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RF transciever array

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james10pl

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I actually do work with 3d graphics, not with electronics, which is why I need some guidance here. My project is designing a fully-functional motion capture system (including hardware and software), which will be used for animating human models in a video game (a non-profit, collective work by independant programmers and artists).

<see attachment for a rough approxamation>
To get down to the details, basically there are four "sensors" (I don't known what else to call them) set up at coordinates (0,0,0),(50,0,0),(0,50,0),(0,0,50). These are S1, S2, S3, S4 respectively. In order to calculate the coordinates of an unknown point, we need to know the distant from the point to each sensor. I'm not sure exactly how this can be done but here's my idea:

Each sensor is a RF tranciever that sends out a signal to a specific point, and once the point recieves that signal it sends back a signal to the sensor. The sensor times how long it takes for the signal to return and outputs that to a computer. Before the computer processes the distance it first subtracts the time it took for the point to process the signal and then divides that by two so it is only measuring the distance one way. Knowing the frequency of the signal, it would be easy to determine the distance once the time is known. This has to be done for each sensor. Not only that but they have to be synchronized so they all send the inital signal to the point at the same time (I assume this would mean some kind of master controller for the four sensors). On top of this, there are about 17 other points that have to be determined, and all of this at least a few times a second. phew.

Well that's it. Any kind of ideas/comments/suggestions would be great (I hope no one tells me that this is crazy and will never work, but if that's the reality then I need to hear it).
 

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RF travels at 0.3 meters/uS so to have an accuracy of +- 10cM, you have to resolve 30 nanoseconds. Ultrasonics would be easier because it travels slower and could have better accuracy.
 
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