Noob having problems getting started with Pro Eye

[jaalto1]

Hi!  I've been trying to get the Vive Pro Eye to work for a while now but am running into issues.  In particular, I am unable to get the SRanipal robot tray icon to turn its eyes from orange to green and I've run out of ideas. 

I've been following the Getting Started guide but Step 3 says to "Make sure the VIVE Sranipal SDK works before going to the next step" and I am not entirely certain what that means in practice.  It seems to be compressing a lot (like a potential whole other Getting Started Guide) into that one short sentence.  I've downloaded and unzipped the SDK.  I then downloaded and installed United and imported the package into the sample scene, as instructed in the SDK guide.  I tried playing but nothing really happens so I can't verify if it's actually working or if the sample is just pretty plain.

I've also had a bear of a time calibrating the Pro Eye.  Out of the more than fifty times (over several days), I've only succeeded once, somewhere around the 30th attempt.  Every other time, after following the dot, I get a "Calibration Failed" message.  It would be helpful to know what exactly is causing the failure since the routine gets very frustrating if I don't know why it's failing.  I've cleaned the lens, etc., but to no avail.

I'm wondering if I'm missing something, the Getting Started Guide needs some serious editing, or the technology is really ready for use.  Probably a bit of each...Thanks in advance for any help!

[Corvus]

@jaalto1 Thanks for sharing feedback about the Getting Started Guide. The guide you linked is actually maintained by Tobii (our partner) and is aimed at developers who will use the SDK (software development kit). 

The robot icon eyes will only turn green when the eye tracking is active (such as during calibration or while running a game/app that uses eye tracking). Also, make sure you are not moving your head during the calibration step, and only following the dot with your eyes.

Vive Pro Eye Setup:

https://www.vive.com/us/support/vive-pro-eye/category_howto/setting-up-for-the-first-time.html

[jaalto1]

Thanks for the response.  I had actually gone through the set up from the link you gave before posting. 

It was only when I had failed to resolve it after many attempts and variations that I contacted Tobii support. 

Unfortunately, all I received from them was an auto-generated email declaring that they are unable to respond due to the pandemic. I have not heard from them since. 

Without any other means of support, I then tried this forum.  Unfortunately, it seems like I won't be able to find any direct help for this issue.

One simple question: I find myself having to lift the HMD to check on the robot eyes everytime.  It's quite tedious and I'm wondering if there is a better way to monitor that while I'm trying to calibrate things or running the sample app (like, without having to remove the HMD to look at my computer console for the robot icon).

Thanks.

[Corvus]

@jaalto1 are you removing the HMD during calibration? Generally the notification icon is just for monitoring the status of the runtime and generating the logs. If the calibration is progressing or the sample app is functioning then it is not necessary to remove the HMD and check the icon.

[jaalto1]

I am not removing the HMD during calibration.  However, since I've tried calibrating so many times, there have been one or two instances when I did, just to check the tray icon but, generally, I don't since I assume it would interfere with the calibration process.  However, from the documentation, it seems that the tray icon should have green eyes.  Since I am interested to verify that when I am doing various things, like running an app or a game I am not sure how to do that except to remove the HMD or at least shift it so I can peek under it.  It seems to be a very cumbersome way to do that, though.  Is there a better way to do that?  Or are they expecting a second person to monitor that while the HMD is kept on the first person?

[LochoChoco]

@jaalto1 I'm also a noob with this however to check if the eyes go green, what I did was run a calibation test then after its complete in the vive menu I switch to desktop view and open up the icon tray and the eyes are usually green. Hope this helps somehow.

[jaalto1]

@LochoChoco Thanks for that.  I ended up peeking out from underneath the HMD while wearing it to see the color since it had been orange everytime I had removed the HMD to check.  They were green then so that was good.  (I had started to think that it would only be green when I had the HMD on, which made it impossible for me to see the robot eyes.)