A survey of electromagnetic position tracker calibration techniques

This paper is a comprehensive survey of various techniques used to calibrate electromagnetic position tracking systems. A common framework is established to present the calibration problem as the interpolation problem in 3D. All the known calibration techniques are classified into local and global methods and grouped according to their mathematical models. Both the location error and the orientation error correction techniques are surveyed. Data acquisition devices and methods as well as publicly available software implementations are reviewed too

Ó Springer-Verlag London Limited

Abstract Electromagnetic tracking systems are a common component of many virtual reality installations. Their accuracy, however, suffers from the distortions of the electromagnetic field used in calculating the tracker sensor’s position. We have developed a tracker calibration technique based on a neural network that effectively compensates for the errors in both tracked location and orientation. This case study discusses our implementation of the calibration algorithm and compares the results with traditional calibration methods