Developers and enthusiasts are finding new uses for VR hand controllers everyday. Today, a French home automation enthusiast showed a fascinating concept I hadn’t considered before — a tracked VR controller as a universal remote control for everything in your living room.
The HTC Vive controllers are tracked in space whether someone is wearing the headset or not. This means the tracking data could be used for more than just VR. For example, it could identify if the controller is pointed at the ceiling fan or the TV or a lamp. The touchpad, trigger and buttons on the Vive controller could then be used for simplified controls. Just swipe up and down to change the channel or dim and brighten the lights. Point at the ceiling fan and pull the trigger to get some air flowing. Stuff like that.
That’s the kind of functionality Raphael Dokyun Kim, aka “dook0” on Youtube and Reddit, appears to be showing in his videos. I reached out to him to find out more about the project. He wrote that he’s a VR and Internet of Things engineer who works as head of innovation for Joshfire, an agency that focuses on those industries. He loves tinkering with home automation projects and here’s what he told me about this one:
“This home automation project was very simple to make, I used Unity3D where I put some sphere representing the lightbulbs, and I used the pointer ability of the vive controller (raycasting). Thus I can simply point and trigger to change the state of my Philips Hues. My plan is to be able to control all my connected things including my TV/audio and be able to change channels and volume (the trackpad of the controller should be wonderful for that). I usually build the connected object I need and produce APIs to centralize my commands. I have some raspberry pi allowing me to start my PS4/light… with my Apple Watch etc.”
This isn’t exactly useful for most people — it’s not like you can go download this software yourself right this minute. And even if it likely requires some extra equipment connecting the electronics in your living room to your PC, there are some people who would probably be pretty excited to have this kind of control over their living room.
If his last video is any indication, Kim is offering us a preview of what’s to come. Several years ago — long before Google bought Tilt Brush or Oculus built Medium — he uploaded a video showing what’s essentially an early VR art app. Check it out:
