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by cromwellian 1933 days ago
Wait, why does the goggles look like VR goggles, but the drone only has 1 camera? Wouldn't this FPV system be way more awesome with binocular vision and head tracking?

Imagine flying the drone, and moving your head would move the camera gimbals, and you'd experience it like you were in VR in the drone?
3 comments
michaelt 1933 days ago
> Wouldn't this FPV system be way more awesome with binocular vision

Human binocular vision depth perception is actually extremely short range. It varies from person to person, but some measurements put it as short as 10 feet [1] - beyond that, the mind starts depending on other cues [2] like motion and relative size.

So the costs in bandwidth and hardware might not be worth it - getting your drone that close to things sounds like an expensive skill to learn :)

[1] http://visionlab.psych.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2016/03/131_Wa... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_perception

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somehnguy 1933 days ago
That's cool to imagine, but nobody does it in practice because it isn't nearly as cool when you're doing it as imagining it makes it out to be :) Fixed camera angles are the standard in FPV. Partly because the drone itself tilts to change direction so you would lose your orientation very quickly, and partly because that would just add fragility to the drone. Something you don't want when you're likely going to crash it often.
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FractalParadigm 1933 days ago
>Wait, why does the goggles look like VR goggles, but the drone only has 1 camera?

Funny, I was thinking the same when I watched the video. The optimist in me hopes there's a pair of lower-res stereo cameras located somewhere near the main camera (the one we can see) being specifically for shooting video? The way you described it is exactly how I thought it operated until I got further into the video. It's a great step forward in drones with added range, batter, etc, but the whole "first-person VR" shtick feels like it was only half-thought out and never changed during the design/implementation

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bzzzt 1933 days ago
Even some kind of 'splitter' for 3d vision like Panasonic had on their handheld videocamera range (VW-CLT2) would work I think...
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