When playing your favorite VR game, do you ever wish you had the feeling of a real samurai sword, baseball bat, or other helpful accessories in your hands instead of a controller? The HTC Vive Tracker is a wireless tracking device that can be attached to any object, making it become visible and useful in the VR world.
Innovative Uses
Video Credit to: Two Bit Circus’s Use of HTC Vive Trackers Using Objects for Pinata Party
The Vive Tracker has helped many VR gamers turn their 3D printed guns into a VR ready one that they can use in a game. Other resourceful VR users have used multiple trackers throughout their homes, on ceiling fans, empty spray paint cans, fake plastic swords, and even a pinata. You can pretty much attach it to anything and have it appear in VR.
Foot Tracking
Fun sports and fitness games like Final Soccer use foot tracking, or securely attaching and then wearing two Vive Trackers on top of your shoes, to play a virtual sports game. If soccer isn’t your favorite past time then use foot tracking while playing a VR dancing game like Redfoot Bluefoot Dancing to get a leg workout, more cardio, or better accuracy as you dance or kick your way to fitness.
Full Body Tracking
When you use your VR headset, one or two handheld controllers, and the Vive Trackers on your shoes or feet, you’ll have full body tracking in a virtual space. This can be helpful if you’re playing a game like Tornuffalo, a VR game where you try to block, kick, dodge, and punch your way through a buffalo-fueled tornado. When the whole body is involved and you’re actively kicking buffalo and dodging objects flying at you, you’re reaping the benefits of moving your entire body weight around in a way that is going to get your heart pumping. If working out using your body weight is too easy for you, step up the difficulty by adding a weighted vest, ankle weights, and wrist weights to the equation.
Mixed Reality and Fitness
Video Credit to: LIV.tv’s HTC Vive Tracker Mixed Reality Video
Fitness experts, bodybuilders, athletes, and even yoga instructors can benefit from using the Vive Trackers attached to a camera as they are being recorded using VR. Streaming and creating content in mixed reality gives you the freedom to play with developing fitness games, challenges, and experiences that will help other people reach their fitness goals.
Attach the Vive Trackers onto a yoga mat, weights, dumbbells, soft foam nunchucks, and the endless types of fitness equipment available to showcase the versatility of your workouts as someone records you while using a tracking device on the camera. Try to experiment and use objects you use every day as you use VR to exercise or play. You might just find an accidental tool you didn’t know was useful for VR and your workout.
Your Safety
Some very genius VR users have even started to put the VR trackers on objects, like desks, cabinets, and on fans inside the room that they use for VR. Doing so has helped these users see objects that they would have otherwise run into, tripped over, or would not have been able to use during gameplay if they needed to.
Many parents know that young children are sometimes unpredictable and can find the funniest and sometimes most inconvenient places to play. This is especially true when children see their parents using VR games to exercise and want to join them. If you’d like to keep your young child or children safe as you exercise, place a Vive Tracker on your child’s bedroom door or play area so you know when your child needs your attention.
Put the tracker on a toy they like to play with or create your very own Vive Tracker wearables for kids to use. Or, if you don’t mind them using the VR gear with your supervision, include them and teach them how to use it safely. Use the tracker on yourself to show them how to navigate VR games. Overall, the benefits of having the trackers as a parent definitely outweigh the cost of buying them in bulk and setting them up around your home.
Pet Safety
Even dogs and cats are in on the tracking devices. A VR game development company called Triangular Pixels is working on creating an HTC Vive Tracker pet vest that will keep our furry companions within eyesight. Cats like to climb and pounce, while dogs like to jump, roll, and be rambunctious. This animal behavior that we love about our pets can be cute in reality but harmful if we trip and fall during virtual reality. Use the HTC Vive Tracker vest to keep your pets and yourself safe as you exercise using VR.