Tracking is a necessity for interactive virtual environments. Marker-based tracking solutions involve the placement of fiducials in a rigid configuration on the object(s) to be tracked, called a tracking probe. The realization that tracking performance is linked to probe performance necessitates investigation into the design of tracking probes for proponents of marker-based tracking. A challenge involved with probe design is predicting the accuracy of a tracking probe. We present a method for predicting the accuracy of a tracking probe based upon a first-order propagation of the errors associated with the markers on the probe. Results for two sample tracking probes show excellent agreement between measured and predicted errors.
Larry S. Davis, Eric Clarkson, Jannick P. Rolland