162: I Am a Boomerang Enthusiast
Alan Yates, a hardware engineer at Valve responsible for the Vive tracking system, explains the Lighthouse optical tracking technology, which uses spinning mirrors and infrared lasers to achieve sub-millimeter precision. He details the engineering challenges of combining high-frequency IMU data with lower-frequency optical updates using Kalman filters, and discusses the decision to use ST and NXP Cortex-M0 microcontrollers for the 'Watchman' receivers. The conversation covers the transition from 3D-printed prototypes to mass-produced base stations, the importance of hackability, and the community's reverse engineering efforts.