Category: Varjo VR-2

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Lenovo to Sell Varjo’s Enterprise VR Headsets

Lenovo desktop workstation + Varjo headsets

Computing giant Lenovo may have been interested in consumer virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) in the past with devices like the Mirage Solo and Mirage AR but now its firmly focused on enterprise use cases. Today, the company has announced its become a reseller for Varjo‘s high-end, enterprise-class headsets.

Varjo’s latest range of headsets includes the mixed reality XR-1 and the new VR-2 & VR-2 Pro, with pricing starting from €4,995 EUR for the VR-2. They come with Varjo’s unique display design, the Bionic Display. It’s made up of two screens, a small 3000ppi display for fine, close up detail and a larger, lower-resolution ‘Context Screen’ to provide a wider field of view (FoV). While the VR-2 Pro features Ultraleap hand tracking.

Enterprise customers will now be able to purchase the headsets directly through Lenovo, either by contacting a local Lenovo representative or via the “Contact Us” link on Lenovo.com.

“Many existing VR offerings in the market today are enterprise versions of a consumer designed product,” said Mike Leach, solution portfolio lead, Lenovo in a statement. “However, Lenovo’s professional workstations and Varjo’s VR and XR headsets are specifically engineered to perform in the most sophisticated and demanding enterprise use cases. Our ability to offer customers a single point of purchase for certified workstations and VR/XR devices streamlines access to the tools needed for immersive workflows that are changing the way we work today.”

Varjo XR-1 Developer Edition

The announcement also adds more certified Lenovo workstations to the Varjo compatible catalogue for companies looking for a suitable pairing. These are:

Optimized to support the VR-2, VR-2 Pro and XR-1 devices:

  • ThinkStation P520
  • ThinkStation P720
  • ThinkStation P920

Optimized to support the VR-2 and VR-2 Pro devices:

  • ThinkPad P53
  • ThinkPad P73
  • ThinkPad P15
  • ThinkPad P17

“One of the biggest obstacles in accelerating the usage and growth of professional VR/XR is getting all the right equipment sourced for an enterprise-grade set-up and ensuring compatibility between computers and headsets,” said Timo Toikkanen, CEO of Varjo. “With Lenovo becoming a Varjo reseller, we eliminate a lot of this complexity, making it even easier for customers to adopt VR/XR in the workplace for increased productivity and ROI.”

When it comes to Lenovo’s own XR solutions the company has partnered with Pico on the 3DoF Mirage VR S3 headset and its ThinkReality A6 AR device is primarily used for training and education solutions. For further updates from Lenovo, keep reading VRFocus.

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Varjo’s XR-1 Headset Surpasses Expectations As Company Raises $54 Million

Professional-grade VR headset maker Varjo has raised a further $54 million in funding, and it attributes a good amount of its success to its new XR-1 headset.

Announced today, Varjo’s Series C round of funding was supported by the likes of Tesi, NordicNinja, and Swisscanto Invest. Plus, the company has a new CEO – former COO Timo Toikkanen is taking over from Niko Eiden, who will continue on as CXO and a board member.

This latest round of funding pushes the Finnish company past $100 million raised to date. In the press release, Varjo says it will use the funds to “accelerate its global expansion and development of industry-leading hardware and software products.”

It’s been an eventful year for Varjo, which has been keen to push out new hardware and features against growing demand for enterprise VR offerings. In December, for example, the company launched the XR-1, a $10,000 device that built on its ultra-high-resolution VR-2 headset with passthrough AR support. Speaking to UploadVR, Toikkanen noted that demand for the device had been stronger than anticipated.

“XR-1 has generated interest way beyond what we originally thought – the world’s first photorealistic mixed reality device has started a new era for our customers for example in advanced pilot training and automotive design, where virtual and real environments start to blend seamlessly together,” he said. “At the same time we have been fortunate to have customers like Boeing to take our VR technology to unseen heights with their Starliner astronaut training program, so there’s a lot of innovation and exciting customer developments happening in that space too.”

Varjo has also been announcing key partnerships, like a recent collaboration with MeetinVR for a specific version of its VR collaboration app that supports its headsets. Toikkanen says to expect more of these partnerships going forward.

But what about new hardware? When asked about the possibility of a VR-3 or XR-2, the CEO told us “our teams are working super hard to implement new features for both our virtual and mixed reality products that are driven by our customer needs. Some of these worth mentioning are the support for visual markers, the ability to manipulate the video pass-through feed in real time with different visual effects and real-time chroma keying support in mixed reality.”

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Varjo and MeetinVR’s new Partnership Aims to Create Photorealistic Enterprise Collaboration

Varjo x MeetinVR

At the moment each week seems to offer new ways for businesses to collaborate through virtual reality (VR) technology. The latest comes from MeetinVR which has just launched its open beta whilst partnering with Varjo, to release a highly realistic version of its software for Varjo’s headsets.

Varjo products

Having been in private beta for three years with select Fortune500 companies, the open beta launch will support companies looking for new ways to connect their workforce – a hot topic at the moment with the likes of Spatial and Oculus for Business arriving.

MeetinVR includes all the useful features you’d expect from a collaboration app, diverse spaces which suit individual company needs, a tablet to access beneficial tools, being able to place 3D objects mid-air and the ability to brainstorm on white boards.

Its collaboration with Varjo takes this a step further as MeetinVR will support the VR-2, VR-2 Pro and XR-1 Developer Edition for mixed reality (MR) meetings. While the implementation has yet to roll out, the companies have introduced a new bundle offer where new Varjo headset owners will receive six months of MeetinVR for free for five users.

“Remote working is now becoming our new normal and the need to be able to virtually collaborate with colleagues, customers and partners around the world is business critical,” said Urho Konttori, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Varjo in a statement. “As enterprises adapt to a new work environment, we’re excited to partner with leading industry players, such as MeetinVR, to help build the future of virtual and mixed reality collaboration.”

Varjo x MeetinVR

“Varjo’s photorealistic resolution gives users the ability to see reflections and shadows of their 3D models, as well as read text, all of which create a realistic experience for collaboration amongst meeting participants,” said Cristian Emanuel Anton, CEO of MeetinVR. “With this partnership, users don’t have to abide by the rules of physics anymore. They are able to merge real and virtual elements seamlessly in our collaborative platform. This sets a new benchmark for remote presence and interaction for professionals.”

MeetinVR is free to trial right now, supporting up to 20 users for 30 days. Once those parameters have been exceed then there are three main plans starting at 5-20 users for €35 per month/user, 21-50 users costs €30 per month/user, while 51+ users costs €25 per month/user. The collaboration software currently supports Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets with Varjo support coming soon.

As MeetinVR continues to improve its collaboration software, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Varjo XR-1 Blends VR And AR For Nearly $10,000

The Varjo XR-1 Developer Edition is now available for developers with some highly touted mixed reality capabilities.

varjo xr-1

The headset offers a similar system to the Varjo VR-2, with a small foveal display sitting in the middle of a larger peripheral display. However, the XR-1 also offers the ability to display simulated objects in the real world, and real objects in a simulated world, using what’s claimed as “photo-realistic” pass-through video. Its creators claim the device can switch between mixed reality and full VR scenes easily, and also features an “industrial-grade 20/20 Eye Tracker.”

Varjo’s Founder and Chief Product Officer Urho Konttori tweeted about the pass-through mixed reality feature, showing an example of a user operating a helicopter.

Another example, provided by Varjo and pictured below, shows a virtual reality car model displayed in the headset on a pass-through video image of a parking lot.

Varjo xr-1 pass-through video

Varjo says its pass-through images are powered by two 12-megapixel cameras operating at 90 Hz. The company claims the “XR-1’s ultra-low latency image pipeline” operates at less than 20ms. The headset has a FOV of 87 degrees, is compatible with SteamVR and ART tracking systems, and weighs 1050 g, or 1300 g when used with a counterweight.

You can read more about the Varjo XR-1 Developer Edition on their website. The headset is available to purchase for business use in North America, Europe and Japan for $9,995.

The post Varjo XR-1 Blends VR And AR For Nearly $10,000 appeared first on UploadVR.

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Varjo Launches $10,000 XR-1 Dev Edition, Combining VR & AR in a Single Headset

Following the launch of Varjo’s enterprise-focused VR-2 headset back in October, the Helsinki-based company has now made available its XR-1 Developer Edition headset, which at $10,000 includes the company’s high fidelity ‘bionic displays’, integrated eye-tracking, and now passthrough cameras which promise to make the headset an ideal platform for both AR & VR enterprise development.

Like Varjo’s enterprise-focused VR-2, the new XR-1 includes the company’s ‘bionic display’, blending a central 1,920 x 1,080 micro-OLED ‘focus display’ (60 PPD) with a larger ‘context’ display at 1,440 x 1,600, which has a lower PPD but provides the headset with an 87-degree field of view.

Varjo’s display architecture left quite the impression on us to say the least, as we called the company’s prior headsets a “breathtaking preview of VR’s future.”

Image courtesy Varjo Technologies

In addition to its integrated eye-tracking, which was previously made available in both VR-2 and VR-2 Pro variants, Varjo has now included in its XR-1 two fixed-focus 12 megapixel cameras, which have a 90 Hz refresh and a 94-degree circular viewing angle. This, the company says in a blog post, aims to let developers build “truly photorealistic mixed reality experiences where virtual objects seamlessly merge with reality for the first time in full field of view.”

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To highlight this, Varjo also released a video showing an unmodified capture shot through XR-1 Developer Edition, which shows a cockpit-based XR solution built by Bohemia Interactive Simulations which lets the pilot and co-pilot to interact with the physical cockpit while immersed in a virtual environment.

Below you’ll see the pilot looking out at the virtual world and down at the instrument cluster, revealing that the superimposed virtual simulation environment is actually blended to include his own physical hands and flight controls.

Like all of its enterprise-focused headsets, the company is also tacking on its mandatory one-year software and support package, which costs an extra $1,995, bringing the whole package to just under $12,000—no small bananas, but apparently a price range large names such as Audi, Volkswagen, Saab Group, haven’t minded shelling out in the past, as Varjo has seemed to tap into a variety of industrial usecases that require the highest fidelity 1:1 virtual environments for skill transfer.

If you’re looking to try out Varjo’s headsets, the company will be demonstrating the XR-1 Developer Edition, as well as VR-2 and VR-2 Pro headsets, at I/ITSEC 2019 through December 5th, 2019.

XR-1 Developer Edition Key Features:

  • Photorealistic video pass-through enables users to see digital objects in true-to-life color, lighting and shadows in a full field of view (87 degrees).
  • The ability to switch between mixed reality and ‘full’ VR so users can interact with the real and the virtual world in one device for applications such as testing designs in different environments or manipulating their surroundings with pixel-perfect clarity.
  • Industrial-grade 20/20 Eye Tracker delivers unmatched sub-degree accuracy of users’ eye movements in mixed reality scenarios for valuable insights into research, training and simulation and product design.
  • Ultra-low latency imaging pipeline lets users experience the most realistic digital worlds as extensions of the natural environment without perceivable lag.
  • Human-eye resolution Bionic Display™ (over 60 PPD/3,000 PPI) brings high visual fidelity to even the most demanding industrial scenarios where extreme precision and photorealistic accuracy is required.
  • Varjo’s products can also be experienced at I/ITSEC at various customer booths including Bohemia Interactive Simulations, Vertex Solutions, Ryan Aerospace, Presagis, Flight Safety International, and Aechelon.

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Varjo Expands Enterprise Headset Lineup With VR-2 & VR-2 Pro

There are several virtual reality (VR) headsets competing in the higher end enterprise sector such as the HTC Vive Pro Eye, VRgineers’ XTAL and Varjo’s VR-1. The latter is a £6000 GBP head-mounted display (HMD) which launched back in February and today the company has announced two new additions to its product lineup, the VR-2 and VR-2 Pro.

Varjo VR-2

The two new state-of-the-art devices improve on the previous model in a number of ways, adding Varjo’s next-generation Bionic Display which has better peripheral vision and colour consistency than before. Varjo’s 20/20 Eye Tracker technology has also been upgraded offering faster and more accurate calibration performance, giving applications access to precise eye data.

The Bionic Display still features two 1920×1080 low persistence micro-OLEDs and two 1440×1600 low persistence AMOLEDs allowing for the high definition the headset is known for. Both the VR-2 and the VR-2 Pro include support for SteamVR content as well as support for the OpenVR development platform. Additionally, the Varjo VR-2 Pro also comes with integrated Ultraleap (formerly Leap Motion) hand tracking technology.

“We have seen first-hand what the power of human-eye resolution in VR can offer in terms of expanding the realm of applications for the enterprise,” said Urho Konttori, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Varjo in a statement. “Today we bring the Resolution Revolution overnight to nearly all industrial applications, unlocking the next level of professional VR. With VR-2 and VR-2 Pro, professionals can benefit from the industry’s highest visual fidelity and the most precise eye-tracking joining forces with the leading hand tracking technology.”

Varjo
Image Credit: Varjo – Comparison – Left HTC Vive Pro, Middle Varjo with SteamVR support (Ultra-high res at 40 PPD), Right Native Varjo SDK (Human-eye res at 60 PPD).

“One of the main goals of SteamVR is to support a diverse ecosystem of hardware and software. Varjo is taking a unique approach to building high-end industrial VR products, and we are excited that users of Varjo will be able to take advantage of the wide array of SteamVR content for professionals,” said Joe Ludwig from Valve.

As you may expect, the Varjo VR-2 and VR-2 Pro require some decent processing power as these system requirements detail:

Component Recommended Minimum
Processor Intel Core i7-8700

AMD Ryzen 7 2700

 Intel Core i7-6700

AMD FXTM 9590
GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000

 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

NVIDIA Quadro P6000
RAM 32GB 16GB
Storage Space 2GB
Video output 2 x DisplayPort 1.2 / 2 x Mini DisplayPort 1.2
USB port 1 x USB-A 3.0
Operating system Windows 10 (64-bit)

Available today, pricing for the Varjo VR-2 starts from $4,995 USD while the VR-2 Pro starts from $5,995. When purchasing either device you’ll also need to add on Varjo’s software and support services starting at $795. Both headsets will be on demonstration at AWE EU 2019 later this week. Varjo now sells four enterprise-grade devices, the other being the XR-1. For further Varjo updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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Varjo’s VR-2 Pro Kills Screen Door Effect, Tracks Fingers, And Runs SteamVR Content

Varjo is releasing two successors to its VR-1 “bionic” VR headset.

Varjo headsets’ unique feature is that they have angular resolution claimed as equivalent to the human eyes in the center of the image. There are two displays for each eye in a Varjo headset. There’s a larger peripheral display and a smaller foveal display directed toward the middle through an optical combiner. All Varjo headset so far have a field of view of 87 degrees.

A major improvement in the VR-2 series over the previous model is the addition of a prism diffuser film to the peripheral display, made by 3M. Varjo tells us this eliminates the screen door effect. This should make the entire image look more natural, albeit with the center significantly more detailed than the peripheral.

Per pixel calibration for the peripheral display is now also used, meaning improved image consistency and reduced “mura” effect.

VR-2 and VR-2 Pro are almost identical, however the Pro includes Ultraleap (formerly Leap Motion) finger tracking built in, a twice as long (10 metre) cable, and a counterweight to improve ergonomics. Many of Varjo’s customers were adding Leap Motion already, so the option to have it integrated represents an added convenience for some.

Varjo vs Vive Pro

All Varjo headsets are also getting SteamVR support. This should allow customers to use software which doesn’t support the Varjo SDK. SteamVR, however, treats the headset as a regular uniform resolution headset, so SteamVR apps can’t take advantage of the headset’s unique foveal display system. This means that Varjo SDK apps will still display the best quality in the headset.

The Varjo runtime is also getting positional timewarp support. Positional timewarp should allow intensive apps like CAD with ray tracing to maintain 90Hz when the framerate would normally drop. For more details on this, see our article about VR reprojection technologies.

Varjo VR-2

In an ideal VR headset you’d see the highest resolution wherever you point your eyes. Varjo says, however, it hasn’t yet reached its ultimate goal of a headset with a dynamic foveal area. The company told us this is due to the difficulty in building a VR headset with constantly moving parts that won’t break down over time. They are researching the feature though.

Varjo VR-2 and VR-2 Pro are now available for purchase for 4995€ and 5995€ respectively. You’ll need to be a business to place an order, and, to be clear, these headsets aren’t designed for playing Beat Saber.

The post Varjo’s VR-2 Pro Kills Screen Door Effect, Tracks Fingers, And Runs SteamVR Content appeared first on UploadVR.

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Varjo Launches VR-2 Headset with SteamVR Support, Improved ‘Bionic Display’, and Hand-tracking Option

Announced and launched today, Varjo’s enterprise-focused VR-2 brings support for SteamVR content and improves on the headset’s ‘bionic display’, which delivers ‘retina’ resolution at the center of the field of view. A variation called the VR-2 also offers integrated hand-tracking via Ultraleap (formerly Leap Motion).

Varjo launched its first headset, the VR-1, only back in February, but the company is already releasing the next iteration. Aimed at high-end enterprise customers, the VR-2 offers an improved ‘bionic display’, which the company says offers a better blend between the central ‘focus display’ (which offers ‘retina’ resolution of 60 PPD) and the larger ‘context’ display (which is much lower PPD but expands the headset’s FOV to an immersive 87 degrees).

The above through-the-lens photos, captured by Varjo, are an accurate portrayal of the difference in visual fidelity between Vive Pro and Varjo VR-2, but only for the center of the field of view (which is the only portion shown here). Use the slider to compare.

We’ve been impressed with Varjo’s execution of the novel display architecture, calling the company’s prior headsets a “breathtaking preview of VR’s future.”

Varjo VR-2 Improvements

While the resolution of the VR-2 is identical the VR-1 (1,920 × 1,080 focus display, 1,440 × 1,600 context display), Varjo says the improvements in visual quality come from an improved optical combiner, enhanced calibration between the focus and context displays, and a diffuser which reduces the screen door effect on the context display. The company says the result is a smoother blend between the two different displays, making for a more natural appearance and a slightly larger area of the ‘retina’ portion of the view.

Image courtesy Varjo

The VR-2, which has built-in SteamVR tracking, will now also ship with support for SteamVR content. This will also apply to the original Varjo headsets.

Varjo clarified that only its native API currently supports independent resolution rendering of the high density focus display and the lower density context display, while SteamVR content only supports a single resolution. In order to not tax the GPU too hard, SteamVR content will render on the headset around 40 PPD, though users can optionally crank this up to 60 PPD if they have the GPU horsepower.

Varjo VR-2 Pro with Hand-tracking

Alongside the VR-2, Varjo will also offer a VR-2 Pro which will include integrated hand-tracking via Ultraleap (formerly Leap Motion), as well as a removable counterweight for the back of the headset to achieve better balance. The VR-2 Pro also ships with a 10 meter cable while the VR-2 ships with a 5 meter cable.

All Varjo headsets include eye-tracking, and the company says that new and old headsets alike will benefit from faster and more accurate eye-tracking calibration; the company claims its eye-tracking is the best in any VR headset. The video below shows both eye-tracking and hand-tracking in action on the VR-2 Pro:

Varjo VR-2 and VR-2 Pro Price and Release Date

Still aimed at high-end enterprise customers, the VR-2 is priced at the same $5,000 as the original. Meanwhile, the VR-2 Pro costs $6,000. That’s before adding base stations for tracking, controllers, and the mandatory $800 support license. Both headsets are available starting today.

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Earlier this year Varjo began offering the the XR-1 dev kit, which is a variant of the VR-1 but with high-quality cameras on-board for passthrough augmented reality applications. The company has not announced an XR-2 at this time, but we expect it will come in due course.

Update (September 15th, 4:06PM ET): A prior version of this article incorrectly quoted the VR-2 price at $4,000 and the VR-2 Pro at $5,000; this was $1,000 less expensive than the actual prices which have been corrected in the article above. Thanks to Tony “SkarredGhost” for bringing this to our attention.

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