Guide: Build Your Own Oculus Rift VR Headset

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Mar 12, 2013

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google glass interface sxsw — Photo courtesy SlashGear

The Google Glass interface has been detailed on video at the annual SXSW event for the first time. The company also showed off early native and third-party Google Glass apps including Gmail, Evernote, New York Times, and more.

SXSW Interactive (South by South West) is festival that’s been held yearly in Austin, Texas since 2007. It is a well known showcase for interactive technology, startups, and social media.

Google held developer presentation yesterday to detail the Google Glass interface and third-party apps in public for the first time. I’ve tracked down some footage of the demo which you can see below.

Google Glass is an exciting forthcoming wearable display produced by the company’s semi-secret ‘Google X’ lab. Units first became available for pre-order to attendees of the Google IO 2012 conference for $1500. Recently Google ran the #ifihadglass contest where they asked what people would do if they had Glass. That contest is now closed and winners will be picked soon. The Google Glass consumer release date is expect to be toward the end of 2013.

The duration and angle of the available videos makes me think that Google didn’t officially sanction any video recording.

Google Glass Interface Demo

Timothy Jordan, who is a Senior Developer Advocate at Google, gave the presentation using a development version of Google Glass which was hacked to allow video output. He says that the Google Glass interface output that you see is much more smooth on Glass itself. Jordan showed off some basic Google Glass features like taking photos, dictating an email, translating text through Google, and navigating the interface by swiping the side of the unit.

Google Glass appears to arrange much of its content chronologically. If you took a picture 10 minutes ago, you swipe back on the ‘timeline’ to find the photo’s ‘timeline card’, rather than looking through a photos app. Once you find it you can bring up a number of card options like share, delete, or send to a third-party app. Jordan showed how you can send a photo to an Evernote app call Skitch which sends the photo through Google to the Skitch app on your tablet, allowing you to then annotate the photo on the tablet.

Some timeline cards can be organized into ‘bundles’ which are stacks of cards that you can dig into. Jordan showed the weather card as an example. Tapping into the bundle allows the user to see a three day forecast. Swiping down returns to the timeline.

According to CNET, Google also showed off The New York Times, Evernote, Skitch, and Path apps on Google Glass.

See all Google Glass News

Today Only: Razer Hydra for $40, for Use with Oculus Rift

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Mar 10, 2013

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While virtual reality control schemes are still being explored, many developers have turned to the Razer Hydra as an effective input for use with the Oculus Rift. The Hydra uses magnetic tracking to determine the absolute position and orientation of two Wiimote-like controllers held in the player’s hand. The controllers also have joysticks and buttons which make for a highly flexible virtual reality input system. Today-only you can buy the Razer Hydra for $40 from my favorite deal-a-day site, Woot.com.

100 Google Glass Pictures

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Mar 7, 2013

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Can’t get enough Google Glass? After combing the depths of the web, I bring you a Google Glass gallery of 100 unique pictures for your enjoyment. Ok maybe it’s not every Glass photo, but definitely all of the good ones! I painstakingly sourced every photo (where possible), roll over the photo to see the source link. Click then click again on the next page to get high resolution versions of each photo (some are higher than others).

Have a photo to add or want a picture removed? Send me link at ben at roadtovr.com!

Looking for Google Glass Specs?

Everything We Know About Google Glass

Google Glass is an exciting forthcoming wearable display produced by the company’s semi-secret ‘Google X’ lab. Units first became available for pre-order to attendees of the Google IO 2012 conference for $1500. Recently Google ran the #ifihadglass contest where they asked what people would do if they had Glass. That contest is now closed and winners will be picked soon. The Google Glass release date is expect to be toward the end of 2013.

See all Google Glass News

The Ultimate Google Glass Gallery

Joshua Topolsky and Isabelle Olsson — The Verge

Google I/O 2012 keynote, Isabelle Olsson — Google Plus

three men with glass on escalator — Google Plus

Sergey Brin and Vic Gundotra — Google Plus

Glass, hat, black and white — Google Plus

Foundry, pioneer glass cubes — Google Plus

Steve Lee glass bike helmet — Google Plus

Joshua Topolsky, sunglasses attachment — The Verge

glass sunglasses attachment — Google Plus

Isabelle Olsson, white glass — Google Plus

Amanda Rosenberg orange glass — Google Plus

Amanda Rosenberg long hair glass — Google Plus

Isabelle Olsson, Amanda Rosenberg, Diane von Fürstenberg, and Sergey Brin glass — Google Plus

black male, white glass, black and white — Google Plus

black male, white glass with frames — Google Plus

Glass Parody: How Guys Will Use Google Glass

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Mar 7, 2013

Here’s a pretty funny parody about how guys will use Google Glass. Reminds me of another video showing a bleak augmented reality future.

Funny stuff aside, there’s a lot to be discussed about what it will mean to have such quick access to information. A few generations after Glass we’ll likely have instant access to Wikipedia which will extend our knowledge beyond our own brains… but that sounds like a topic for another day!

In the mean time, how do you think girls will use Google Glass?

Oculus Rift Support Could Be on the Way for Battlefield 3, Future DICE Titles

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Mar 5, 2013

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Battlefield 3 could be getting Oculus Rift support along with future titles from EA-owned developer DICE. According to a recent internship posting, EA and DICE are looking for someone to “investigate and implement support for Occulus Rift SDK in the Frostbite Engine” which powers many of the company’s games, including Battlefield 3. MTBS3D spoke with Frostbite Creative Director Frank Vitz who says he’s “really eager to see how the Oculus Rift works with Frostbite.”

Oculus Rift News Bits: On Schedule for March Delivery, Secret Partner Preview, and More

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Mar 4, 2013

oculus rift palmer luckey — Palmer Luckey and Nikolay Tolmachev testing sensor algorithms

Brantlew opens one of the first Oculus units — Oculus employee and VR enthusiast Brant Lewis (aka Brantlew) opens his Kickstarter Dev Kit

Oculus Rift developer kits will soon be leaving the Chinese factory and making their way into the hands of eager developers. What’s happened since our last news bits update? Oculus says that shipping is going according to schedule. They’ve also confirmed that pilot run units were recently send out to top developers. Oculus has made it into the New York Times, and famed developer Chris Roberts swung by Oculus HQ.

Oculus Latency Tester Announced, Reserve Yours Today

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Mar 2, 2013

Oculus VR Inc announced the Oculus Latency Tester in the company’s latest update. The device, which Oculus has been working on in the background, will allow developers to rapidly iterate during development of their virtual reality games and software by making latency testing quick and easy. The company, which expects the unit to sell for less than $100, is now taking ‘reservations’ for the Oculus Latency Tester which is sort of like a pre pre-order — it’ll secure your place in line once the pre-orders start.

Everything We Know About Google Glass

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They describe the Google Glass UI:

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Feb 27, 2013

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Google Glass could be the first product to take augmented reality into the mainstream. The forthcoming minimal head mounted display promises to make our interaction with technology more seamless and natural. There are many who will welcome it. There are many who will hate it. Regardless of which side you’re on, we’re synthesizing everything we’ve learned after months of following every bit of Google Glass news.

Despite a recent deluge of Google Glass news, the company has been extremely quiet regarding Glass specs. There are still big gaps in our knowledge of the device. However, there have been hints to glean along the way for those paying attention.

First I’ll start by painting the clearest technical picture of Google Glass specs from the available information:

Google Glass Specs

Display: 640×360 resolution (13)
- Appears to use a temple-mounted projection in combination with a prism/waveguide. Field of view is likely no higher than 15 degrees. Display appears in the top right of your vision as a transparent color image (1).
Processor and RAM: Dual-core OMAP processor (13)
- Likely an ARM processor such as those available in modern smartphones. 1GB of RAM is my best guess based on space restrictions.
Battery Life: Unspecified battery
- Unless Google has struck some major battery breakthrough, expect 2-4 hours of continuous display usage, less if recording video, using WiFi, or taking photos (2).
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS on-board, but no 3G or 4G for cellular data (1)
- Glass can tether to iPhone, Android, and other devices for data.
Software: Based on Android 4.0 (13), Glass OS?
Controls: Touchpad on the side, a physical button, and voice commands (1)
- “Ok Glass…” is used to start command phrases. Touchpad must be tapped to start Glass listening for command phrases and can also be tapped to make selections. Gestures on the touchpad allow you to swipe left or right to slide through lists or down to go back. Tilting your head up slowly will also prompt Google Glass to start listening for voice commands (13).
Sensors: Gyroscope, magnetometer, and accelerometer (13)(3)
- One unidentified sensor rests on the inside of the projection arm, near the eye (10). An anonymous source tells us that it is neither a camera for eye-tracking or a proximity sensor to detect when glass is worn. However, SlashGear says they have a source “close to the Glass project” that says it is indeed an infrared eye-tracking camera (13). We’re still lacking corroboration on that front though.
Ports: MicroUSB seems to be the only port on Google Glass(4)
- Makes us wonder how Glass will charge, maybe it’ll use inductive charging? If a MicroUSB port is present it could have support for MHL which would provide HDMI output.
Camera: 3.1MP CMOS camera, focal length 2.8 mm, f/2.4 aperture (5), front-facing microphone appears to be just beneath the camera (11).
- Technically capable of 1080p video but we’ve only ever seen 720p video from Google Glass, likely due to hardware restrictions (6).
Weight: ~36 grams (7)

Google Glass Frames, Lenses, and Colors

Google has shown a number of frame and lens styles for Google Glass.

Lenses:

No lenses (10)
Sunglasses (8)
Prescription lenses (9)

Frames:

Google says that the latest version of Glass has a screw that allows you to remove the frame and swap it out for a new one (1). At the moment they won’t say if they’re naming any partners that will be making frames, but the New York Times says that the company is in negotiations with Warby Parker on Google Glass frames (12).

Previously we’ve seen a prescription lens Google Glass prototype with traditional frames at Google IO 2012:

Colors:

As for the Glass unit itself, Google has showed off a variety of colors including Charcoal (black), Tangerine (orange), Shale (grey), Cotton (white), and Sky (blue) (10):

Waterproof Google Glass?

One picture we dug up shows someone using Google Glass covered in water droplets… will the unit be water resistant?

Google Glass Features

What can Google Glass do? The most recent video, ‘How it Feels Through Glass’, gives us a glimpse of what Google Glass features we can expect. The company says that the entire video was filmed using the Google glasses. Though the overlay that you see is added in post-production, it is true to what Google Glass can do and how it works, according to Joshua Topolsky’s time using Glass (1):

Elsewhere we have heard and seen what Glass can do; here’s a list:

Take pictures
Send photos
Record video
Make phone calls
Show the time
Show weather
Flight status notifications (possibly a subset of Google Now functionality)
- Arrival and destination airports
- Airline
- Flight number
- Departure time
- On time/delay status
- Terminal
- Gate

Search Google
- Images
- Translation
- Search results that appear to come from Google’s Knowledge Graph, which includes tons of useful info like real time sports scores, unit conversions, bios on people, info snippets on objects, forthcoming holidays, etc.

Stream video via Google Plus Hangout
Dictate text
Notifications
Send SMS
Get directions vis Google Maps
- Driving
- Biking
- Walking

Google Glass Interface / Google Glass OS

SlashGear has a source “close to the Glass project” which has shared what appear to be official images from the Google Glass interface (13):

In a sense, Glass has most in common with Google Now. Like that service on Android phones, Glass can pull in content from all manner of places, formatted into individual cards. Content from third-party developers will be small chunks of HTML, for instance, with Google’s servers supporting the various services that Glass users can take advantage of.

Some of the cards refer to local services or hardware, and a dog-ear folded corner indicates there are sub-cards you can navigate through. The most obvious use of this is in the Settings menu, which starts off with an indication of battery status and connectivity type, then allows you to dig down into menus to pair with, and forget, WiFi networks, toggle Bluetooth on or off, see battery percentage and charge status, view free storage capacity and firmware status (as well as reset the headset to factory settings), and mange the angle-controlled wake-up system.

In effect, each card is an application. So, if you ask Glass to perform a Google search – using the same server-based voice recognition service as offered on Android phones – you get a side-scrolling gallery of results cards which can be navigated by side swiping on the touchpad. It’s also possible to send one of those results to your phone, for navigating on a larger display.

Google Glass Price

The first opportunity that the public had to pre-order Google Glass was a Google I/O 2012. U.S. based attendees were able to pre-order the ‘Explorer Edition’ of Glass for $1500 (8).

In the last week, Google announced the #ifihadglass campaign where people could submit short responses to the hashtag in order to have the opportunity to pre-order Google Glass, which would also cost $1500.

The Google Glass price will be “less than $1500” when it launches, according to The Verge (14).

But of course we knew that… Google Glass product director Steve Lee says that they expect millions of people to use Glass (1); that won’t happen if they want $1500 for each pair of Google glasses.

So from here we have only speculation. My best guess is that you will be able to buy Google Glass for $500 when it first launches, but I’m really hoping that Google can trim that figure down to $200 for widespread availability.

$500 is going to be a hard sell as a mere addon for a smartphone — after all you’ll need one to tether a data connection to use most Google Glass features. $200 would of course still be expensive, but not much more than some would expect to pay for a nice pair of sunglasses.

There’s no official word on how many pre-orders were placed at Google I/O 2012 or how many people will be accepted into the Explorer program through the #ifihadglass campaign. Around 6000 people attended Google I/O 2012 and pre-orders were restricted to U.S. attendees only. My best guess for total Google Glass pre-orders from I/O 2012 is around 2000 units.

Google Glass Release Date

google glass google io 2013 — Expect to hear more about Google Glass at IO 2013

The company says that they expect the Google Glass release date to be before the end of 2013. That leaves up to 10 months for the team to continue to refine Glass before launch.

While Google IO 2013 would be a great place to launch, I don’t think the company will be ready to let people buy Google Glass as IO 2013 is only three months away. You should expect to hear more about Google Glass at IO 2013 though — maybe that’s when they’ll launch the Explorer Edition of Glass?

The holiday season is a better guess for the Google Glass release date; it gives them more time to work on the unit and is a popular time for smartphone sales and accessories like glasses!

Sources:

The Verge — I used Google Glass: the future, but with monthly updates
Based on comparable hardware from Vuzix: http://www.vuzix.com/consumer/products_m100.html#specifications
YouTube — How it Feels [through Glass]
Geek.com — How sound works on Google’s Project Glass
Google Plus — Pictures taken with Google Glass
YouTube — Google Glass Jumping on Trampoline
Based on Glass lead designer Isabelle Olsson saying that Glass “weighs less on your nose than many sunglasses” at Google IO 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3wiLZWOIi8
Road to VR — The Latest on Google Glass: Early Technical Details, Pre-order Units Made Available to I/O Attendees for $1500
Road to VR — Google Glass with Prescription Lenses Spotted in the Wild in NYC
Road to VR — New Google Glass Pictures Reveal Hidden Sensor
The Verge — Orange Google Glass Unit
New York Times — Google Searches for Style
SlashGear — Google Glass in focus: UI, Apps & More
The Verge — Google aims to sell Glass to consumers this year for less than $1,500

See all Google Glass news from Road to VR

Oculus Rift support for Crysis added by Community Modder [Video]

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Feb 26, 2013

Oculus Rift developer and community VR enthusiast Nathan Andrews has managed to port his Half Life 2 Oculus Rift for Crysis and has released a video showing how this classic PC shooter might work in tandem with the Rift.

John Carmack Talks Virtual Reality Latency Mitigation Strategies

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Feb 24, 2013

John Carmack, the famed developer who helped put the Oculus Rift on the map, has been doing plenty of virtual reality research as of late. Carmack is particularly interested in latency. Specifically, he’s interested in reducing latency to a point that looking around inside of a virtual reality world with a VR headset feels genuinely real. Recently he’s published a paper discussing “latency mitigation strategies.”

Low latency is vital in order to feel like you’re really inside of a virtual reality game. It isn’t as simple as slapping a fast head tracker into a head mounted display and calling it a day. There’s a pipeline of hardware that needs to work in symphony to correctly render the game world according to your head movements, and the round trip through that pipeline can take a significant amount of time.

If the end-to-end latency isn’t low enough, it will mean that your view into the virtual reality world feels sluggish. Carmack writes:

A total system latency of 50 milliseconds will feel responsive, but still subtly lagging. One of the easiest ways to see the effects of latency in a head mounted display is to roll your head side to side along the view vector while looking at a clear vertical edge. Latency will show up as an apparent tilting of the vertical line with the head motion; the view feels “dragged along” with the head motion. When the latency is low enough, the virtual world convincingly feels like you are simply rotating your view of a stable world.

Too much latency not only breaks the illusion of virtual reality, but can also contribute to motion sickness and even make games difficult to play. Minimal latency is essential for a virtual reality experience and it’s a problem that’s not yet solved.

Oculus Inc. said at CES 2013 that they have their end-to-end Oculus Rift latency down to 80ms — though it’s likely that they’re continuing to work that figure down.

In the paper, published at #AltDevBlogADay, Carmack proposes several measures that could be taken to reduce end-to-end latency to acceptable levels. According to him, anything under 20 ms is largely imperceptible. And while it is possible to reach that level with current hardware, it will take some careful work to make it happen.

According to Carmack, in an ideal world sensor data is sent to the computer from the head mounted display and then…

The operating system immediately processes the update, and immediately performs GPU accelerated rendering directly to the framebuffer without any page flipping or buffering. The display accepts the video signal with no buffering or processing, and the screen phosphors begin emitting new photons within microseconds.

“In a typical VR system,” he continues, “many things go far less optimally, sometimes resulting in end to end latencies of over 100 milliseconds.”

It isn’t the hardware itself that’s the issue, it’s simply that modern games don’t require such levels of latency optimization, so the industry has largely avoided techniques that could be used to reduce it.

The paper goes on to describe, at a rather technical level, what steps can be taken to reduce end-to-end latency. If you are a developer looking to make virtual reality games for the Oculus Rift, you’d do well to read this as a primer on some of the latency challenges that you’ll face.

The Verge Goes Hands-on With Google Glass [video]

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Feb 23, 2013

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google glass orange — Photo credit: The Verge

orange google glass demo — Photo credit: The Verge

Google Glass is an exciting wearable computing project that the company hopes will be ready for consumers by the end of 2013. The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky recently got to demo Google Glass for himself — something that only a select few outside of Google have done.

While it’s generated plenty of buzz, Google has been very quiet about the technical specifications of Glass, and even what it can actually do. This past week, Google made a concerted effort to show people what it’s like to wear Glass. In addition to a video and a new gallery of Google Glass photos, the company even got cozy with a bit of press — Topolsky relayed his Google Glass demo in an editorial and the video below wherein he interviews product director Steve Lee and lead industrial designer Isabelle Olsson:

One interesting thing to note from Topolsky’s experience with Glass is that he says using it is very similar to what Google showed in a recent video:

Let me start by saying that using it is actually nearly identical to what the company showed off in its newest demo video. That’s not CGI — it’s what Glass is actually like to use. It’s clean, elegant, and makes relative sense. The screen is not disruptive, you do not feel burdened by it. It is there and then it is gone. It’s not shocking. It’s not jarring. It’s just this new thing in your field of vision. And it’s actually pretty cool.

Would You Wear Google Glass?

Topolsky, who I’ve always thought of as a huge nerd, repeatedly wonders “who would want to wear this thing in public?” It’s a strange question for me to read because I’d wear Google Glass in public in a second. But then again — I’m a huge nerd. That said, I don’t think that Glass looks dorky. I actually think it looks pretty damn cool. Am I alone?

However, Topolsky sounded ready to wear them in public by the end of his Google Glass demo:

…I walked away convinced that this wasn’t just one of Google’s weird flights of fancy. The more I used Glass the more it made sense to me; the more I wanted it. If the team had told me I could sign up to have my current glasses augmented with Glass technology, I would have put pen to paper (and money in their hands) right then and there. And it’s that kind of stuff that will make the difference between this being a niche device for geeks and a product that everyone wants to experience.

But that’s beside the point. For me, the real determining factor in wearing Glass would be how useful it is.

At the moment it seems like there is a limited set of things that Glass can do. Take a picture, record a video, search Google, get directions, read/respond to texts and maybe a bit more. That’s great, but if Google expects people to wear these things around on a regular basis, it’s going to need to do more. I’d need to do a Google Glass demo for myself to see how useful it would be before pulling the trigger.

Google almost definitely understands this, and that’s one reason why they hosted two ‘Glass Foundry’ developer events in late January / early February. At these events, folks who pre-ordered Glass for $1500 from Google I/O 2012 were able to try out Glass and were broken into teams to develop useful functionality for the device. Unfortunately, those events were locked down with a strict NDA, so we’ve yet to hear much about what types of Google Glass apps were developed.

I imagine they’ve got a lot of work yet ahead of them if the Google Glass release date is expected to be in 2013. While I’d love to see Glass launch at Google I/O 2013, that’s less than three months away — likely too early. We’ll probably see it closer to the holidays.

So far the Google Glass price has been $1500 for pre-orders, but I’m doubting they’ll sell many to the mainstream at that rate. $500 or less seems like a more reasonable price, but would still be hard to justify for many — $200 would probably be the sweet spot.

See all Google Glass News

Oculus to Give Virtual Reality Talk at GDC Next Month

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Feb 21, 2013

oculus palmer luckey and Brendan Iribe — Palmer Luckey (left) and Brendan Iribe (right)

The Oculus Rift is expected to be delivered to developers next month (and is already in the hands of a select few). This coincides nicely with the ever popular Game Developers Conference (GDC) where we expect to hear much about virtual reality and the Oculus Rift. In addition to details about Valve porting Team Fortress 2 (TF2) to virtual reality, Oculus Inc. Founder Palmer Luckey and CEO Brendan Iribe are teaming up to talk about how “virtual reality is poised to revolutionize the way we play games.”

New Google Glass Pictures Reveal Hidden Sensor [gallery]

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Feb 20, 2013

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Along with the new video that we pointed out earlier, the company has released some cool new Google Glass pictures. One of the photos shows something we haven’t seen before; on the inside of the eye-boom there is a vertical slit with what appears to be some sort of sensor inside:

My best guess is that it’s a proximity sensor which tells Glass when you have it on your face. This would allow it to turn the display off to save battery life when you aren’t using it. However, it could just as easily be an ambient light sensor or even a camera to detect eye-movement. We can only guess until detailed specifications are released.

New Google Glass Pictures

Not pictured below is the prescription Google Glass model that we caught back in December.

See All Google Glass News

New Google Glass Video Shows What It Feels Like to Wear [video]

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