ST1080 with light blocker removed

I spoke with Silicon Micro Display recently and they tell me that the scarcity of initial units has prevented them from getting the ST1080 out to major outlets for review just yet. That’s why we’ve thus far only seen user-impressions of SMD’s first head mounted display. We’ll see reviews from the big guys in the next few weeks most likely. Speaking of which, I’ve got another ST1080 user review to highlight.

Reader Ken commented on my post about the first ST1080 impressions and left a link to another user review of the ST1080 which appears to be from the Netherlands. Fortunately this one is much more readable than the last!

Jeffrey, who appears to be the author, now has part 1 and part 2 of ST1080 impressions posted. The review isn’t terrible detailed, but I’ll pull out some of the good bits for you.

According to the author, the ST1080 works well as a computer-monitor replacement, but there is some blur on text at the corners of the screen (as we have heard from others as well). This would be due to an ‘exit-pupil’ that isn’t all encompassing:

After 10 minutes and playing with the 2 pupil distance adjustment switches the screen was finally clear and good to read. I visited some websites and used some applications and this went all without problems. Just like looking at a normal screen. The text at the corners of the screen however stays a bit blurry.

He also comments on the quality of the display (not surprisingly, the blacks aren’t as dark as an OLED display) and points out some interesting RGB ghosting that is likely inherent to LCoS display technology:

The screens themselves are clear and in 1080p. The FOV is good. Black however isn’t truly black, but more like dark gray, like lcd screens. When moving your head quickly up and down the display technology shows his weak spot: All white colored text on the screen will leave a Red, Green and Blue trace. The displays work by quickly showing just one color at the time. But when using the HMD to watch movies and play games I never really noticed it so it won’t disturb any normal use with the ST1080. Another thing worth knowing is that this unit won’t block the light coming from the top of the bottom of the unit. You can just look down and see the floor, just like normal glasses.

The ST1080 again scores good points in the comfort and longevity department:

The included nose rubbers are also clearly not designed for my nose. The unit slides of my nose when looking down. There is however a cord included which you can use as a strap to attach the hmd to your head. With it, the hmd fits fine and is useable. It also puts less weight on your nose with it so don’t throw this cord away! There is no eye strain using this device. It didn’t hurt my head or made me disoriented. The comfort is not that great, since it still puts some weight on your nose. The unit however is light and you can easily use it for hours.

[after a week of use]: The comfort is good. I can use it for several hours without having any trouble at all. Haven’t got headaches and my eyes doesn’t hurt. The cord/strap to keep the unit in place is good and easily adjustable and the (thick but light) cable from the HMD to the control unit is not getting in the way while using the HMD.

There’s also some info regarding 3D videos and gaming. Jeffrey says he had to use some software from http://www.iz3d.com/ to get 3D gaming working on his computer with the ST1080:

The ST1080 supports lots of different video resolutions, both 2d as 3d. For 2d the highest resolution with the highest frames per second you can go is 1080p at 60Hz. For 3d it is 1080p at 30Hz (Top-and-bottom). When watching movies it is just great. 3D works beautiful. For 3d gaming 30Hz is a bit low and you’ll have to make a choice between high fps or high resolution. The ST1080 does offer you 60Hz at half resolution or at 720p. Almost all PS3 games with 3d support already switch to the 720p resolution where you can enjoy 3d gaming with full 60Hz. The ST1080 currently does not support scaling. This means using the 720p resolutions will reduce the screen size and FOV. SiliconMicroDisplay however announced that they will add scaling with a firmware update in the future.

Some of the games I played with this were Diablo 3, Trackmania Nations, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Test Drive Unlimited 2. The 3D effects in those games were amazing! I preferred the mode ’1080p @ 60Hz SBS Half resolution’. The screen is big and you can easily read and see everything while still having 60Hz. The ’pop out’ feeling with this HMD is great. I actually tried to move my head out of the way of a rocket in Unreal Tournament 2004 once. In 2D games are also great. The displays look like a large screen hanging at the other side of the room. It really makes you feel you are part of the game. Flying with the redeemer in unreal tournament is a total different experience now!

Silicon Micro Display has now launched a community forum for ST1080 users. Jeffrey says he is active there if anyone has further questions.

I’m hoping to receive an ST1080 for review in the next few weeks, stay tuned!

The post Another ST1080 User Review Hits the Web, Silicon Micro Display Opens a Forum appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

While Sony’s HMZ-T1 and Silicon Micro Display’s ST1080 have made a major splash in the world of head mounted displays by bringing high resolution and (relatively) low cost products to market, a key issue still remains — field of view. Field of View (FoV) describes how much of your vision is taken up by a display. Increasing the FoV means that more of your vision is taken up by the display and this often leads to a much greater sense of immersion. Most of the HMDs available on the market have FoVs of 30 or 45 degress. This isn’t much different than sitting in front of an HDTV that’s across the room. However, over at the MTBS3D forum, user PalmerTech is working on a project to crowd-fund a head mounted display with an impressive (and immersive) 90 degree field of view though Kickstarter.

The Verge recently took a prototype version of the ‘Oculus Rift’ (as PalmerTech is calling it) for a test drive thanks to John Carmack (of Id fame) who has taken great interest in the project. Mainstream immersive virtual reality gaming is coming, and this might be the first big step.

John Carmack is the founder and technical director of Id Software (responsible for games such as: Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Rage). He’s taken great interest in PalmerTech’s Oculus Rift HMD and has been working on a re-release of Doom 3 which he intends to make fully compatible for existing HMDs and high-FoV HMDs like the Oculus Rift.

Ross Miller of The Verge went to Id’s HQ to try Doom 3 BGF on a very early prototype of the Oculus Rift:

Each of your eyes has around a 95 degree FoV (combined together you can see about 180 in front of you). An HMD with an FoV of 45 degrees would take up around 47% of your vision. This is much like sitting with a large HDTV across the room from you. The Oculus Rift has close to a 90 degree FoV which would cover almost 95% of your vision and nearly completely immerse you in the virtual world that you are looking at. While the FoV is great, the Oculus Rift is still a very early prototype and has some issues, the biggest of which is a low resolution. The display is a single 1280×800 panel which devotes half of itself to each eye — making the effective resolution 640×800 — far behind the ST1080′s 1080p displays and the HMZ-T1′s 720p OLED displays.

Carmack has been rigorously testing the Oculus Rift and mentions that, “After dialing everything in, this is by far the most immersive HMD of the five I have here. If Palmer comes close to his price target, it will also be the cheapest. I will be including full support for this in the next new PC title we release [he's talking about Doom 3 BFG, now announced].”

This is great to hear, but of course the Oculus Rift is nothing but a prototype at this point:

This photo was posted to Carmack’s twitter sayingt: “This is a lot cooler than it looks — Palmer Luckey’s 90+ FOV HMD”

PalmerTech said back in April that he hopped to open a Kickstarter campaign starting on June 1st (tomorrow!) to fund the Oculus Rift’s production. I’m not sure whether or not it will still go live tomorrow but you can be sure that I’ll let you know if it does. Update: Palmer Luckey (AKA PalmerTech) says that the current target date for the Kickstarter is June 14th. More info here.

By all accounts it seems as though the Oculus Rift is targeted toward hobbyists rather than mainstream consumers. PalmerTech notes that, “The display module is going to be detachable from the optics module, so you will be able to modify, replace, or upgrade your lenses in the future!” which is awesome, but obviously a bit beyond the scope of mainstream. Still, with the interest of Carmack who is now showing off the immersion that a high FoV HMD can create, this could be an important step toward seeing mainstream immersive virtual reality gaming. PalmerTech also says that he hopes to produce one version of the Oculus Rift with head tracking and one without.

As brantlew on the MTBS3D forum noted, “We’re hitting a wall of diminishing returns with graphical fidelity. Immersive gaming is the next big leap and all the necessary technology is coming together at this very moment”. I couldn’t agree more, and that’s exactly why I started this blog; all the pieces are here, we just need to bring them together. PalmerTech, Carmack, and friends, might just be intrepid enough to make it a (virtual) reality.

The post Oculus Rift is an HMD with an Immersive 90-degree FoV, to Be Funded by Kickstater [video] appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

I’m away from a full blown computer this weekend, so please excuse the brevity of this post. I’m writing from my phone because I wanted to share some brief but exciting information regarding the Oculus Rift that I wrote about the other day.

I spoke briefly with PalmerTech, the guy behind the Oculus Rift HMD. As mentioned previously, the goal is to crowd-fund the project through Kickstarter. PalmerTech’s original hope was to start the funding on June 1st, but he now tells me that he intends to put it up either this weekend or to delay it until the 14th. All is pending negotiations with John Carmack (founder and technical director of Id Software, who is integrating support for the Oculus Rift in the upcoming Doom 3 BFG release) and Hillcrest Labs (from whom PalmerTech is likely sourcing the head tracking hardware which will be featured on one version of the Oculus Rift).

From what I’ve heard thus far, the initial version of the Oculus Rift will not be a consumer-ready HMD, but rather a sort of DIY kit for enthusiasts. I’ve also heard prices of $500 being thrown around, but we’ll have to wait and see about that. Update: $500 target confirmed! More info here.

John Carmack plans to give 100 copies of Doom 3 BFG to be included in the funding rewards for the Oculus Rift Kickstarter.

I’ve got my eye on this one closely and will let you know as soon as I see the Kickstarter go live!

The Oculus Rift is a head mounted display with a much more expansive field of view when compared to other commercially available HMDs. Although a low resolution is currently a limiting factor, John Carmack says that the high Fov of the Oculus Rift makes it the most immersive of several HMDs that he has tested (including the Sony HMZ-T1).

The post Oculus Rift HMD Kickstarter to Begin no Later than June 14th appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Right now the Oculus Rift project is at the center of my attention. If you haven’t read up on it, see here. In short, I’m hoping that this is the first major step in bringing virtual reality to mainstream gaming. With that in mind, I wanted to point out the first glimpse of specs for the Oculus Rift as well as an official site made by Palmer Luckey (aka PalmerTech) who is responsible for the project.

Luckey has launched an official Oculus site. It’s minimal but has some good info already. From what I understand, Oculus is the ‘company’ name while Rift is the particular HMD model that he is currently working on.

From the site we’ve got some early Oculus Rift specs:

• Horizontal FOV: ~90 degrees
• Vertical FOV: ~110 degrees (more than 5x the total image size than the HMZ-T1)
• Input resolution of 1280×800, split between two eyes; Not as good as us gaming geeks want, sure, but that is more detail than you get by feeding an HMZ-T1 a SBS 3D image [effective resolution is 640*800 because of the split]
• Variable Acuity Resolution (VAR): Puts more pixels in the center of the image, and fewer in the periphery, mimicking the natural characteristics of the eye.
• Light weight: Sub-1lb/0.5kg, current prototypes weigh in at about 0.6lbs/0.27kg
• Low latency: Minimal processing delay for maximum head tracking realism
• Inputs: VGA, DVI, and HDMI for maximum compatibility
• Can be driven over an optional wireless video link with sub-1ms latency
• Open-source schematics allow anyone to freely modify, build on, and improve the design
• Sold as an all parts inclusive kit, assemble yourself!
• Price point of $500, as cheaply as it can possibly be while still providing a quality product

Luckey says that there is more to come on the specs front, we’ll keep you posted.

The site says that the Kickstarter will be happening in June, and I heard directly from Luckey that the Kickstarter is likely to happen no later than June 14th.

As for Oculus as a company, the site offers this “nutshell” description:

Oculus is a developer of virtual reality hardware for the enthusiast market.  Other companies focus on research institutions, military contracts, and large companies as customers, but our mission is to put high performance, low cost, open-sourced virtual reality in the hands of homebrewers, experimenters, and gamers. 

There’s also some good background on Luckey himself, including mention of a huge collection of HMDs totaling 43 units!

On a personal note, my name is Palmer Luckey.  I have been going by the handle of “PalmerTech” for a few years now, and my hobbies include stereoscopic 3D, virtual reality, lasers, and portabilizing; I am lucky enough to work with the first two as a job!  I am currently a lab technician and engineer at the USC Institute of Creative Technology, working primarily in the MxR (MiXed Reality) lab.  I also do some freelance engineering and consulting work on the side, when time and interest permits.

Let me get this out of the way:  I am a huge HMD nut.  As far as I know, I have the largest private collection of unique HMDs in the world, totaling 43 units, not including the ones I have built myself.  Part of this HMD obsession, as with any other obsession, is trying to convince other people to join in.  And what a seductive dream, that technology can transport us into worlds we cannot hope to experience in real life, or augment our reality to shape it closer to our desires!

Unfortunately, virtual reality has risen and fallen many times, with a lot more emphasis on the latter portion.  The tech has never gotten far enough to be truly convincing, and great VR hardware has been far out of reach for the average person… Until now.

Oculus is my tilt at trying to change that.  The tech has improved, and we can build hardware and software that is better, stronger, and faster than the old guard, companies that create niche, wildly expensive products.  Don’t get me wrong, these companies are important, and they have to solve some very tough engineering challenges to satisfy their customers.  But the reality is that as gamers and dreamers, we have a different set of challenges to meet.  Massive field of view to engulf your visual senses, low latency tracking to maximize presence, light weight and comfortable for long term use, and perhaps most importantly, prices measured in the hundreds of dollars, not  tens of thousands.  I have worked long and hard with a lot of brilliant people to try and meet those challenges, and now it is time to put it in your hands.

Why the name “Oculus?  Because it is the Latin word for “eye”, and someone used the word in a meeting several months ago.  I thought it was a nifty word, and was better than the alternative, “StepN2theGAME”.

There’s also a place to sign up for a newsletter on the Oculus site if you want to receive official communications from Luckey about the project.

The post Early Oculus Rift Specifications and Official Site, Confirms $500 Target appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

The VR community seems to be holding its collective breath to see what impact the Oculus Rift head mounted display will have on the future of virtual reality gaming. Patiently folks are waiting for the Kickstarter funding round to start and I’ve learned today that it has been delayed two weeks. Don’t fret though; Palmer Luckery, the brains behind the project, says that the delay ”is not actually bad news at all.”

If you need a bit of catching up on the project: the Oculus Rift is a high field-of-view head mounted display that many hope will mark a seminal point for VR gaming. Here’s a detailed article about it.

Over at the lengthy MTBS3D forum thread dedicated to the Rift, Luckey says he cannot go into details about the delay, but that the reason for the delay is one that he “can promise that nobody here would possibly be upset with it.” Here’s the latest update about the Oculus Rift staight from Luckey (AKA PalmerTech):

Bad news: The Kickstarter is approved, but I am going to have to delay it for two weeks.

Good news: That is not actually bad news at all. A lot has changed in the past week, and while I cannot go into details just yet, I can promise that nobody here would possibly be upset with it. Some really big names in the game industry are getting involved with this, not only the initial kit, but future development as well. Thanks to those names, the Kickstarter can be 30 days instead of 60, meaning that the Kickstarter will end and start shipping units even earlier than before! More info as soon as I can give it.

Thanks for holding on with me!

At first blush a two week Kickstarter delay does seem like bad news but, as you can see above, the duration of the Kickstarter funding round is going to be cut in half (from 60 days to 30 days), meaning that people will actually get their units more quickly than originally planned.

A two week delay on the Kickstarter, which was original supposed to launch on the 14th or 15th of June, means we’re now looking at somewhere around the 29th or 30th of June.

Even more exciting is Luckey’s tease about “really big names in the game industry” getting involved in the Oculus Rift project for both the initial offering and further development of the HMD. As if this project wasn’t exciting enough already — it sounds like things are getting taken to the next level! The very first Oculus Rift in question is supposed to be a DIY kit for those experienced with hardware hacking and the like. I’m hoping that the mention of “further development” means that we’ll see an Oculus Rift 2.0 that will be ready out of the box for consumers. Time will tell.

As for the identity of the “big names” getting involved in the project… Luckey could be talking about publishers, developers, or even individual figures, so we don’t have much to go on at this point. Valve’s Michael Abrash is a reasonable suspect seeing how he’s been toying with wearable computing and calls it a “very interesting and promising space”. Id Software is also high up on the suspect list because of John Carmack’s involvement with the project.

If I had to choose a developer who I’d want to be involved, it would definitely be Bungie. And how about the readers? Let me hear in the comments your best guesses and hopefuls!

The post Oculus Rift Units to Arrive Earlier than Planned, “Really Big Names in the Game Industry” Getting Involved! appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Finally an update on the Oculus Rift Kickstarter. The head mounted display that’s been… er… turning heads… has been teasing us with an upcoming Kickstarter campaign. The original plan was for it to go live in the middle of June but some exciting developments have happened since then. The Kickstarter was delayed due to these developments, but it’s actually been thanks to good news rather than bad — one bit of which is a lower price.

Palmer Luckey (aka PalmerTech), the mind behind the Oculus Rift, left an update today over at the MTBS3D forums and it’s nothing but good news. Originally, Luckey honed in on a $500 target price for the base Oculus Rift HMD. Today Luckey says that $500 will get you an even better bang for your buck: the HMD, head tracker, and a copy of Doom 3 for PC (which will fully support the Oculus Rift).

Luckey says that none of the delays are due to technical issues. Rather, it’s been timing and discussions with some big names in gaming that are very interested in the Oculus Rift. In particular, Luckey says that they wanted to delay the Kickstarter until the annual Quakecon and GamesCon. The Oculus Rift will be present at both conventions and Luckey hopes to generate a great amount of interest in the Kickstarter. This is a logical move thanks to John Carmack’s involvement in getting the Oculus Rift noticed by demoing it at E3.

So, that’s the latest on the Oculus Rift HMD Kickstarter. I’ll be watching carefully for the very latest so stop back to stay up to date.

The post Oculus Rift Kickstarter Coming July 19th, Even Cheaper Than Before appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Need proof the Palmer Luckey (AKA PalmerTech) wasn’t teasing when he said he was working on the Oculus Rift HMD with some big names in the game industry? Here’s Cliff Bleszinski (AKA CliffyB), checking out a prototype of the Oculus Rift.

If you don’t know the name Cliff Bleszinski off the top of your head, you’d be hard pressed to call yourself a gamer. CliffyB is the design director of Epic Games, the company responsible for Unreal Engine (upon which a number of games are built). Bleszinski was also hugely influential in Epic’s successful Gears of War franchise.

Bleszinski’s posted the above photo to twitter on Monday with the following caption:

Today I got to play with a prototype Oculus VR headset, exciting! VR is coming back! They’re Kickstartering soon, stay tuned.

Bleszinski also tweeted a photo of Lauren Berggren (AKA L337Lauren) checking out the same prototype with Xbox 360 controller in hand:

No details have been announced yet, but if Epic makes its Unreal Engine compatible with the Oculus Rift it would make a huge splash in the gaming world and be a confident step forward for VR gaming. Before I get too excited though I’ll try to keep my expectations in check and wait for more details when the Oculus Rift Kickstarter begins. Speaking of which…

The very latest we’ve heard from Luckey regarding the anticipated Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign is that it will go live on the “19th or so” of July. The Oculus Rift price will be $500 (includes the Rift head mounted display, head tracker, and a copy of Doom III). That makes tomorrow potentially the opening day for the campaign which I’m quite excited to watch develop.

Today Luckey left a few more updates over at the MTSB3D forums:

Responding to a question about whether or not the Oculus Rift 2.0 (a higher quality consumer-oriented version of the Rift expected in 2013) would be dependent upon the success of the initial Oculus Rift Kickstarter, Luckey noted:

It goes ahead regardless : ). Showing support is still very, very important though. The profit margin on the Kickstarter is going to be practically non-existent, so I have little to gain myself, but a lot of Rifts sold = A lot of gamer interest = even more developer support!

That’s great news of course because even if for some reason the Oculus Rift 1.0 fails, the consumer 2.0 version is apparently already in the works.

And one more interesting snippet from Luckey’s latest updates:

android78 writes:

I’m actually quite surprised at how overwhelmingly positive the reaction to this has been. I don’t think I’ve see a single ‘bad’ review from those who have tried it out, and there seem to be at least as many positive comments on the articles I’ve read, compared to the negatives. This compares to what seemed to be about 90% negative responses to any article that mentioned 3D (mostly referring to TVs or movies) a couple of years ago.

Luckey Responds:

This is one of the best things about the Rift, IMO. In the past, cool looking and well marketed HMDs got a lot of hype, but the people who actually tried them usually came away unimpressed. In contrast, EVERYONE who has tried a Rift (One of the two prototypes currently in existence) has has a hugely positive response, even the several people with vision problems or a little dizziness when they unplug : D. The only people slamming it are people who had not had a chance to use it yet.

Very exciting and I can’t wait for more people to get their hands on the Rift at QuakeCon and GamesCon where we’ll be able to get some diversified reactions to the exciting HMD.

I’m on high-alert for the launch of the Oculus Rift Kickstarter, I’ll be posting here as soon as it goes live, stay tuned!

The post Here’s CliffyB With an Oculus Rift Prototype (and other updates) appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Sony has quietly announced a refreshed version of their HMZ-T1 head mounted display. The HMZ-T2 reduces weight by 20% which is good given that weight was one of the top issues with the original. The press release making the announcement calls the HMZ-T2 “all new” and “totally enhanced” but in reality little has changed. A more appropriate name would have been ‘HMZ-T1.5′.

The drop in weight is the most significant change to the HMZ-T2. From 420 grams on the original, the updated model weighs in at 330 grams. Part of this weight is thanks to a slimmed down frontal visor, and part is the removal of over-ear headphones. The HMZ-T2 switches earbuds and adds a hands 3.5mm headphone jack where you can plug in your own headphones or earbuds for use with the HMD . Sony’s Virtualphones virtual 5.1 surround technology returns to create a virtual surround sound experience with stereo headphones.

Sony claims that the HMZ-T2 has a “sharper display” but is nothing I can find to substantiate this. The same 720p OLED displays appear to be in use and the horizontal viewing angle is identical to the HMZ-T1 at 45 degrees. The adjustable nose rest seems to be remove from the HMZ-T2.

There’s no official announcement regarding price or an HMZ-T2 release date, but I think we can expect to see this at the same $799 mark as the original.

Update: Sony UK now has an official product page for the HMZ-T2 with full specs. I’ll add the HMZ-T2 soon to my HMD comparison chart.

SlashGear got their hands on the HMZ-T2 at IFA which is going on in Berlin this week (see their article here for hands-on photos):

Sony HMZ-T2 Head Mounted Display Gallery

The post Sony Quietly Announces “All New” HMZ-T2 HMD, Reduces Weight by 20% [Gallery, Specs] appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Sony appears to be finally experimenting with augmented reality and virtual reality on their HMD line. The company has traditionally marketed their HMZ-T1 and HMZ-T2 head mounted displays as a “personal 3D viewer” rather than anything to do with VR or AR. At the famous Tokyo Game Show, which starts on the 20th of this month, Sony will be presenting to a limited audience a head mounted display prototype that incorporates head tracking and pass-through video for augmented reality.

The unit is based on Sony’s recently launched HMZ-T2, the company is referring to it as the “Prototype-SR”. As seen in the video below, they’ve mounted a 3-axis gyro to the unit and apparently had room in the bulbous front portion for a fairly large camera. The camera will be used as a means for pass-through augmented reality, meaning that you’ll be able to see outside of the HMD by looking through the camera; augmented information can then be overlaid onto the video before being displayed to you.

With the right algorithms Sony could have scrapped the gyro completely and gone for optical head tracking using the camera.

Sony will be showing the HMZ-T2 Prototype-SR to a limited group of people at TGS. From what I gather the company ran a raffle to give out tickets to experience the prototype. Sony appears to have worked with the Riken Brain Science Institute to develop an interactive experience that will be shown to winners of the raffle.

This all seems to have been done in promotion of the HMZ-T2 rather than development of an actual product. I’m working with translations here, but a press release that I dug up seems to pretty clearly state “there is no marketing plan” for the HMZ-T2 Prototype-SR. Hopefully we’ll hear later this month from those who get their hand on the experience.

The post Sony to Show off HMZ-T2 HMD Prototype with Head Tracking and Pass-through AR [Video] appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Today at E3, the massive annual gaming convention, a new Oculus Rift 1080p prototype is being shown running with Unreal Engine 4. Here’s all the info we gathered so far.

See Also: What Does it Look Like in the Oculus Rift?

Oculus Rift 1080p Prototype

Photo credit – Engadget

Everyone was expecting a higher resolution Rift at some point, but we weren’t expecting to see it so soon. The new Oculus Rift prototype is using a 1080p display. Based on a picture from IGN (above), it looks like they’re gone down from a 7-inch screen to a 5-inch screen, a size that they had originally intended to use.

Assuming a 5-inch display, the new 1080p panel would have a pixel density of approximately 440 PPI, more than twice the density of the current Oculus Rift developer kit (215 PPI). As currently, the display is divided in half for each eye. This makes the effective resolution 960×1080, compared to 640×800 of the current model. While this still doesn’t take the Oculus into the realm of true 1080p HD gaming, it is a big improvement in visual fidelity, about 2x the current development kit.

The latest official update from Oculus says that new display “greatly reduc[es] the screen-door effect seen in the development kit. The brightness, contrast, and color are also improved. All of these changes come together to ratchet the sense of immersion to an entirely new level.”

Comparison between current developer kit (left) and 1080p prototype (right)

The Verge’s David Pierce took a look into the new Oculus Rift 1080p prototype. Oculus is showing off integration with Unreal Engine 4. They’re showing some environments from the ‘Elemental’ demo, seen below:

Oculus is also showing off the VR Cinema 3D demo with a trailer of Man of Steel.

Oculus Rift 1080p Dev Kit 2 in 2013?

Earlier this year at GTC 2013 we saw a hint that Oculus was planning a second development kit for “Q2-Q3 2013″.

Photo credit – PC Perspective

Seeing as we’re almost into Q3, I think it’s a safe bet that it’ll be at least until Q4, if not into 2014, for a 1080p version, and that’s if Oculus even plans to release a second dev kit.

While Oculus is showing off the new 1080p Rift prototype to the press at E3, they currently have “no solid plans” to release it, according to IGN. The fact that we see two cables coming out of the new unit (one for display output, the other for tracker data) tells us that this decidedly still in protoype status — the current Rift development kit has one custom cable for both data streams.

“The 1080p prototype isn’t a product — this isn’t necessarily the display (or even the resolution) that we’ll use for the consumer version — it’s simply a taste of what’s coming,” wrote Oculus in their latest update.

Will the New Screen Adapt to the Current Development Kit?

Photo credit – Engadget

Those who know the Oculus Rift dev kit well will note that the new prototype appears to be using the same front portion as the current dev kit, with only the screen portion swapped out. While we’d love to see an upgrade available for existing dev kit owners, we doubt it’ll happen.

Oculus chose to directly connect the display on the current dev kit to the control box. An upgrade would essentially mean replacing nearly all of the hardware, making it not much of an upgrade to begin with. We would have preferred to see a connector attachment from the display to the control box for this reason, and also to extend the cable length when necessary.

The post Everything We Know About the Oculus Rift 1080p Prototype appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

We’ve been following the ST1080 head mounted display from Silicon Micro Display for the last few months. The company is finally getting ready to put their first product out on the market after some delays, and have announced that pre-orders for the 1080p head mounted display will begin on March 1st. In addition to the pre-order date, the company has announced a $100 discount for the first 21 days of pre-ordering.

The ST1080 was officially price at $799 in December but daring early adopters will be able to snag it for $699 from March 1-21st. It’s nice that Silicon Micro Display is giving early adopters this little gift — much better than slashing prices shortly after launch and angering those that were willing to give the product a try!

Initial orders will be limited to the US, though the company says they are working out the specifics for distribution in other countries and will have more detailed info in the coming weeks.

The ST1080 will be the first consumer-targeted 1080p head mounted display once it reaches the marketplace. The screen technology that Silicon Micro Display is using is not your typical LCD, but rather a novel technology called LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon). This technology allows the ST1080 to retain 10% transparency so that you can still see your surroundings while donning the HMD. For a full list of ST1080 specs, see here.

In addition to the consumer version of the ST1080, the ST1080 DDK (display development kit) is now available from Silicon Micro Display for $8000. Don’t let that scare you though — the company provides additional resources that are important for developers along with the DDK:

The DDK has the same specifications as the ST1080 and includes two display modules, driver electronics, control software, register map, interface hardware, available in a 3D-printed evaluation case, and limited engineering support.

The DDK is not sold directly and requires that you contact the company to inquire about purchasing one.

The post ST1080 Head Mounted Display Starts Pre-orders on March 1st, $100 Discount for Early Adopters appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Update: Another video from CeBIT has the rep stating the the head-tracking hardware runs an additional €100, but it still isn’t clear if this is third-party or being offered directly from Carl Zeiss. I’ve put the question out to Zeiss and will update when I hear back.

Carl Zeiss is working on an HMD called the Cinemizer which will be available this July, according to the company. The Cinemizer is a 3D-capable head mounted display with dual 870×500 OLED displays. My friends and boss Chippy, from UltrabookNews.com et al, was kind enough to record a hands-on video with the Cinemizer that Carl Zeiss showed off this week at CeBIT 2012. Jump into the article to take a look.

Sascha Pallenberg of NetbookNews.de is the guinea pig!

You’ll hear Chippy mention that this is a “$19,000 system…” but that figure includes much more than the Cinemizer HMD itself — I’m fairly certain that’s the entire setup (HMD, powerful desktop computer, head tracking hardware, etc.). As far as I can see, the head tracking system is not built-into the Cinemizer, but is instead probably added with third-party hardware such as the TrackIR 5 system.

The Cinemizer is actually available for pre-order and is currently priced at  €649, which is around $861. That price makes the not-quite-HD Cinemizer a tough sell next to the 720p Sony HMZ-T1 ($799) and 1080p Silicon Micro Display ST1080 ($799, or $699 during pre-order period). However, the price listed includes a hefty 19% VAT, which might be avoidable if Zeiss distributes through other means. Without the 19% tax, the Cinemizer would be €525 or $696, which would make it a bit more affordable, but still not very attractive given the competition.

In the video can see Sascha walk through a series of virtual environments, and it is apparent from the emotion on his face that he is getting a visceral experience out of the simulation. At the end, he sums it all up when prompted about the experience:

Intense. Definitely different compared to the architecture version… especially with the sound effects; sound is so important, and if you would combine this with any kind of moving platform or something, that would be almost 99% real. You just need the image and decent sound, and maybe a little bit of physical feedback, and it works.

Sascha would be happy to know that such moving platforms exist — see more about omni-directional treadmills here.

The Cinemizer, which has a 30 degree field of view, differs from the ST1080 and HMZ-T1 in that it has a built-in battery which the company says will power the HMD for up to 6 hours.

We’ll keep our eyes out come July to see how the Cinemizer stands up to the competition. The more the merrier, I say!

The post Carl Zeiss Cinemizer HMD Hands-on Video — Pre-ordering Now [update] appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

Silicon Micro Display’s 1080p head mounted display (HMD), the ST1080, will soon be reaching reaching pre-order customers, according to the company. Additionally, Silicon Micro Display has revealed the final design for the ‘light blocker’ which is designed to reduce the ST1080′s 10% transparency to 0% for gaming and media viewing. Reviews should start popping up this month.

According to a recent post from the official Silicon Micro Display blog, the ST1080 [specs here] is expected to begin shipping to pre-order customers during the second week in May, and should be received by the very first customers during the third week. Pre-order customers were treated to a $100 early-bird discount which has since passed, currently the ST1080 is available for pre-order for the originally announced price of $799 (which puts it in direct competition with Sony’s HMZ-T1 [spec comparison here]).

The company also detailed some of the final steps leading up to launch and shared some photos of the manufacturing process:

In the month of April, most of the design and launch team traveled to our manufacturing facility in Korea to work on the final tasks before shipping the product. We’re working around the clock, literally, to get through the final tasks.

I’ve been tracking the ST1080 for several months now and I’m looking forward to the initial reviews. Curiously, many of those commenting on the aforementioned blog post seem to be excited about the ST1080 for gaming or multimedia purposes. Given that the ST1080 is the first consumer-available 1080p HMD to provide transparency, it seems to be better suited for augmented reality and wearable-computing applications rather than high-fidelity multimedia. I haven’t yet had a chance to test the ST1080 myself so I can’t say how the image quality compares to that of the Sony HMZ-T1 [my hands-on testing notes here] for gaming and multimedia, so we’ll have to wait and see.

ST1080 with attached light blocker strip

However, the ST1080 will ship with a light blocker attachment which will reduce the transparency to 0% when you want to be immersed in your media. Silicon Micro Display has revealed the final design for the light blocker which will come in the form of a reusable strip which will stick to the front of the ST1080. The company says that they looked into several different clip-on light blocker designs but ultimately decided upon the strip which had the benefit of almost no increase in weight (something that I’m sure HMZ-T1 owners would appreciate!). Several of the blockers will ship with each order.

Stay tuned with me here at Road to VR this month, I’ll be reporting on initial reviews as soon as they become available!

The post ST1080 HMD Update: Shipping Expected to Start Second Week in May, Light Blocker Detailed appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

I’ve been scanning quite regularly for the first full-blown review of Silicon Micro Display’s recently launched 1080p HDM, the ST1080. Though there hasn’t yet been a peep from any major publications, it seems as though customers are starting to receive their pre-order shipments of the ST1080 and have begun posting their impressions.

Over at The Game Veda, there is a series of posts offering photos, info, and comparisons of the ST1080 with Sony’z HMZ-T1 (here’s my ST1080 vs. HMZ-T1 spec comparison if you’re interested). The author has also posted an unboxing video giving us the first hands-on glimpse of the ST1080 production unit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Much of the impressions compare the ST1080 and the HMZ-T1 noting that the former is much more comfortable (thanks to being lighter), has less eye-strain, and has a larger exit-pupil (the ‘sweet spot’ of focus). In particular, the user says that “Windows 8 looks great whether streamed through your iPad or directly through your PC . The raw resolution of the ST1080 and its sensible design makes it a win if you ever want to do anything other than just watch 10 3d films over and over and over and over again.”

The user also notes the ease of putting on and taking off the ST1080. The same process with the HMZ-T1 is akin to that of the infamous headcrab from the Half Life series (if you don’t get the reference, just understand that it isn’t a term of endearment!):

With just one hand I can just lift the ST1080 off, with the HMZT1 you are basically strapped in for the duration, just go easy on the Double Diet Dew if you are using your Sony, or you may have to reuse the bottle if you know what I mean. Seriously, lifting the ST1080 is as easy as lifting off your NHS specs, not at all like doing the Half Life de-headcrabbing ritual you go through with the HMZT1. I just put my ST1080 back on… in seconds, no locking in or adjusting straps, or yoga breathing or posturing to find that sweet spot again like you do with the HMZT1

On the downside, the user concedes that the HMZ-T1 has better colors thanks to the OLED displays vs. the ST1080 LCoS displays:

[The HMZ-T1] has a beyond Cinema 3D experience with the richest colours you have ever seen , but makes your eyes work and pay, as well as your head and neck!

For those interested in using the ST1080 connected to a PC, the user says that the ST1080 beats the HMZ-T1 for text-readability:

Working connected to a Windows 8 Lenovo X220T; this is a test of text sharpness, with a desktop resolution of 1920×1200, native 1080p for console fans, the text really is razor sharp or as razor sharp as you are going to get with this generation of HMDs.

I must say, this is a strong initial report for Silicon Micro Display.

I’m still watching carefully for more detailed reviews, stay tuned for more!

The post First ST1080 Unboxing and Impressions Hit the Web appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

The 40th Annual Computer Graphics and Technology convention ‘SIGGRAPH’ kicks off on the 21st of July. A new video showcasing some of the technologies due to be displayed have implications for Virtual Reality.

Demonstrating the Future since 1974

Since 1974, SIGGRAPH have been at the forefront of demonstrating new Computer Generated Visuals and associated technologies to the industry and public at large. A new video just released by the consortium highlights interesting new developments which could be used in the future to enhance and evolve Virtual Reality interactive experiences.

Of particular interest are developments such as HapSeat, a new low-cost haptic feedback system designed to involve the player’s physical being in an interactive experience and AIRREAL, a system that blows tiny pockets of directed air-flow at the user to simulate objects hitting or passing them.

You can find out more about SIGGRAPH 2013 here.

The post SiGGRAPH 2013 ‘Emerging Technologies’ Video Offers Glimpses of VRs Future appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

In a curious move away from virtual reality gaming, Sony has announced a revamped version of their HMZ-T2 head mounted display specifically designed for surgical use. The company is calling it the HMM-3000MT. Along with the HMD comes the ‘head-mount image processing unit’ designed for 3D endoscopic image display. Is the company done vying for the mainstream VR market… or just getting started?

A Brief History of Sony Head Mounted Displays

Sony’s HMZ-T1

Sony’s relationship with the head mounted display in recent years has been interesting, to say the least. The company’s first consumer HMD, the HMZ-T1 (which they called a ‘personal 3D viewer’) launched back at the tail-end of 2011. The unit featured two 720p OLED displays and a 39 degree horizontal field of view.

Despite the high quality screens, with no headtracking and a field of view that wasn’t terribly immersive, Sony was positioning the unit more as a wearable 3D HDTV, rather than an HMD for virtual reality gaming. One would think that they would have had some marketing interplay between the PS3 and the HMZ-T1, but there was little of that to be seen. The unit also hit the market at the wallet-crushing price of $799.

Sony’s HMZ-T2

In August of 2012, Sony announced the successor to the HMZ-T1, aptly named… HMZ-T2. Except it felt more like an HMZ-T1.5 than anything else. Spec wise, the HMZ-T2 remained mostly the same — 720p OLED displays. Sony cut down the weight by 20% in response to widely reported issues of comfort by users of the predecessor.

The biggest numerical increase to the HMZ-T2 was in its price — £999 (~$1221 [after removing tax]) in the UK . With no explanation from Sony, the unit also never made a U.S. launch (though you can buy it imported for ~$800).

Sony HMM-3000MT and Image Processing Unit for Endoscopic Image Display

And now we come to the next chapter in the Sony HMD saga. Last week company announced the HMM-3000MT HMD and image processing unit (hat tip to Engadget). This step appears to mark a 180 degree turn away from consumer positioning of Sony’s head mounted displays.

“Laparoscopic surgery, whereby an endoscope is inserted through multiple keyhole incisions in a patient’s abdomen allowing the surgeon to confirm video images displayed on a monitor in real time, is becoming increasingly widespread as a procedure that minimizes the strain on patients when compared to open surgery

Furthermore, in recent years, realistic 3D images capable of conveying visual depth-related information related in high definition and with extreme precision have been recognized as providing significant advantages in the medical field, and there is great potential demand for this technology.

This year, a number of medical device manufacturers have released 3D-compatible endoscopes on the market and these devices have gained attention for their extremely accurate three-dimensional images of the area being operated on, and thereby contribute to improving surgical precision. Consequently, there has been an increase in demand for high-precision 3D images and monitors.

Accordingly, Sony is launching a head-mount image processor, which includes a 3D head-mounted monitor, and is compatible with 3D surgical laparoscope. It incorporates Sony’s advanced 3D and display-related technologies to realize a standard of 3D images that meet the demands of medical professionals, and proposes new workflows,” reads Sony’s official press announcement of the HMM-3000MT and image processing unit.

To my eyes, the HMM-3000MT appears to be a revamped HMZ-T2. The head-mount has been overhauled for comfort, but we’re still looking at the dual 720p OLED displays. To be fair, these are great displays with high contrast and rich color; Sony just isn’t gunning for the high field of view that gamers demand for immersive virtual reality gaming. It would seem now that Sony knows this, and has been looking for a way to repurpose their tech.

And repurpose they have, to the tune of ~$15,000 — the official price estimate for a kit including the HMM-3000MT, image processing unit, and one cable to connect the two.

Sony’s Next Step in the HMD Arena

PS4 Oculus Rift – concept by T3

Though the news of the HMM-3000MT appears to mark the untimely end of mainstream positioning of Sony’s HMZ series of head mounted displays, I don’t think Sony is out of the game just yet… in fact, this might be just the beginning.

The way that Sony handled the HMZ head mounted displays leads me to believe that the series was created solely in Sony’s display division, not the Sony Computer Entertainment division that’s responsible for the PlayStation — hence the near complete disconnect in their marketing (Sony literally never called the HMZ-series a ‘head mounted display’ or used the term ‘virtual reality’, preferring to only refer to it as a ‘personal 3D viewer’). Rather than a synergistic relationship of gaming and immersive display, the HMZ series and the PlayStation 3 seemed like an awkward step-brother and -sister who weren’t sure if they were allowed to like each other.

From my vantage point, the HMZ series was a consumer outlet for Sony’s custom display technology; tech that almost surely started life in their R&D department as a project to create a (relatively) inexpensive high density OLED microdisplay — without any specific idea of where it would be used. Now they’re just (reasonably) repurposing that proprietary tech for the medical field where it will probably fit very well.

So where does that leave Sony when it comes to mainstream immersive VR gaming? Unless the company is way out of the loop, they’re working on an HMD project within Sony Computer Entertainment that’s goal is to create an immersive VR gaming display — not to develop new display technology. If such a project is in the works, you can bet that it’s being designed for the gamer as an immersive virtual reality head mounted display — not just a ‘personal 3D viewer’.

We know for a fact that Sony has their hands on the Oculus Rift. At E3 2013, Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studio, told Engadget “We’ve got a couple of the development kits, and I tried it out and I love it!” No doubt the company is investigating the Oculus Rift for use with the PS4, or maybe more likely, seeing how they can best build their own PS4 HMD for the mainstream.

The post Is Sony Turning Away from Mainstream VR? New HMD is Designed for Surgery appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

InfinitEye is a head mounted display prototype with a whopping 210 degree horizontal field of view that’s on a similar trajectory as the Oculus Rift; the prototype was conceived and constructed by a group of VR enthusiasts who are looking to bring it to production. The team is competing for €100,000 in funding and guidance to make their prototype a reality — your vote is all it takes!

Though Palmer Luckey has previously put together 120 degree and 270 degree HMD prototypes, InfinitEye’s achievement is that it could be small and light enough to be worn directly on the head with no additional mounting while still bringing a huge field of view and high resolution to the table.

The current prototype uses two displays to achieve its massive field view. Normally with dual displays you’d need complicated optics to properly align the images with the eyes; InfinitEye is using Fresnel lenses to do so simply and without adding much weight. In fact, the current InfinitEye prototype weighs less than the Oculus Rift (but keep in mind that it is currently made from much less durable material for the sake of rapid prototyping):

There are some concerns with the use of dual displays and Fresnel lenses; chief among them being distortion, clarity, and diagonal alignment. The creators of InftinitEye say that there’s no issue with focus or distortion using the lenses.

With some initial skepticism, VR Enthusiast and MTBS3D user TheLostBrain bought the same lenses used in the prototype to see for himself.

“First things first – I DO stand corrected… I now believe that Fresnels CAN produce a sharp, quality image in an HMD!” he wrote in a post on MTBS3D:

I honestly had my reservations when I ordered these because of the experience I’ve had in the past w/ Fresnel lenses. Generally the ones I’ve worked with offered not much more than a muddy, washed-out view. I’m happy to say these are the exact opposite!

I’d even go as far as to say that when looking through ONE of them at my monitor (positioned ~120mm FL, Fresnel grooves towards the screen)… I can absolutely not tell that I’m looking through a Fresnel vs any other decent quality large acrylic optic. There’s no perception of the Fresnel grooves, etc. at all!

Now, upon adding the second lens things do degrade just a bit. A bit of contrast is lost, a tiny bit of lens smear is detectable on high-contrast scenes, and all of the applicable aberrations are more prevalent. However, much of this is to be expected w/ any type of uncorrected lens assembly.

Also I would like to point out (as Palmer, GeekMaster and others on this thread already have) that Fresnels are are by no means a magic bullet and you will still have to work within the same constraints that apply to standard plano convex lenses. Ex: You still have spherical, chromatic, field curvature, etc. taking shots at your view so you’ll have to do your best to compensate as usual.

With all that said I’m still 100% confident that these lenses do offer some excellent advantages for HMD design where immersive FOV is the primary goal.

• Huge immediate-FOV combined with a very generous eye-relief.
• Full eyeglass compatibility do to that eye-relief.
• Huge reduction in weight vs a comparable system using standard lenses
• Huge reduction in cost vs a comparable system using standard lenses

Palmer Luckey, in a thread on Reddit, notes that “The artifacts of fresnel lenses are not as bad as they used to be, and might look fine on some LCDs, but you can definitely see a significant degradation in quality with high quality/high contrast displays.”

Even so, he remains excited at the prospect of the design and even offered assistance, “It would be very cool if the potential problems are as well solved as you say! We have a lot of optical test gear in the lab, if you want objective distortion/focus measurements, I would be glad to help.”

The dual displays also offer an opportunity to increase resolution over a single-screen head mounted display like the Oculus Rift. While the Rift splits its single 1280×800 display in half, resulting in 640×800 per eye, InfinitEye uses one display per eye — each eye gets the full resolution. Currently the prototype has a resolution of 1280×800 per eye, though this is counterbalanced by being stretched over a field of view almost twice that of the Oculus Rift’s:

The InfinitEye team says they’re aiming for higher resolution panels as development progresses.

There are still challenges to be solved for the InfinitEye design. For one, the team would like to make a custom control board to drive each display in sync, ideally with a single video input. Currently it seems that each display has its own control board and input, adding to weight and complexity. The team would also like to create a custom headtracking solution in place of the current YEI trackers that they’re using.

InfinitEye Competing for €100,000 in Funding and Entrepreneurial Guidance, 4 Days Left to Vote!

Though the Oculus Rift and InfinitEye both began their journey at MTBS3D, InfinitEye is taking a path other than Kickstarter (for now, perhaps). The team has entered their design into an entrepreneurship contest sponsored by Samsung. The prize is €100,000 in funding to continue the project and also the guidance of an independent entrepreneur who will help make their vision a reality.

You can help InfinitEye secure their funding and entrepreneurial support simply by voting for their project in the contest. The contest is in French, but the InfinitEye team says that international votes are welcome.

Vote for InftinitEye in the Funding Contest

Here’s how to vote:

1. Click to expand blue button at bottom right.

2. Click expanded ‘Soutenir’ button.

3. Click blue ‘Connexion’ button.

4. Give the app permission to cast your vote. Don’t worry about the dialogue box that pops up at the end asking for an email address, that’s for a raffle.

My vote is cast!

The InfinitEye Team

I spoke with InfinitEye design Lionel Anton to learn more about the team working on this exciting HMD. Here’s his breakdown:

Lionel Anton, 30 years old. I’m a software engineer specialized in image processing but since always I’ve been tinkering with various hardware projects. I guess the thing that got me into VR is when I started a DIY projector back in 2006, I bought an old projector in which I found an aspheric lens for light collimation and seeing how close I could make focus on objects, I immediately thought about making a 3D display with a screen near my face and two of these lenses, a wide FOV 3D HMD. But at that time, I had other projects and this was only an idea in my mind. Then in winter 2010 I finally got the time to re-think about this and I made a post on MTBS3D in august 2011 to present the concept (http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=13659, it was the first project there that was using one screen with 2 lenses). Then I let it into oblivion until last year when I saw how successful the Rift campaign was and how much people were interested in VR. I knew that I could design something with a much wider field of view, and I started to work on a dual screen concept. I made a thread on MTBS3D in February to show the project and since then I’ve continued to improve the design.

Stephane Portes, 30 years old. He’s a friend I’ve known for 17 years. He’s the one who saw the potential of the concept and pushed me to make something with it. Also, he’s passionate about IT technologies and Virtual Realities. He has a strong technical background in IT and works as an international IS project manager for a famous aircraft manufacturing company on behalf of an IT Services company. Therefore he’s very skilled in management, marketing and communication an joined the project to take care of all these aspects, including the participation to the Samsung contest.

Robin Bourianes, 30 years old. I’ve known Robin for 13 years, we share the same education at the University of Toulouse in AI, robotics, VR (mainly 3D programming), image processing and computer science engineering. He’s a talented 3D expert, software architect and engineer and he joined the team a few months ago as the main developer. He developed the 3D engine and all the specialized warping stuff we used for the demo in which he integrated the Oculus VR Tuscany environment.

We’ll be continuing to watch the InfinitEye project closely — best of luck to these three!

The post 4 Days Left to Help InfinitEye 210 Degree HMD Prototype Win €100,000 in Funding appeared first on Road To Virtual Reality.

I’m heading to Toulouse, France to meet the InfinitEye team and try out their latest prototype. What would you like to know about it and what would you ask the team?

Europe’s Answer to the Oculus Rift?

Stephane, Lionel and Robin, the men that make up Team InfinitEye have very kindly agreed to meet up with me and showcase the HMD that cause quite a stir when news of it’s 210 degree FOV emerged back in August. It’s distinct approach to the problem if high FOV stereoscopy, using twin 7″ LCD Panels and canted Fresnel lenses produces a staggeringly immersive FOV whilst maintaining a higher ‘pixel per eye’ count than the Oculus Rift. Exciting stuff.

I got in touch with Stephane and asked if the team were interested in showcasing their work and speaking to Road to VR and happily they were. I’ll be flying out to Toulouse to spend the day with the team and the InfinitEye, so I wanted to ask you what you’d like to know about this mysterious but promising project.

Drop your burning queries in the comments below and I’ll do my best to get answers to them when I meet the team in a couple of weeks. Thanks in advance and stay tuned for the report.

The post InfinitEye: We’ll Be Meeting The Team and Going Hands-On. What Would You Like To Know? appeared first on Road to Virtual Reality.

Rising like a prototypical phoenix from the ashes of a discarded Valve project comes CastAR. The worlds first projected AR and VR system has arrived at Kickstarter and is nearly fully funded after just two days.

CastARs Dramatic Journey

Many of you are probably familiar with the story of CastAR, at least superficially. It’s the story of talented individuals (Inventor / Product Engineer Jeri Ellsworth and Programmer Rick Johnson), passionate about a project initiated by the benevolent Valve Software – at the time searching for the ‘next big thing’ in gaming hardware – and that project’s premature axing and it’s teams untimely elimination.

Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson

However, the story doesn’t end there and in a typically Gaben-esque gesture, Valve gifted the prototype Intellectual Property to the team in order that they may continue it’s development independently.  Why did Valve lose faith in the project? Was it the appearance of the Oculus Rift, a fully formed project in Virtual Reality poised to explode onto the gaming scene? Valve’s enthusiastic embrace of the technology from the beginning might lead you to believe so. Perhaps we’ll never know and in truth it probably doesn’t matter any more. What does matter is that CastAR is finally ready to hit Kickstarter and allow the people decide if Valve has missed an opportunity in discarding it.

Just before the Kickstarter began, Jeri went into quite some detail on the events surrounding their dismissal from Valve in a video posted to her YouTube Channel. It illustrates the drive, passion and belief Jeri has for her creation:

Projected Augmented Reality: How it Works

CastAR is a ‘Projected Augmented Reality’ system which fuses multiple technologies to offer a pretty unique gaming experience. The user dons a set of lightweight glasses, housing LCD shutter panels. Mounted over each lens is a tiny micro LCD projector – one for each eye. The projectors cast dual images at 120Hz on a special retro-reflective surface. The LCD lenses, also operating at 120Hz, filter the projected images delivering stereoscopic pictures to your eyes. The effect is that of a solid holographic display, with images appearing to ‘exist’ within the plane of the reflective surface.  That’s a pretty impressive package right there, but CastAR goes even further.

The system allows the user to move around the projected image, leaning in and out of the scene with the image shifting to sell the illusion of an object existing in front of you. It achieves this by use of a centrally mounted camera (on the bridge of the glasses) and the use of a proprietary infra-red LED plate, placed alongside the retro-reflective playing surface. The camera reads the position, translation and orientation of the LEDs and extrapolates the users position in space relative to the image as well as the pitch, roll and yaw of the user’s head.

Finally, as the retro-reflective surface (similar to that used in road signs) doesn’t scatter light as most surfaces, only the user of the glasses sees the projected image. This means, more than one person can share the surface and share the same image but viewed from their perspective, under their control. Pretty cool stuff.

The VR Surprise

Up until now the project was believed to be exclusively Augmented Reality focussed, but just before the Kickstarter campaign began, the team revealed a surprise – a clip-on reflector system which bounces light from the integrated projectors back to your eyes and ‘voila!’ CastAR is now a Virtual Reality headset.

Peripherals

CastAR is clearly well suited for applications such as table top gaming. With this in mind, the team have also produced a complimentary set of peripherals to enhance the experience. AnLED tipped wand allowing the user to reach into the gameworld and RFID enabled ‘mats’ which sense objects with the appropriate electronic tags and their position on the surface – perfect for D&D style role playing games.

The Kickstarter

The company behind the project, Technical Illusions, has set a $400k goal for the campaign and at the time of writing (with 30 days left) it’s already over 80% funded. Clearly this campaign will be a success, just how enormous that success will be remains to be seen. The standard tiers, offering a range of packages for different needs are well judged. But in response to the positive initial surge of support, the team have released details of stretch goals including developing integrated earbuds and mics for the glasses.

It’s a promising project and the passion shown by Jeri and Rick, who’ve worked constantly since their Valve upset to refine their idea into a product that can fulfil their vision. We wish them the best of luck and very much look forward to seeing CastAR in action for ourselves.

Back the CastAR Kickstarter Here

—

We’ll be speaking with Jeri and Rick towards the end of the Kickstarter campaign, stay tuned for the interview.

The post CastAR HMD Made by Former Valve Employees Offers AR and VR in One Compelling Package. Kickstarter Now Live! appeared first on Road to Virtual Reality.

Stephane Portes, Robin Bourianes and Lionel Anton

InfinitEye is a prototype head mounted display that uses dual 1280×800 displays to create a massive 210 degree field of view. I traveled to Toulouse, France to be the first journalist in the world to go hands-on with the unit. These are my thoughts on the trip, the team, and the HMD itself.

An Englishman in Toulouse

Take Me To the Videos

It’s been a little over 12 months since I began writing publicly about virtual reality and if you’d told me then that I’d be flying around Europe, getting to meet the leading lights in this fledgling industry and to witness the birth of so many incredible firsts along the way, I doubt I’d have believed you. Nevertheless, here I was winging my way to the historic city of Toulouse to met the talented trio behind what some believe is the first real competitor to the now mighty Oculus Rift.

If that all sounds a little too romantic, it is. In reality I was on a redeye, struggling to stay awake following a 6 hour drive and the world’s worst sleep ever. In a fit of unusual optimism (I’m British after all) I’d arranged to do the trip in one day, an itinerary I’ll not be trying to replicate any time in the near future.

Greeting me at the Airport was Project Manager Stephane Portes and Developer Lionel Anton, and upon seeing my zombie-esque condition, frankly they must have wondered what they’d agreed to. Nevertheless, a few minutes later we were chatting opposite the grandiose Capitole de Toulouse, sipping fresh orange juice. Joining us there was the third and (so far) final member of the team, Developer and ”3D Expert” Robin Bourianes. All three members have been friends for over a decade and this is not the first time they’ve collaborated on a project.

The InfinitEye was Lionel’s idea, a product of many hours of tinkering in his spare time. Stephane exclaims “I’ve been trying to push him [Lionel] for years”, highlighting his own personal belief that his friend was onto something rather special. By that of course he meant, refining the design, developing an SDK, seeking funding, and perhaps even investigate the possibilities of a commercial product based on the idea.

This brings us to juncture where most people first heard of the InfinitEye, at least those not frequenting specialist forums such as MTBS3D. The team entered a Samsung Entrepreneurial Funding Contest which promised €100,000 to the winner. Despite being publicly voted into the top five finalists, Samsung decided to not pick any of the finalists. As you can imagine, it knocked the wind out of their sails a little. But the campaign they ran in order to get the votes brought their project to the attention of many more people. The genie was out of the bottle.

“Natural and Panoramic Virtual Reality…”

…is the best phrase I can come up with that summarises the InfinitEye’s capabilities. If using the Oculus Rift is like opening the sunroof on a virtual world, the InfinitEye takes the roof clean off—at least if you base your opinion solely on horizontal FOV. But the new HMD also offers 1280×800 per eye in comparison the current Oculus Rift Dev Kit’s 640×800 (and only slightly fewer pixels per eye than the Oculus Rift HD prototype), the benefits of which should be obvious. What’s been more controversial is the use of Fresnel lenses to achieve the astronomical FOV. Rejected by some as problematic, the debate on whether they offer a viable alternative to Oculus Rift style aspheric lenses is complex, and we’ll be covering this in a forthcoming technical exploration including answers to your questions.

For now though, we present three videos filmed during my day with the InfinitEye team, each video is my realtime impressions whilst experiencing the application in question. The applications show a good range of the HMD’s abilities and I hope my slightly dazed ramblings give you some idea of what to expect should this device ever become a reality.

Continued: Video Impressions

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