Triton
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| Triton | |
|---|---|
| |
| Basic Info | |
| VR/AR | Augmented reality |
| Type | Head-mounted display |
| Subtype | PC-Powered AR |
| Creator | Graham Atlee |
| Website | https://gatlee21.github.io/TritonProject-Guide/ |
| Display | |
| Display | Single 6-inch 2K LCD panel, angled above the wearer's eye line |
| Resolution | 1440 x 2560 (panel) |
| Refresh Rate | 60 Hz |
| Image | |
| Field of View | About 90 degrees diagonal (creator's estimate) |
| Optics | |
| Optics | Free-space combiner reflectors taken from an off-the-shelf smartphone AR headset |
| Tracking | |
| Hand Tracking | Leap Motion Controller (optional) |
| Connectivity | |
| Connectivity | HDMI video input; tethered to a PC |
| Device | |
| Material | 3D-printed PLA Plus parts |
| Input | Hand tracking (Leap Motion) |
Triton is an AR headset. It was created by Graham Atlee.[1] Its creator calls it the Triton Project and describes it as a 3D-printed headset that uses off-the-shelf hardware to achieve advanced augmented reality.[2] The design is a do-it-yourself optical see-through head-mounted display: a single LCD panel is angled toward two pieces of reflective plastic that overlay its image on the wearer's view, and a Leap Motion Controller handles hand tracking.[3]
Some of its components are 3D printable.
It is derived from Project North Star. The main structural difference is that the Triton uses a single panel display above the user's eyes.[4]
The build guide was previously hosted at atlee19.github.io/TritonProject-Guide.[5] That address no longer resolves; the guide is now hosted under Atlee's gatlee21 GitHub account, and the 3D-printable files are in a public GitHub repository.[2][6]
History
Before starting Triton, Atlee had built two Project North Star headsets.[1] On the project's about page he writes that he liked Leap Motion's decision to open-source the North Star specification and had worked on North Star for nearly a year, making open-source apps with Pumori.io.[7] In an interview with The Ghost Howls he described himself as a self-taught developer and said he spent two weeks prototyping the headset in his college dorm, then six months building the platform and documenting it so the community could replicate it.[5]
Dev Diner covered the project in March 2020, when it was still in development. At that point Atlee planned to release the design as open source, offer assembly kits with the printed parts, reflectors and display, and ship in early summer 2020; he had not settled on a price.[1] The archive of printable STL files linked from the 3D-printing guide carries the date 23 June 2020 in its file name.[8] Input reported in October 2020 that Atlee, then a college student, had released the project on GitHub, including schematics for the 3D-printed headset, a desktop app and a full bill of materials listing where to buy the parts that cannot be printed.[3] The project was also listed on Product Hunt, where Atlee is named as its maker.[9]
Atlee told The Ghost Howls that he had tried a standalone version built around an Nvidia Jetson Nano but dropped it, citing the lack of Linux drivers for the Leap Motion sensor and insufficient processing power, so the headset stayed tethered to a PC. He also said he did not plan a Kickstarter campaign and wanted to act as a maintainer who guides people building Tritons, for example in university labs and at hackathons.[5]
Design and hardware
According to the assembly guide, the design has 24 modular parts, 17 of them custom 3D-printed. The three main purchased parts are the display, a VR head strap and the optical reflector. Atlee estimates assembly at under 30 minutes for someone who has built a Project North Star, and closer to an hour for a first-time builder.[10] The GitHub repository names the printed components the halo, head press, display tray, top cover, lens attacher, display brackets, strap holders, peg and bolt, Leap Motion case, LCD driver mount and "Rosen bridge". The halo is the central piece to which everything else attaches.[11][8] Printing all parts takes roughly 20 or more hours; the halo alone takes about six.[8]
Display
The display is a 6-inch 2K LCD panel developed by the WeiWei team and listed at 1440(RGB) x 2560 with a 60 Hz refresh rate. Atlee acknowledges that 60 Hz is on the low end for VR and AR headsets; he chose the panel for its brightness, because it covers the entire length needed for a wide field of view, and for its price. The display tray protrudes above the top of the headset; Atlee writes that longer display brackets would have put the tray in the wearer's line of sight.[10] The panel is angled above the wearer's forehead so that its image reflects correctly, which moves the center of gravity forward.[5]
Optics
The reflectors are not custom parts. They come from an inexpensive smartphone AR headset sold as "Intelligent Ar Glasses 3D", which builders take apart to remove the optics.[10] The guide classifies them as free-space combiners and lists good see-through, reduced distortion, good color fidelity and low LCA among their properties.[10] Atlee told The Ghost Howls that this single large curved-visor ("bug eye") combiner costs US$35-99 and gives a field of view he estimated at about 90 degrees diagonal, wide enough to see both hands overlaid with AR graphics.[5] The project page states that the Triton's field of view, resolution and comfort are "all relatively the same" as North Star's.[2]
Tracking and connection
Hand tracking uses a Leap Motion sensor held in a 3D-printed case that slides into the headset.[10] Hackaday noted that the Leap Motion, which fits a dedicated socket at the front, is needed only for gesture input; otherwise the headset just needs an HDMI video source, which could be anything from a low-power wearable to a high-end gaming computer.[12] In the interview, Atlee invited contributors to add 3DoF head tracking or 6DoF SLAM tracking with Intel RealSense cameras.[5]
Bill of materials
The official bill of materials on the assembly page (last updated 13 January 2021) lists these parts and estimated costs, excluding shipping:[10]
| Part | Quantity | Suggested source | Estimated cost (US$) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6-inch 2K LCD display | 1 | AliExpress | 80.00 |
| AR glass reflectors | 1 | AliExpress | 32.99 |
| HTC Vive standard strap | 1 | HTC Vive | 19.99 |
| Leap Motion | 1 | Amazon | 79.99 |
| 6 mm Phillips screws | 100 | McMaster-Carr | 4.66 |
| 3D-printed parts | 17 | Self-printed or 3D Hubs | 7.15-100.00 |
| Head padding kit | 1 | Knox Labs | 15.99 |
| PLA Plus filament, 1.75 mm | 1 | Amazon | 26.99 |
| Hook and loop straps | 1 | Amazon | 10.99 |
Atlee told The Ghost Howls that a build averages around US$300 for people who print the parts themselves.[5] Hackaday estimated that basic AR functionality, with self-printed parts and components ordered from AliExpress, would cost US$150-200, with the Leap Motion as an extra.[12] Atlee also sold printed part sets for US$39.99.[8] The source files are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA).[13][8]
Software
Owners can write their own software for the headset. Atlee also made the Triton AR Launcher, a standalone Windows desktop app that sends AR content to the headset and supports only Leap Motion for hand tracking. It was released in alpha and built entirely in JavaScript with electron.js, Three.js and leap.js, using the Leap Motion Orion SDK and its JavaScript API.[14] The software page lists it at US$4.99 on Gumroad, with source code access available to buyers on request; the bill of materials lists it at US$14.99.[14][10] Hackaday stressed that the launcher is not required to use the hardware.[12] The Ghost Howls interview contrasts the two projects' software: North Star uses Unity to render AR graphics, while Three.js is the only supported library for Triton.[5]
The launcher's recommended system is Windows 10 with an Intel Core i7-4820K, 16 GB of memory and a GeForce GTX 760. The headset's display is treated as an extended 2560 x 1440 monitor, and the user enters their interpupillary distance so the launcher can render stereo depth correctly.[14] Its main interface is a palm menu attached to the wearer's left hand, with four app cells selected with the right index finger; one demo app, Triton Paint, is included, and a closed left fist returns to the menu.[14] Dev Diner reported in March 2020 that Atlee also planned to explore what WebXR could offer for AR headsets.[1]
Reception
Hackaday described Triton as combining commercial off-the-shelf components with 3D-printed parts at a "hacker-friendly price".[12] Input presented it as an alternative to buying a costly HoloLens, described high-end headsets such as the Magic Leap One and Microsoft HoloLens as bulky, and quoted Atlee: "I wanted to give people the ability to create an AR headset from the ground up that doesn't require a laboratory with billions of dollars in funding."[3] The Product Hunt listing ranked 21st on its launch day.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Catanzariti, Patrick (2020-03-26). "Building a 3D printed AR headset with The Triton Project". Dev Diner. https://devdiner.com/augmented-reality/building-a-3d-printed-ar-headset-with-the-triton-project. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Graham Atlee. "Triton Project". Triton Project Guide. https://gatlee21.github.io/TritonProject-Guide/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Tom Maxwell (2020-10-12). "This guy made an AR headset using off-the-shelf components". Input. https://www.inverse.com/input/tech/this-guy-made-ar-headset-using-off-the-shelf-components. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "Triton". Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20201224121628if_/https%3A//atlee19.github.io/TritonProject-Guide/. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 "Triton Project is an affordable DIY AR headset". The Ghost Howls. 2021-01-09. https://skarredghost.com/2021/01/09/triton-project-diy-ar/. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
- ↑ Graham Atlee. "TritonProject". GitHub. https://github.com/gatlee21/TritonProject. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Graham Atlee. "Triton About". Triton Project Guide. https://gatlee21.github.io/TritonProject-Guide/about.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Graham Atlee. "Triton 3D Printing". Triton Project Guide. https://gatlee21.github.io/TritonProject-Guide/3dprint.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "The Triton: An DIY AR headset that uses off the shelf hardware". Product Hunt. https://www.producthunt.com/posts/the-triton. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Graham Atlee. "Triton Assembly". Triton Project Guide. https://gatlee21.github.io/TritonProject-Guide/mechanical.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Graham Atlee. "Triton Project: Mechanical". GitHub. https://github.com/gatlee21/TritonProject/tree/master/Mechanical. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Tom Nardi (2021-03-28). "Triton AR Headset Blends Stock And Printed Parts". Hackaday. https://hackaday.com/2021/03/28/triton-ar-headset-blends-stock-and-printed-parts/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Graham Atlee. "TritonProject Mechanical LICENSE". GitHub. https://github.com/gatlee21/TritonProject/blob/master/Mechanical/LICENSE.txt. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Graham Atlee. "Triton Software". Triton Project Guide. https://gatlee21.github.io/TritonProject-Guide/software.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.