A quick correction to a story I posted the other day about Valve working on wearable computer R&D. The tail end of that story included a snippet about reports of Apple CEO Tim Cook visiting the esteemed game developer. The record has been set straight by the head of Valve, Gabe Newell, who cleared things up on the Seven Day Cooldown podcast:
Innovega is a Washington-based company that’s working on contact lenses that use filters to allow the eye to simultaneously focus on objects at varying distances. The development could help make augmented reality a practicality by greatly reducing the bulk of HMD and augmented reality displays. Instead of using bulky optics to focus the light appropriately before it enters the eye, Innovega’s ‘iOptik‘ solution uses a contact lens with a polarized filter to send the augmented display overlay to a discrete part of the eye without obscuring the real scene behind the display. This technique allows the eye to simultaneously focus on the augmented information and the real world at the same time. Innovega explains how the iOptik solution works in this demonstration video:
Big news for the VR world fresh from of one of the biggest names in gaming. In a post to his Valve-hosted blog, employee Michael Abrash says that since joining Valve hes begun working on augmented reality / wearable computer research. Abrash says that he’s long been fascinated by the topic of virtual reality — ever since reading the novel Snow Crash in 1994.
Valve, who has developed critically acclaimed gaming franchises such as Half-Life and Portal (not to mention the hugely popular Steam digital game distribution service), is one of the biggest names in gaming. That they are publicly admitting to doing R&D for wearable computing / augmented reality is a very encouraging step forward down the road to virtual reality. Abrash, like myself, is confident that wearable computing is a natural an inevitable evolution of human-computer interaction:
Last week Google announced it’s Project Glass concept, a head mounted display and AR software aimed toward making augmented reality a practicality for mainstream use. With a big announcement such as that, it didn’t take long for the parody videos to start rolling in. Here’s two great videos poking fun at Google Glass:
Augmented reality just got a huge boost today thanks to Google who announced an experimental project that they’re calling ‘Glass’. Project Glass has apparently been in the works at Google[x] (Google’s experimental project group) for some time now. The project consists of a lightweight head mounted display which appears to be based on projection technology similar to that of Lumous’ Optical Engine Modules. But the hardware is only half the project, the other half is the software (Google hasn’t named it yet, but let’s call it Glass OS for now) which will power the HMD. I have to imagine that the Glass OS will be Android based, or even more likely, the HMD will link to an Android-powered phone and Glass OS will merely be an extension of the phone.
With Project Glass Google envisions an augmented reality setup that would allow you to check the weather, see your email, SMS, and other notifications, check your calendar, etc. all from a simple and intuitive interface that stays out of the way when you don’t need it. Google threw together a proof-of-concept video for Project Glass which you can see right here:
Virtual Reality is most likely an inevitable evolution in human-computer interaction—in the long term, anyway. But in the next 10 years, there’s a major risk of VR falling to the wayside as a novelty or an enthusiasts-only market. The closest analog I can think of is the flight-simulator market. There are enthusiasts out there who have amazing flight-simulator setups, but the list of supported games is relatively low, and the best hardware can be extremely expensive. Flight-simulators can be a whole lot of fun, but there’s never been full-fledged console support, and that has relegated flight-simulation to the PC gaming elite who have the money to buy not only top-end computers, but also top-end flight-simulation hardware.
We’re at a fork right now with VR where, depending which way things go, it could take off into the mainstream, or become an expensive enthusiast/niche market.
Augmented reality has such an awesome promise, but I’ve scarcely seen one useful augmented reality function come to fruition. Augmented reality wants to superimpose digital information over our otherwise analog world. So far, this has only reached consumers in the form of smartphone apps, and hardly any of them are anything more than novelties. I recognize that augmented reality is an important stepping stone on the road to virtual reality, but right now it’s boring the world with gimmicks.
There’s lot’s of useful information that we could overlay onto our daily lives, but the current crop of smartphone apps not only give us relatively useless information, but they’re delivering that information in the wrong place.
Silicon Micro Display’s has just recently specified the exact 2D and 3D video formats that will be supported by their soon-to-launch HMD, the ST1080:
From Silicon Micro Display:
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve added additional 3D video format support for the ST1080. The table below shows all the 2D and 3D formats supported by the ST1080. Although the ST1080 is not fully HDMI 1.4 and 1.4a, it does support all 1.4 and 1.4a mandatory 3D formats along with a few optional 1.4a 3D formats.
It’s good to have this list out there as buying compatible 3D hardware can sometimes be a pain when companies don’t specifically divulge which formats are supported.
The ST1080 has been available for pre-order since the beginning of the month and is expected to reach customers in May. For the first 21 days of March, Silicon Micro Display reduced the price by $100 to $699. That promotional period is now over at the ST1080 is back to it’s regular $799 price.
Additionally, Silicon Micro Display is now accepting pre-orders from a wide range of countries (the same $799 USD price applies to all locales, presumably to be converted to the local currency). Here is a full list of where they will ship to, though you might be looking at some hefty shipping charges:
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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.
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.
It’s a shame that neither Sony’s HMZ-T1 or Silicon Micro Display’s ST1080 have integrated head tracking technology. HMD’s are great and all, but building in the ability to tack the movements of the user’s head opens up far more options for immersive gameplay. Even though it’s not built right in, that’s not going to stop intrepid DIYers and early adopters.
Silicon Micro Display has been touting their ST1080 HMD for a few months now. Back in December they announced that the retail price would be $799 — pricey, but comparative to Sony’s HMZ-T1. Pre-orders were supposed to start in January, but on January 1st, the company sent a message via email saying that they would be postponing pre-orders:
…due to on-going supplier delays around the holidays, we were not able to get demo units into the hands of technology reviewers in December. This means that there are no third-party reviews to help you make your purchase decision. With the 2012 CES in about a week, we’ve decided to postpone taking orders until after the CES when there will be plenty of reviews. This gives you more information upon which to make your purchase decision and it will provide us with much-needed time to strengthen our inventory position.
We feel that postponing the start of pre-orders is preferrable to taking your pre-orders and delaying the shipment. When we are ready to take your orders, we want you to be confident that your product will arrive within a reasonable amount of time.
While not the best news for anyone who was interested in ordering, I think this is a smart move. Sony underestimated demand for the HMZ-T1, and even after taking pre-orders, they were unable to meet the demand. This made for plenty of uptset early adopters.
Lumus is an Israel based company that’s manufactures components for head mounted displays. Specifically, they’re offering what they call the ‘Optical Engine Module’, a display which uses ‘LOE’ (Light-guided Optical Element) technology to enable a lightweight head mounted display solution that’s fully transparent. The transparency means that Lumus is thinking about augmented reality applications for their product, rather than strictly gaming or cinema use.
Hi folks. First thing — I’d like to apologize for the lack of content coming through Road to VR in the last month. The holidays were hectic as usual, but I’m back and you can expect news and analysis from the world of VR right here. Second — I appreciate your continued readership and would love to hear from folks. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment with your thoughts or questions!
I hope your holidays were enjoyable. You’ll be hearing from me very soon!
Sony seems to have majorly underestimated demand for their recently released HMZ-T1 head mounted display. Stock shortages were apparently worldwide at launch, and Sony’s US HMZ-T1 product page no longer lists 1/17/12 as the estimated ship date for new orders, instead saying “Temporarily out of stock. We will email you when your product ships”. Many of the international sites simply say that the unit is not available currently.
Interestingly, Sony has completely revamped the US HMZ-T1 product page (the old one is still hosted here, for comparison). Previously it was your typical SonyStyle product page with some basic information about specs and features. The new site is more of a micro-site experience with a lot of new graphics and several sections explaining specific features of the HMZ-T1. Quotes from both Engadget and Gizmodo reviews of the HMZ-T1 (and links to them) are also featured on the new page.
