since I don't have access to a 3d printer, I thought i'd get my 30 year old box of Lego down from the attic and make a bracket myself. And as I didn't want to make small orders for stuff like IR leds, I did some thinking, went to the thrift store and got myself 4 remote controls (one extra just in case). Ripped them open and de-soldered the leds to use in the head tracker. Also I got a ps3 camera for 5 euros, close enough that I could pick it up by bike. Shame non of the tutorials told me to remove the IR filter from it, so that took me another day to figure out (thought the leds weren't emitting enough light). It's work in progress, as I don't have a floppy disk to use as a filter to block light and let IR through, which means the system works well at night for now, but is difficult to set up with sunlight. I tried VHS tape, which seems to not let enough IR through, I tried clear tape with permanent marker, which blurs the image too much, but I'm out of ideas. I don't have any (photo)film lying around. Any other ideas? In any case, here's the construction. It weighs less than the cable even, so that's perfect. As in, it looks blocky (lego-pun not intended), but you don't feel it). Pics show version 1 (middle led to far forward) and version 2. Total cost so far: 7 euro's. Last night it worked well, so i'm already very happy with the result, but even if it wouldn't really work, I had a lot of fun rummaging around in my box of legomemories. ? 

 

 

Btw, the leds fit perfectly in the little facet in the hole in lego technic blocks. I still need to add a tiny bit of superglue to keep m in place as the cable wants to push them out a little bit, but the fun bit is that I can turn the little block and thus aim the led to tweak! 

[Bloyamind]

Having a great friggin' time, now i'm getting used to the way head tracking works. I managed to tweak open tracker to my liking. The only thing I still have to fix is a floppy to use as an infrared pass filter on the PS3 camera. For now, I can only play when it's relatively dark. It's a message from God ghehe: 'don't play videogames during the daytime when you can do more useful things'