3D pen

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A 3D pen is a computer control peripheral that has 6DOF input and is in the shape of a pen. It has finer control than a typical VR game controller, simply because of the shape. It is also called a 3D stylus.

3D styluses are either mechanically mounted, like gadgets from SensAble, or they are tracked using a tracking system like electromagnetic tracking or SteamVR, or ultrasonic tracking.

Examples of consumer gadgets include the Massless Pen and the Logitech VR Ink.

Polhemus' magnetic tracking systems sometimes have a pen included.

See list of nonmechcanically-tracked 3D pens.

Mechanically tracked[edit]

Some 3D stylus systems track the pen mechanically. The pen is connected to a base. These systems have been used in medicine. An example of an application of a mechanically tracked system is the VBLaST virtual surgery simulator.[1] The VBLaST uses two control peripherals based on products by SensAble Technologies.

One 3D stylus that is available is the Touch 3D stylus from Protocom.[2]

Another gadget is the Touch X from 3D systems.[3]

References[edit]

  1. VBLaST - virtual surgery simulator. HowTechTV. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWOCF_9WHwA
  2. http://www.protocom3dp.com/touch-3d-stylus Touch 3D stylus
  3. https://www.3dsystems.com/haptics-gadgets/touch-x Touch X Haptic Device