Mounted Boom Arm for Cables???

[flibbertigibbety]

So, it seems to me that some sort of a wall/ceiling mounted boom arm cable management system would be fantastic for the Vive. Think of those arms that swing the hoses around at the do it yourself car washes. Just... with cables instead. This would ensure that the cable is out of the way, and might even help with the weight of the device, since it would be carried by the boom, and not pulled down onto the ground. I was looking online for something similar (for microphones), but can't find anything that's quite right. One obvious issue is that the cables would have to go up the wall to the boom and back down, so they might not be long enough. Not sure how the system would handle extension chords. Thoughts?

[Stryker]

I was looking into to those if I was to buy a Vive but I am struggling to even decide on a VR for this first wave. I did read this where a developer talk about dealing with the cable.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/420kxa/ceiling_mounted_cable/

[flibbertigibbety]

Originally posted by Spawk:

Originally posted by flibbertig155:

So, it seems to me that some sort of a wall/ceiling mounted boom arm cable management system would be fantastic for the Vive. Think of those arms that swing the hoses around at the do it yourself car washes. Just... with cables instead. This would ensure that the cable is out of the way

Seems like it would actually be in the way when you're swinging your arms around or turning around a lot. Wouldn't you be hitting the cable then? Also, just feeding the cables through a wall or ceiling mount will restrict your movement. Either the cables are tugging on the headset, or they're going slack as you move around the room or move your head a lot, defeating the entire purpose. Sure, you're no longer tripping over them, but now you've created an entirely new problem where you're hitting the cables with your controllers.

The boom would be mounted on the ceiling or come off a long arm off the wall that would then have the boom arm in the center of the room. The cable would be on a rotating arm that would hoist the wires into the air. As mentioned, this is similar to the arms that are used for car washes... you can walk around your car, and the cable follows you, hanging from the boom above you.

[flibbertigibbety]

if the cable was a set length from the arm to the HMD, and that point on the arm was on a slider that could smoothly move up and down the length of the arm, it would allow the user to walk around while the cable stayed the same length from the helmet. Slack would be available above the cable's arm connection point so it would not dangle lower when you're in the center of the room. The arm would obviously have to be long enough and have enough extra slack to cover the area of the room. Still... could work. Just not sure if such a thing even exists... yet.

[flibbertigibbety]

Obviously, the arm would be swing around 360 degrees from the mount point in the center of the room.

[flibbertigibbety]

Hrm. I guess, with a fixed length, it would make getting down on the ground sort of complicated...

[HappyDog]

I'm sure this has been raised elsewhere. But seems the future of this technology would eventually be wireless as the cable is clearly part of an issue.

Since power is mainly the issue, perhaps wearing a small camping style backpack would make sense. It could have cellphone type batteries for the screens (so the headset lasts at least 5-6 hours or more) and there is a HDMI/Audio wireless device that sends to a receiver that is plugged into your gaming PC. Even if this backpack weighed 10 pounds, wearing this as a pack with some chest straps could feel rather light.

Is this doable, or is there issues with latency in this design?

[flibbertigibbety]

Originally posted by HappyDog:

I'm sure this has been raised elsewhere. But seems the future of this technology would eventually be wireless as the cable is clearly part of an issue.

Since power is mainly the issue, perhaps wearing a small camping style backpack would make sense. It could have cellphone type batteries for the screens (so the headset lasts at least 5-6 hours or more) and there is a HDMI/Audio wireless device that sends to a receiver that is plugged into your gaming PC. Even if this backpack weighed 10 pounds, wearing this as a pack with some chest straps could feel rather light.

Is this doable, or is there issues with latency in this design?

Is a good idea. Not sure if it's doable or not. I'd agree that a back would not be overly intrusive... especially if some other functionalities were built into it... like force feedback or something. Some reason for it other than just the battery.

[Badacid.Velox]

There was a crowd starter or similar of someone designing a wireless box for Vive but I wouldn't put money into it until I see it reviewed as it looked just a bit too good to be true!

[Shadow Draxis]

i thought about this last night. made a paint drawing of what something like this might look like.
http://imgur.com/e1Gzh0Y

[Badacid.Velox]

Originally posted by Lord Draxis:

i thought about this last night. made a paint drawing of what something like this might look like.
http://imgur.com/e1Gzh0Y

I clicked that expecting it to be terrible but actually that's pretty good. The vest is what makes it although could be done as like a backpack without the pack rather than a piece of clothing. Pretty nice actually. Main issue I see is a spool able to work properly like you've made it and damage to the cables if the spool isn't a large enough diameter. Still think it'd be difficult to achieve but nice idea anyway.

[Shadow Draxis]

Originally posted by Badacid.Velox:

Originally posted by Lord Draxis:

i thought about this last night. made a paint drawing of what something like this might look like.
http://imgur.com/e1Gzh0Y

I clicked that expecting it to be terrible but actually that's pretty good. The vest is what makes it although could be done as like a backpack without the pack rather than a piece of clothing. Pretty nice actually. Main issue I see is a spool able to work properly like you've made it and damage to the cables if the spool isn't a large enough diameter. Still think it'd be difficult to achieve but nice idea anyway.

http://imgur.com/wz5GgpT
spoolless version. just a series of bungie cords with lots of slack for the vive cable

[HappyDog]

Originally posted by flibbertig155:

Originally posted by HappyDog:

I'm sure this has been raised elsewhere. But seems the future of this technology would eventually be wireless as the cable is clearly part of an issue.

Since power is mainly the issue, perhaps wearing a small camping style backpack would make sense. It could have cellphone type batteries for the screens (so the headset lasts at least 5-6 hours or more) and there is a HDMI/Audio wireless device that sends to a receiver that is plugged into your gaming PC. Even if this backpack weighed 10 pounds, wearing this as a pack with some chest straps could feel rather light.

Is this doable, or is there issues with latency in this design?

Is a good idea. Not sure if it's doable or not. I'd agree that a back would not be overly intrusive... especially if some other functionalities were built into it... like force feedback or something. Some reason for it other than just the battery.

Yup. I just think these ceiling rigs are over complicating the issue, when it seems the best way to go about it is wireless.

Ceiling rigging and these boom arm technologies aren't accessible to most consumers and make even less sense than just having a cable to step over. It seems that batteries would improve the overall setup - and perhaps just have AC connections if one would like to use them.

[Slayix312]

So like a car-washer boom?

http://www.steam-brite.com/equipment/Mosmatic-car-wash-Ceiling-Boom-Inline-DKP_L_.jpg

[Shadow Draxis]

backpack rigged with a bar extending over your head so the cable wont be loose as you're moving around
http://imgur.com/vSDio1b
all these things can be bought at walmart or a hardware store. you dont even need a boom, you can just attach the bungie cords to something solid overhead.

[Tucu]

You will need something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjAfvOoyjlk&nohtml5=False

But bigger, faster and programmed to always stay behind you