250 racers what is faster?

[trexamanic]

i was flicking through some heli sites and picked up on fpv googles that were operated by head movements.
what is faster head inputs or hand inputs.
it got me thinking for obvious brain activity routes. can the brain process a head movement quicker than the time it takes to process and deliver a hand movement.
what say you?
has anyone tried these googles? they may not be quick enough but it is an interesting thought.

The older guys will remember when most sci fi films hadn't even got to this stage of evolution if any lol

[tourerjim]

Blimey this is a new one on me, so as you turn your head the quad follows your line of sight...? IMO unless it's connected with the brain I can't see if etherway would be quicker, but be interesting on how it actually works with the head.!

[myxiplx]

I think the nerve distance will have a negligible effect, and any possible benefit will be quickly cancelled out by having to learn to fly all over again.

But the bigger problem is that moving your head like that is going to play merry hell with your inner ear. The movements your head is making will not match what your eyes are seeing, and I reckon you'd make yourself seriously travel sick within a few minutes.

The way these head tracking goggles are usually used is to allow you to move your head around a little and look about yourself while flying. It helps reduce travel sickness, and makes it feel a lot more natural. High end systems use a physical gimbal to move the camera, but even some of the tiny quadcopters support headtracking, but they do it digitally. They just use a camera on board with a higher resolution than the goggles can display, and as you turn your head it scrolls your field of view around.

[james_2k]

Aren't nerve impulses electrical? Fairly sure that's comparable to light speed. Thus practically no time difference in the nerve pathway distance.

[Zeeflyboy]

not light speed no, muscle commands generally travel at around 110-120m/s... but that still means they reach your muscles at the furthest extent of your body within a few ms.

The head tracking in the goggles isn't actually designed for flying the machines, it's primarily there for head tracking cameras. Ie you have the FPV camera on a set of servos and the camera will look where you look. Alternatively some use it for the gimbal and HD camera to make filming easier - they can just turn their head to keep the subject in frame. Most head tracking systems will lack the resolution, speed of response and ultimately accuracy needed for racing. Lots will drift sightly as well.

I have seen guys adapt the head tracking outputs to fly instead, but that is generally for fun (or in one case a guy that was partially paralysed) and I've only seen it used on stabilised craft (e.g. flying in a self levelling or gps mode). Almost everyone that flies 250 racers as they are intended to be used fly in acro modes that do not have active stabilisation as it tends to fight you constantly when flying in that way.

I imagine if you try to fly a small 250 racer in manual modes using head tracking it will end in a lot of crashes and not a lot of flying.

[trexamanic]

Thanks for the answers.
I imagine it wont take long for some fpv research to bring the concept up to speed.
I suppose it would take a lot of accuracy and fun out of it.
Maybe best left to the mililtary

[Grumpy]

Aren't nerve impulses electrical? Fairly sure that's comparable to light speed. Thus practically no time difference in the nerve pathway distance.

Apparently it's not that simple, they do actually travel relativly slowly, depending on what nerve we are talking about. That is based on some kids science program i saw on TV, which might not be the most authoratitive source, but Google seems to confirm: Speed of Nerve Impulses

But i'd still suspect that it's quicker to move the fingers than it would be to swing your big old heavy head around. Even in the military the main flying control that requires speed and precision is still to my best knowledge done with the hand/fingers... no?

[Granpappy]

But i'd still suspect t

hat it's quicker to move the fingers than it would be to swing your big old heavy head around. Even in the military the main flying control that requires speed and precision is still to my best knowledge done with the hand/fingers... no?

Apache pilots fly with their hands, feet and left eye. The right eye looks at a monocle which is linked to the Integrated Helmet and Display Sighting System (IHADSS) which can bring up whatever data from all sorts of systems that they need. They can slave the gun to their monocle and chuck 600 30mm rounds per minute at whatever they happen to be looking at. I want one for my Trex.

Talking about Trex's and nerve impulses, if you tread on a brontosaurus's tail, he doesn't know about it for a couple of minutes. (No I haven't been down the pub. That was yesterday.)