When R. Kelly sang, “I Believe I Can Fly” way back in 1996, he wasn’t talking about a hybrid Oculus Rift-quadcopter that senses head movements, yielding a very convincing illusion of flight. If he had, he might have been the inspiration for Mats Krüger Svensson’s Oculus FPV.
The Oculus FPV—which stands for First Person View—is a drone-mounted camera system linked to an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The OR is set up so that it registers the gyroscopic movements of the pilot’s head before sending them to the quadcopter, which pivots the camera accordingly. As the drones, glides above the ground, the pickup from the drone’s camera is sent back to the goggle so that the wearer’s eyes are essentially in the sky in real time.
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Oculus FPV can also be used for more practical purposes than gaining existential inspiration from the wild beauty of nature. Urban surveillance becomes even more intuitive if a man controls the viewfinder with his face. Military applications are obvious, and one wonders what an entire film shot with intuitive head movements might look like.
Svensson, also known as Matsemann, has listed his full specifications and code on Github, so anyone can make their own Oculus FPV. Open sourcing this kind of tech is sure to produce some insane experiences in the near future. Redditor FifthGoblin suggested that they “combine this with one of those fake skydiving trampolines. So you can feel like your flying.” We couldn’t agree more.
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