Haptics was a big thing at CES 2020 earlier this month with bHaptics demoing its Tactsuit system for virtual reality (VR) gamers while Teslasuit announced its new glove prototype – although there wasn’t one to actually demo. One company which has been working in the haptic glove field for some time is HaptX which was at the expo to showcase its new HaptX Development Kit (DK1) as well as discuss its latest collaborations.
Unlike other haptic gloves which use a range of mechanical and electromagnetic actuators to simulate the feeling of touch, the HaptX system is the only one to use utilise air via pneumatic actuators and microfluidic air channels. Hence why the gloves look so big and require extensive tubing to a near-silent mini-compressor which supplies the air.
Each glove has 130 microfluidic actuators across the palm, fingers and back of the hand, providing full haptic coverage. Alongside the haptics, HaptX also includes a force-feedback exoskeleton powered by the same microfluidic tech, so users can feel both the texture and physical shape of a digital object.
Naturally, this type of kit is being aimed toward various training use cases with the company demonstrating its recent collaboration with shadow Robot Company and SynTouch. On display was a haptic telerobotic system where the user could operate two robotic arms whilst getting sensory feedback to the extent that she could pick up individual cards. The idea is that no matter where someone is in the world, using HaptX they can operate these arms instinctively.
When it came to VR, HaptX had a new demo using an HTC Vive Pro where you could feel raindrops on your hand and other sensations. Take a look at our hands-on from CES 2020 to see what VRFocus thought of the gloves.
Whilst there VRFocus caught up with founder and CEO Jake Rubin to find out what the company has planned for the near future. As development of the DK1 system continues, VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest announcements.
There’s nothing like a bit of haptic feedback to truly make you feel like part of a virtual reality (VR) experience, whether that’s a simple controller shake as you impale an enemy or feel the thump against your chest when you take a hit in experiences like The VOID. Outside of gaming companies are developing new tactile solutions giving users even greater sensory feedback, one of which is HaptX and its microfluidic gloves. On display at CES 2020 recently, the gloves showcased some of the best hand haptics VRFocus has tested yet at the same time one of the fiddliest imaginable.
The whole idea behind advancing data gloves beyond the confines of simply tracking the hand to a point where they can actually replicate one of the most sensitive and complex areas of the body is digital control. Grabbing an object in digital space has been available for years but actually replicating its shape and texture is another level entirely.
There are several systems either on the market or coming to which aim to solve these solutions, such as Dexmo Enterprise Edition force feedback glove or the recently revealed Teslasuit Glove. Designed for enterprise use, both are focused around force feedback and feeling the presence of an object, with the latter also claiming haptics for texture identification. All entirely contained within a portable, wireless system.
HaptX, on the other hand, wants to turn that sensory stimulation up to 11, with a unique system which works entirely on compressed air. As such compactness and portability are seemingly secondary factors to providing an experience like no other.
Getting a glimpse of the HaptX Development Kit (DK1) gloves for the first time has that certain wow factor if you’re into prototype tech with a sci-fi flair. The gloves are big (massive in fact), an assortment of metal plates, cables, tubing and fabric that looks unwieldy and highly convoluted to put on (which they are). Not only are they heavy but they both have big pipes going to a mini-compressor to supply the arrays of high-displacement pneumatic actuators with air. The compressor is very quiet as not to disturb whatever work a user might be doing but all of this does mean HaptX really suits slow, methodical actions – can’t imagine a Beat Saber test being conducted!
So does all this equipment and effort actually make for a usable haptic system? Quite frankly yes, yes it does. HaptX partnered the gloves with an HTC Vive Pro and a very basic VR demo involving a farmyard scene. Each glove contains 130 microfluidic actuators and the demoed started off with rain clouds, highlighting how efficient all of these were. The light dappling on the palm was subtle and effective, as close to the real thing as you could imagine.
Other examples of the palm haptics included running both hands over a field of wheat, feeling the individual stems or picking up a small animal which would then wander about, each step reproduced.
The gloves aren’t just about haptics either. Combined with the haptic tech is the force feedback to get a sense of those objects placed within the world. The resistance was sufficient enough to give form to the crates and clouds, offering enough tactile information for natural hand gestures. It was almost a shame that the demo was so basic as it would have been good to try a slightly more complicated process to test the magnetic motion tracking.
Once actually setup in VR the plus points of the HaptX system were plain to see, providing an unrivalled solution for those that want/need maximum hand control and haptic feedback. Yet it’s difficult to see how HaptX plans on making the gloves more user-friendly when its microfluidic system requires a compressor, no matter how ‘mini’ it can be made. The end result is certainly impressive – especially the robot arm demo pictured above – even in this early DK1 stage, just don’t expect to buy one ever!
Gamers are used to haptic feedback in their controllers, rumbling away to indicate actions. When it comes to virtual reality (VR), haptic feedback can make an experience even more engaging, especially when this involves the entire body. bHaptics is one such company offering a solution for those that really strive for immersive gaming, with its Tactsuit system. During CES 2020 bHaptics announced it was even easier to delve into this new world, as its haptic vest became available on Amazon.
bHaptics Tacksuit is an entire system designed for haptic immersion, with the main component being the Tactot vest. Featuring 40 individually controllable haptic points, wireless connection via Bluetooth Low Energy technology (BLE) and an adjustable waistband which can accommodate 26″ to 50″ waists, the vest retails for $499 USD. Previously only available through bHaptics website and marketed towards enterprise users such as location-based venues (LBE), the company is now eyeing up more consumer sales thanks to its Amazon availability.
As mentioned there’s more to the system than just the vest – the only component available on Amazon – allowing gamers to go for the full-body experience if they so chose (have the money). There’s the Tactal, a haptic face cushion which supports a range of headsets including Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Pimax for $149.00. Or how about the Tactosy which comes in arm, hand and feet versions for $249.00, completing the full-body coverage.
One of the latest updates bHaptics announced during the event was its audio-to-haptic features for 7.1 sound channel. bHaptics’ software automatically converts sound output of content into haptic feedback in real-time and supports both 7.1 channel and stereo sound system. Users are able to customize a wide range of frequencies, selecting certain frequencies if they so choose.
When it comes to VR support the latest titles compatible with Tactsuit are Sairento Untethered and Thrill of the Fight, both of which are now available on Oculus Quest.
Check out the interview with bHaptics’ Jeniffer L for some further information. As the company releases further updates, VRFocus will let you know.
There were certain demos at CES 2020 which VRFocus was particularly looking forward to, one of which was Teslasuit’s new haptic glove. Alas, as it turned out the company only brought a singular prototype which was locked away behind some protective glass but it did look very nice. Instead, VRFocus caught up with co-founder and CRO Dimitri Mikhalchuk to learn a little more.
From the looks of it, the new Teslasuit Glove will help to round out the company’s enterprise-focused VR lineup. Set to be sold as a pair for $5,000 USD, the gloves can operate in conjunction with the suit over WiFi or on their own, depending on a client’s needs.
The main draw of the gloves will be haptic and force feedback technologies Teslasuit has created, which Mikhalchuk reveals the company has been working on longer than the suit itself. The fingers and thumb all feature haptic actuators to provide users with both touch and texture effects, so they can tell the difference between brickwork or a metal car body for example. What makes the glove so striking is the force feedback mechanism. Providing a range of effects, it’s the ability to apply resistance that has a multitude of applications. With it, users can pick up a digital tennis ball and squeeze it, or actually crack an egg and feel when it gives way.
That’s the theory anyway. When VRFocus has tested other gloves of this ilk that’s generally what they tend to do. Verdicts on how well the Teslasuit Glove performs will have to wait until production models become available. Which shouldn’t be too long as Mikhalchuk said the first developer kits will be going out around April.
Because of the previously mentioned price tag, the glove won’t be a consumer-focused model appearing on Amazon’s Balck Friday deals. There is a possibility of location-based entertainment (LBE) locations being able to use the kit when the final model is ready but don’t expect one to appear in your local arcade anytime soon.
Check out the full video interview below and for further updates on the Teslasuit Glove keep reading VRFocus.
So was CES 2020 amazing for the virtual reality (VR) industry? There was some interesting tech shown but there wasn’t a lot of truly standout advancements. One that did gain a lot of attention was Panasonic’s VR Eyeglasses, a rather stylish looking device which could actually make VR look cool. VRFocus managed to not only demo a prototype model but also spoke with Panasonic’s Makoto Morise to learn more about the project.
It was four years ago that VRFocus first reported on Panasonic developing a head-mounted display (HMD) with a kit which connected to a PC whilst employing glasses like ergonomics for wearability. That initial glasses like aesthetic has proven to be a core design choice with the latest CES 2020 design looking like some high-tech sunglasses.
It’s the look of the headset which has attracted such interest from media and consumer alike, moving away from the often bulky VR devices currently seen on the market. Yet there compromises with the design such as 3DoF, instead of 6DoF, limiting user interaction for gaming purposes. On the other hand, the headset features a 2k micro OLED display for each eye, offering 4K content consumption of standard and 360-degree videos.
There are other interesting design choices such as the IPD adjustment, the eye cowling to avoid light leakage and the use of Technics audio for high fidelity sound. Check out VRFocus’ hands-on article to see what we thought of the early prototype.
Morise, Industry Alliance and Partnership executive at Panasonic R&D Company of America was on hand to chat about the prototype and detail a little more information about this new product and its debut showcase at CES 2020.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Panasonic’s VR Eyeglasses as development progresses and keep an eye out for further CES 2020 interviews coming in the following days.
Lose yourself in the streets of St. Noire, a town with a killer on the loose. You need Alexa to help you solve the crime by questioning suspects and finding the murder weapon.
One of the biggest announcements relating to the virtual reality (VR) industry during CES 2020 came from an unexpected source, Panasonic. The company revealed a device currently called ‘UHD VR Eyeglasses’ – a snappy title if ever there was one – which promises not only a rich visual experience for the wearer but also a fashionable take on strapping technology to your face.
It’s certainly the design which has caught most people’s attention, offering what many hope VR headsets will become in the future, trendy and compact devices which don’t look like monolithic stones. Whilst augmented reality (AR) headsets have gone down the glasses design path due to the nature of that particular technology, the same can’t be said for VR headsets which do need a design overhaul yet are limited due to lenses, displays and other factors.
Panasonic had two units on display at CES 2020, the working prototype and one designed to portray the final unit weight. The reason for this is that the working model was hooked up to a PC with a myriad of cables, adding extra weight and pull. This meant holding the VR Eyeglasses to your face instead of neatly resting on the face. It’s a prototype after all.
On first inspection, the headsets’ fit and form factor bode well with the rubber eye surround neatly fitting around each eye. Not only did it feel comfortable but there was no light leakage whatsoever, ensuring the display didn’t have to compete with unwanted rays which could affect the image quality. A novel little feature was the manual IPD adjustment controlled via a bar across the bridge. This could be twisted to widen or narrow the glasses accordingly. It wasn’t too fiddly to use (even with the cables and weight) although, those with large hands and stocky fingers may find the process a little more awkward.
It’s also worth noting the VR Eyeglasses won’t support wearing actual glasses due to the design. The prototype did have a range of removable lenses which sat just behind the rubber cowling to cater for those that did. This will most likely be the path Panasonic chooses when catering for glasses although the company did note a final decision had yet to be made.
The VR Eyeglasses are a combination of Panasonic and Kopin technologies, with the latter providing the display panels. A 2k micro OLED panel is used per eye offering Ultra HD quality (UHD) and it certainly shows, with very crisp, vibrant video footage. Due to the size of the panel, the field of view (FoV) is far narrower than other VR headsets, offering an almost square image. The final model will use a wider panel to help improve the FoV.
Complimenting the screen will be Panasonic’s audio expertise, provided by its Technics team. The final version will have the audio provided by in-ear headphones but for the prototype small external speakers were used instead, so we’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.
So how will the VR Eyeglasses work without the PC? Well, in one of the arms will be a USB-C connector which can either go to a smartphone or an external battery/processor unit – sounding similar to Magic Leap 1. No details have been mentioned at this time apart from a brief mention of 5G connectivity which was a hot topic at CES 2020 and likely so next year as well.
When it eventually comes to buying and using the glasses that’s where the real disappointment starts to set in. Offering 3DoF, Panasonic isn’t aiming the device at the consumer market as some sort of Oculus Go competitor by the looks of it. Applications will be focused towards enterprise use cases such as entertainment consumption whilst travelling.
Testing the VR Eyeglasses a couple of days after the hype certainly felt a little underwhelming, as they’re really just a fancy video viewer. With no mention of a controller or what sort of content platform would support the device, the brief demo created more questions than answers – which will probably come at CES 2021.
The Oculus Quest made a huge impact in the VR community in less than a year. It gave VR aficionados a standalone solution with great controllers, and helped bring in newcomers with an affordable, accessible headset.
Talking to people at this year’s CES, some even believe the Oculus Quest is the first true sign of Facebook steering away from PC VR headsets for future products. No matter which way you look at it, the Quest changed the VR market forever.
But just like a pair of shoes (or pants, and even glasses), not all headsets fit the same. Personally, I find the Oculus Rift S the most comfortable headset on the market: its halo design gives me optimal comfort, and I can use it fine with or without my glasses. Our Managing Editor, Ian Hamilton, however, swears up and down the Valve Index provides the most comfort, and says he can spend the most time in it. Others on staff also prefer the Rift S, or find the PSVR more comfortable. And our Operations Manager, Kyle Riesenbeck, finds the Samsung Odyssey+ the most comfortable – a headset that I wish I found comfortable, but can’t stand wearing.
The Samsung Odyssey+ and Oculus Quest both give me fitting issues, but from different sides of my head. With the Odyssey+, which was used quite frequently at SXSW 2019, I have to push down the front of the HMD to get clarity, and close the incredibly large gap beneath my eyes which let dreadful amounts of light in. On the Quest, however, the issue starts at the back of the headset: I’ve never been able to get it to rest on the back of my head correctly, resulting in an immense amount of pressure on my face, and the bridge of my nose. I can spend hours adjusting the straps, but nothing ever works. Every experience on the Oculus Quest has been blurry, painful, and disappointing.
Co-workers tried making their own counterweight with battery packs, but nothing seemed to work. As a result, Quest has been collecting dust since I got it last year, and it has made me quite sad. I’d bring it with me on my travels, only to be reminded that it’s too painful for me to use. When I heard about Rebuff Reality’s VR Power, and that it was on the CES showfloor, I had to check it out.
In the animation above on the left the Oculus Quest is equipped with Rebuff Reality’s VR Ears accessory and on the right it is equipped with the company’s VR Power accessory.
I was of course skeptical. The pessimist in me refused to believe a simple battery pack would serve as a counterweight that would make using my Oculus Quest once again desirable. I feared for a variety of things: it would be too heavy, it would somehow fit worse, and that it would make the headset feel incredibly unstable. When I approached the booth, I expressed my concerns to them and they confidently picked up a unit equipped with VR Power and offered it to me to try on.
Trying on an Oculus Quest with VR Power was like a Cinderella moment for me, slipping onto my head perfectly for the first time ever. The Quest no longer pressed down on my cheeks, causing discomfort. My nose wasn’t being pinched. And for the first time, the Oculus Quest’s displays were as clear as could be. The VR Power worked, and it worked without any complicated set up.
A breakdown of the VR Power’s features. Click on the image to enlarge. Photo courtesy of Rebuff Reality.
The VR Power comes with straps that make it easy to put on and remove from the Oculus Quest. It features a sleek power button featuring the company’s logo with a blue ring around it, which signifies the remaining battery life (when it’s fully charged, the whole circle will illuminate, and when half charged, only half will, and so on). The top strap also features cable clips, making sure everything stays out of the way, and secured in place.
To further test the stability the VR Power provides, Rebuff Reality CEO Joe Sciacchetano had me try a level in Pistol Whip. Granted this was my first attempt at Pistol Whip (yes, I had it on easy), but after making the first dodge maneuver, I had complete confidence in VR Power and its stability. I was able to turn my head left and right quickly, while dodging bullets from all angles without grabbing the headset even once. Not only did VR Power help with comfort, it helped me feel more immersed in the experience.
VR Power wasn’t the only accessory I demoed at Rebuff Reality’s booth. Rebuff Reality is also releasing a new accessory called VR Ears, which offer a premium audio solution to all VR headsets. Similar to the Valve Index’s off-ear speakers, VR Ears deliver a high quality, crisp sound to help elevate your experience. While playing Pistol Whip on the Oculus Quest equipped with both accessories,, Sciacchetano would sporadically unplug and plug back in the VR Ears.
How VR Power looks on the Oculus Quest. Photo courtesy of Rebuff Reality.
The difference between the sound with and without the off-ear speakers was night and day — like the difference of something through cheap speakers, and being there live. If you’re sick of wearing earbuds or headphones with your Oculus Quest, VR Ears provide the perfect solution. Currently there is no price or firm release date for VR Ears, but they are expected to ship some time this fall.
VR Power is currently available on Rebuff Reality’s website for $59.99 USD, with an expected delivery date of January 30th, 2020. The battery pack and counterweight combo promises up to eight hours of gameplay, or up to 10 hours of streaming videos on Quest. You can buy one by clicking here.
CES is a strange conference. Across endless aisle after endless aisle a mixture of companies looking for suppliers, distributors, press or investment present wares in hope of making the year ahead one of major success for their business. The conference always presents a roadmap for the future of technology and it has been that way since the ’60s. Seeing the actual pathway ahead, though, is difficult to find through the manufactured hype and “best of” awards.
So I understand the comments we see from folks who want to know what was “good” at the conference who might be confused by vastly differing reports and reactions. Is the reporter able to describe what actually happened in their demo, or is their vocabulary lacking in describing if something went wrong? Do they gloss over issues? Are they sold the promise of the technology if bugs are worked out in a couple more years?
With this in mind, and the joy I know is already delivered so rapidly by Valve Index at home and Oculus Quest in a carrying case in my hotel room, I found myself largely unimpressed by almost all the AR on display at CES and much of the VR too.
“There is no doubt Oculus Quest has shown what the right mainstream consumer device is and while there was nothing immediately that will give the Quest a run for it’s money, I did try the new Qualcomm reference design and some other tech that suggests next year there should be many more all-in-ones that should get consumers and enterprise excited for the near future of VR,” AR and VR investor Tipatat Chennavasin explained in a direct message.
There were still hints of the future at CES 2020, but I need to address the difficulty and cost involved in polishing these technologies to the point of actual usefulness for businesses or mass appeal to consumers. That’s what this post is about.
So read on to understand what’s truly going on in VR and AR.
VR: Advances In Field Of View, Controller Tracking, And Headset Size
VR headsets at CES 2020 demonstrated advances on several fronts. None of these were entirely new, or entirely perfect, but all point to possibilities for the future.
Smaller Headset Designs
Several companies at CES demonstrated pancake lenses which dramatically reduce the physical size of VR headsets. These also generally featured a reduced field of view compared with current designs.
The one I found most interesting was Panasonic’s “VR Eyeglasses” which combined an incredibly light design with an innovative lens separation adjustment. Read my story about the Panasonic glasses.
While Pico showed a similar conceptual design alongside their Neo 2 and Neo 2 Eye I didn’t see any physical adjustment for lens separation on their glasses design. So the Pico glasses design made me extremely uncomfortable in a matter of seconds. The distance between my pupils is wider than many and I usually need that adjustment (which is found on both Index and Quest) to have a comfortable experience in a VR headset.
Huawei’s slim VR Glass design was also demonstrated by Nolo combined with their front-facing 6DoF tracking system as an add-on. BoxVR worked reasonably well in this configuration, but the $500 VR Glass plus Nolo kit only tracked my hands while facing forward. Under no circumstances would I be interested in a VR headset in 2020 or beyond that doesn’t let me turn around.
Combining pancake lenses with microdisplays is nothing new of course — eMagin showed this off in 2015 before even the release of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Since then, microdisplay suppliers have claimed that headsets using this kind of display system are just around the corner. But now we’re finally starting to see major consumer electronics companies explore this idea, which may mean it is now closer than ever to being in an actual product.
Expanded Field of View
Some VR headsets at CES 2020, like the nearly $8000 Xtal and all the Pimax systems, featured an expanded field of view compared with headsets like Oculus Quest and Valve Index.
Xtal demonstrated an impressive $50,000 motion simulator with their headset integrated into a flight helmet with its wide field of view and 4K per eye resolution offering incredible sights flying in an F-18 over Dubai. While enjoyable, I noted some distortions at the edges of the lenses.
The Pimax Demo
Pimax frequently makes promises then delays delivering on them again and again. We’ve also heard numerous reports of problems with their hardware ranging from minor to major.
While my colleagues found Pimax demos at previous events, my first Pimax Demo was at CES 2020 and the first time I put a Pimax 8KX on my head I tried Boneworks.
The first thing I noted is that content popped in at the edges of the display a second or two after the rest of the scene. When I mentioned it, the demo (said to be running from an RTX 2080 TI) was switched to parallel processing and that solved the problem, but within about five minutes the right eye started blinking to black every few seconds.
I asked for another 8KX to try with Boneworks and this one didn’t have the problems I saw before. Its wide field of view invited me to look around a little more and the high resolution of the panels were certainly nice, but I found myself also constantly distracted by the significant distortions and bending of the scene at the edges of the lenses — more significant than the distortions I saw with Xtal. My right hand also lost tracking with 8KX, but that’s not entirely unusual for SteamVR Tracking in convention settings.
We’ve heard some people with Pimax headsets artificially reduce the field of view of the system through software adjustment to avoid these distortions while still enjoying a relatively expanded field of view. My colleague Tatjana returned to the Pimax booth later in the CES week to try both the 8KX and Artisan. Aristan is Pimax’ newest headset which ends up priced comparable to Valve Index when you include controllers and base stations. She played Boneworks and Fruit Ninja and found herself sick to her stomach afterward. I, too, left the Pimax booth a bit woozy.
There are Pimax defenders out there and those who will find the expanded field of view a good fit for their strong stomachs and top of the line graphics cards. Indeed, I got sick repeatedly over my 12-hour play through of the Boneworks campaign with Valve Index, but didn’t get uncomfortable as quickly as I did with that Pimax demo at CES.
Surely a wider field of view is something we want in future VR headsets but I remain unconvinced we’ll see it at an affordable price other than from a major platform like Facebook, Valve, Sony, Google, or Apple with large teams developing both optics and eye tracking technologies which could make these devices more comfortable.
Overall, the repeated delays for Pimax products and less than stellar impressions at CES 2020 means that we will keep using words like “claim” to describe plans for products pitched by this company.
Alternative Tracking Systems With Pico
The Pico Neo 2 and Neo 2 Eye, priced at $700 and $900 respectively, featured occlusion-resistant electromagnetic tracking. In the Neo 2, for example, I played Angry Birds and was able to pull back the slingshot while keeping my head turned away from the controllers. This is something I can’t do in an Oculus Quest. The Neo 2 also balances weight to the back better than Quest’s front-heavy design.
The Neo 2 Eye demonstrated Tobii’s eye tracking for the first time I’ve seen in a standalone design. Also for the first time I’ve seen, the headset tracked my eye movements without calibration. Typically, Tobii asks each wearer to point their eyes at a few dots at different corners of the scene to calibrate, and I was told that option is still available. The eye tracking without calibration seemed to work alright — I was able to target enemies in a scene by just pointing my eyes at them — but when I pointed my eyes downward it seemed to lose tracking.
I’d need more time with the $700 Neo 2 to say more, but I found it to be the only Pico device I’ve ever tried I might actually be interested in using. However, Neo 2 is only sold to businesses.
AR: Tracking Lacking, Power Problems And Severe Field Of View Limits For Years To Come
During the course of CES my colleague David Heaney described simply something that’s hard to grasp about the market for AR head-worn gadgets: Recognizing occlusion in your environment is to AR what 6DoF tracking is to VR.
This is to say that if an AR headset with see-through optics inserting digital content into your real-world environment cannot reliably understand when a person or object blocks simulated content from your view, the illusion meant to be provided by the hardware is broken. The same is true of VR headsets that do not track the position of your head. For example, if you wear an Oculus Go VR headset and decide to lean forward or stand up, the illusion of VR that you were enjoying is instantly broken.
Discomfort or confusion often follows in either case of severely limited VR or AR, and this represents a death sentence for the hardware. Failing to provide 6DoF tracking, or recognize occlusion, is so uncomfortable, I believe some headset wearers are discouraged from wearing the hardware ever again. Of course, some can learn to work around this limit.
There are fans of Oculus Go who understand its limitation and use the device as a low-cost personal media viewer. Nreal AR glasses, for example, provide a relatively large field of view for a similar genre of content. Still, without a complete and constantly improving understanding of the environment around the wearer, AR glasses like the $500 Nreal (and there were a lot of copycats at CES) are likely to consistently fail this test. Without passing this test walking out in the real world, the appeal of these kinds of AR hardware platforms is minimal to developers, to businesses, and to consumers.
“I would agree that for AR glasses to be truly useful and game changing, they would need not only solid 6DOF tracking (which none of the slim AR glasses I tried had), object occlusion, and object permanence but also really intuitive and reliable 6DOF input which was not also shown,” Chennavasin wrote. “I appreciate the effort being done by all the companies but it still looks like consumer AR is still years away.”
This roadblock for AR relates to two others — power consumption and field of view. Most AR glasses fail to deliver anything close to the amount of digital content to your eyes seen through most VR headset designs. This means that even in HoloLens 2 and Magic Leap 1 — two dedicated AR headsets — you need to move far away from the digital content to get a full view of it and truly enjoy the sense of immersion it brings. Again, some can get used to this limitation but the bulky size and high price of these AR systems ($2,300 for ML1 and $3,500 for HoloLens 2) also prevents them from appealing to consumers.
Lastly, building the most detailed map of your environment typically means on-board cameras need to keep scanning the room to keep the map updated. Using those cameras drains power. One of the key reasons the first generation of phone-powered VR headsets were retired so quickly is because those headsets drained power from a device you needed to last the day for other tasks. So do phone-powered AR systems like Nreal have a shot if they drain phone battery power just like the already-defunct Gear VR, and are used for the same types of content as the $200 Oculus Go starting at more then double the price?
“I agree that power is a (possibly the) key constraint for HMDs. It’s one reason why active depth cameras are not the best solution for occlusion, and we are seeing 6D’s approach of using low power RGB sensors, combined with efficient Neural Net co-processors providing solutions to occlusion,” explained Matt Miesnieks, the CEO of spatial recognition company 6D.ai, in a direct message. “The first low cost AR headsets do need refinement, but we have some visibility into roadmaps, and as that refinement is primarily driven by software, we will see improvements very rapidly.”
With Nreal in particular I saw software that needed significant refinement, both in tracking and stability, to become more usable.
Short Term Potential Advances In AR And VR
CES 2020 confirmed to me what we’ve already seen elsewhere.
Tilt Five’s forthcoming consumer AR system uses a novel retro reflective method delivered as a game board that tunes for both a relatively wide field of view and the specific case of tabletop games. These aren’t glasses you’ll take out into the real world and since you are localized to the game board, occlusion isn’t as much of a concern. Tilt Five cost $879 during its recent Kickstarter for a three-pack of glasses and there are extensions to the board to expand it vertically to provide more height to the augmentation effect. Altogether, Tilt Five represents one of the most promising short-term AR projects we’ve seen. I contacted Tilt Five CEO Jeri Ellsworth and she suggested there may even be a way to charge companion phones, with a a pass through hub, while also powering the glasses.
“We have a huge advantage by containing our system.,” Ellsworth wrote in a message. “We also limit the compute on the device…by doing re-projection and in headset tracking which saves power.”
Shipping a hardware crowdfunding product isn’t easy, so there’s a lot to prove for Tilt Five, but after CES 2020 I’m still left thinking Ellsworth’s company remains the most interesting AR project approaching the consumer market in the near-term.
When it comes to VR, we know the future of the medium features wireless, higher field of view, more tracking of body features in a wider range of conditions and smaller, more well-balanced headsets. But taking all the best pieces of CES 2020 VR systems — Pico’s better balance, Xtal’s wide field of view, Panasonic’s slim design — and then polishing these features, adding on more and supplying them with content is an entirely different level of challenge than preparing an interesting demo.
I’m talking about spending billions of dollars and there are only a few companies positioned to make that sort of investment in the next couple years.
Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today, we’re curious what you think of HTC’s future in the VR industry.
Last week HTC canceled all of their CES appointments and pulled out of the show entirely. In an email a spokesperson said the “new vision for Vive” would be shared soon with Mobile World Congress (MWC) fast-approaching. Now that CES is in the books, it leads us to wonder what’s next for the Taiwan-based tech company.
Back in 2016, with help from Valve, HTC pioneered roomscale VR when the original HTC Vive launched. But after 2019, a year that saw a lackluster Vive Cosmos consumer launch and expanded efforts in the enterprise sector across their Vive Pro Eye and Vive Focus headsets, tides are clearly shifting.
What will happen next for HTC in the VR market? Will they continue to straddle the line between consumer-focused and enterprise-focused, or will they further back out of the consumer market, ceding it to Sony, Facebook, and Valve primarily, and focus mostly on enterprise consumers? Or perhaps they’ll announce a brand new consumer-focused effort for 2020 and surprise everyone instead.
What do you think? Let us know down in the comments below. And if you missed the news from CES you can get caught up in our roundup of the top headlines and watch us discuss the biggest topics on our weekly VR talk show, The VR Download, which airs every Thursday at 10:30AM PT on YouTube.
The gloves aren’t just about haptics either. Combined with the haptic tech is the force feedback to get a sense of those objects placed within the world. The resistance was sufficient enough to give form to the crates and clouds, offering enough tactile information for natural hand gestures. It was almost a shame that the demo was so basic as it would have been good to try a slightly more complicated process to test the magnetic motion tracking.
It’s certainly the design which has caught most people’s attention, offering what many hope VR headsets will become in the future, trendy and compact devices which don’t look like monolithic stones. Whilst augmented reality (AR) headsets have gone down the glasses design path due to the nature of that particular technology, the same can’t be said for VR headsets which do need a design overhaul yet are limited due to lenses, displays and other factors.
