Show HN: DIY Position Tracking Using HTC Vive's Lighthouse

Hey, author here. I used the system described in the link for indoor stabilization of a drone, plus precise landing, to support an automatic battery swap station project (have a video there). Worked pretty well, so I decided to open-source it in hopes this would help fellow hackers.<p>Let me know if you have any questions!

Great project! When listening to an interview with Alan Yates[0] (main designer of the Lighthouse) I was thinking about an application like this.<p>I recently did shop around for motion capture system (cameras tracking markers) and one of the cheapest systems with comparable performance to OP&#x27;s came out to cost $5-8.5K.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;embedded.fm&#x2F;episodes&#x2F;162" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;embedded.fm&#x2F;episodes&#x2F;162</a>

A bit off-topic, but I was wondering:<p>How was the base station visualization[1] done?<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;camo.githubusercontent.com&#x2F;d9241f231a03d177d215f98bdb2cdcd8e648ddab&#x2F;687474703a2f2f692e67697068792e636f6d2f696a4d7a585246334f59425a362e676966" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;camo.githubusercontent.com&#x2F;d9241f231a03d177d215f98bd...</a>

Fantastic!<p>Having been developing with the Vive for most of the last year for Left-Hand Path (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.steampowered.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;488760" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.steampowered.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;488760</a>), and given I&#x27;ve got a lot of mocap experience before that, I can confirm that Lighthouse&#x27;s tracking is <i>ridiculously</i> good.<p>It&#x27;s not just as good as something like an Optitrack system: it&#x27;s significantly better.<p>If this provides comparable tracking to what the Vive offers, it&#x27;s an absolutely unbeatable price &#x2F; performance combo.

I actually just arrived in Seattle to take the official HTC course on using the Steam VR positional tracking system, and this was one of the first things I saw as I got off the plane.

I&#x27;ve been mulling a installation work based on exploring video solids[1] around using cheap phone-VR mounts. This project is exactly what I need to find the viewers position in the video&#x2F;space. Any cheaper way to do this without the Lighthouse devices?<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theblackbox.ca&#x2F;blog&#x2F;vector-video&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theblackbox.ca&#x2F;blog&#x2F;vector-video&#x2F;</a>