Head Tracking For 3d Audio Using The Nintendo Wii Remote

Head Tracking systems with head pose estimation have several applications in human-computer interaction and constitute a key component of 3D audio environments. Most developed systems to date are restricted to a range of poses in which the user has to be facing the camera, are sensible to the lightning conditions and are not identity-invariant. These constrains make these approaches not very appropriate for 3D audio. In this work, we propose a head tracking system with accurate head-pose estimation in the infrared spectrum that uses the Nintendo Wii Remote to track a circlet with infrared diodes. The system doesn’t restrict the user to be facing the camera, is less sensitive to the lighting conditions and is completelly identity-invariant. Additionally, the system eliminates the camera inclination using the accelerometer data of the device and the head coordinates are transmitted over the network using the OSC protocol, allowing communication with most of the 3D audio engines available today.