From: geoffrey@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz (Geoff Thomas)
Subject: Optical gyroscopes for Head/body trackers
Date: 30 Dec 91 14:23:02 +1300
Message-ID: <1991Dec30.142303.3304@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand



Hi,

I'm wondering whether anyone has done any work with optical gyroscopes for
tracking of body/head/fingers etc.?

In the Physics Dept. here the gurus are working on a ring laser (a fancy
optical gyroscope) about 1 metre square, which can detect the expansion
on one side of the building caused by heat from the sun.

It ought to be possible (says he with *very* little knowledge of what's
involved!)
to put one of these type of optical gyroscopes together on an integrated
circuit,
and a 3D version ought to be possible.

With a little bit of jiggery-pokery, translation ought to be possible, with an
L-shaped interferometer (the ring shape is a different type of interferometer
that detects rotation). Being optical rather than mechanical, these
things should
be very accurate (cf. airline optical gyros), and if they could be
mass-produced
in conventional Integrated circuit technology, they could also be very cheap.

Does anyone know if such devices are available in this form (and if so,
who markets
them), or how difficult it would be to make them?


Thanks,

Geoff Thomas.