3d head tracking from Apple... for BIM!

Houston Neal from Software Advice dropped me a quick email about a technology Apple has filed a patent for. Take a look at how it migfht be used for viewing a BIM.

This technology seems very similar to a commercially available 6 DOF (Degrees Of Freedom) head tracker call TrackIR from Natural Point, a shareware solution called FreeTrack, and Johnny Chung Lee's Wii remote head tracking solution (be sure to check out his whole site, what an amazing young man.) Given that, I wonder what exactly Apple is trying to patent. Never-the-less, it an awesome idea.

I have to say. as the idea of augmented reality hits the ground running, how far can we be from someone taking the technology of motion capture (it's come a loooong way from ping pong balls and hooray for the reduction mof spandex in current solutions)

and creating a fully immersive 3D UI (user interface) that mimics the experience of the new hit movie Avatar. If your in doubt about how close we are, check out Project Natal from xbox... maybe a little overwrought in the advertising (especially when it appears to be solely camera based tracking and doesn't use any sensors (the ping pong balls above, or the modern inertial sensors) but it looks like we are about to enter a whole new world of virtual/augmented reality manipulation.