A virtual reality-based multiplayer game using fine-grained localization

The popularity and availability of Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) has known an increase over the past few years. In general those devices need to be connected to a computer to function properly. Moreover, applications that project images on such an HMD respond typically only to user inputs like mouse and keyboard actions and head movement. In this paper we go a step further by proposing a framework in which the movements of a person are translated into actions in a virtual world. This allows a user to walk around freely while wearing an HMD, increasing the reality of the virtual experience. We will focus in detail on the challenges related to the localization of the user and discuss different options like existing wireless localization technologies, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and an object recognition algorithm. The latter is used in the final solution. Furthermore, we present an experimental and mobile setup to use an HMD in a portable manner. Our solution is demonstrated through a multiplayer game, in which two players compete against each other to capture a flag.