• Hand tracking
• VR
• electric feedback
• VE

Abstract
Tracking has been since the beginning of Virtual Reality the core task of any VR application. In particular, hand tracking has been addressed only in the last decade thanks to the improvement in the field of technologies and computer vision. Although modern hand tracking system such as Kinect or Leap Motion are already on the market, there still are not standard solutions or approach. Hand tracking will be crucial in VR application as this can allow the user to interact with the virtual environment without the use of metaphors, therefore boosting the feeling of immersion and presence. Another important instrument of any virtual application is the capability to give to the user some sort of feedback (for example a joystick that can vibrate). In this thesis we propose a new method to track the user hand and give an electric feedback when needed. Specifically the tracking is performed using infra-red led and a tracking system made by Optitrack, and a microcontroller driving the infrared led. Everything is managed by a client executing on the PC. The electric feedback is managed by the virtual environment also executing on the PC but the actual electric pulse is driven by the microcontroller.
There have been two phases of this thesis: the first one was about the developing of a prototype and the entire system of tracking and feedback, with only one camera; the second phase was about integrating the robust and reliable tracking system in the X-CAVE at the PERCRO laboratory of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa.
In the first phase we designed and developed a glove prototype capable of both active tracking and give feedback. The algorithm used for the tracking task is a fusion between a time division multiple access approach. Furthermore we achieve a satisfying electrical feedback through the use of an electromagnetic transformer, driven by an operational amplifier, which can recreate a decent number of different feedback.
The performance evaluation of this first part consists in a set of two experiment.
In a first experiment we confronted the performance of tracking between our system and the one offered by Optitrack itself. Results show that our tracking system is a more than valid alternative.
In a second experiment we tried to discover if our system is able to give different type of feedback, and if subjects can discriminate among them. We also tried to find some standard parameters. Results show that our system can give different and recognizable feedbacks, but there can’t be standard values for each individuals and calibration phase is needed.
Also our efforts were focused on the integration of this system in the X-CAVE previously mentioned. After the integration was complete, the performance evaluation were made through a simple pick and place demo task. Despite an initial moment of confusion due to discovering the new technology, individuals reached a satisfying level of dexterity after 10-15 minutes of testing. Future developing has been already discussed, and we aim to integrate this tracking system with a system of HMD or IVR such as the X-CAVE.