Classic statement...
"We also wouldn't advise their use for driving"
Today, we're looking at - literally - the Vuzix AV230 XL headset, a set of video specs that create a picture that's the equivalent of a 44in screen 2.7m away. Yet the goggles are small and light enough they'll slip into your pocket, begging the question – is that a 44in telly in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me? …
You will only be disappointed and wanting your money back. The quality is dreadful but by far the most annoying thing is that if you don't have them in exactly the right place on your nose to get exactly the right angle you can't see anything at all. they are uncomfortable, feel heavy after wearing them a few minutes and if you aren't careful how you move your head they slip down your nose and you can't see anything. It's a shame because they are a good idea but let down by poor quality screens and really bad design. If I had the opportunity to test them before buying mine I wouldn't have stumped up £30 never mind £130. Sent them back after 2 days for a full refund.
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A bit over ten years ago I did some work with a i-Glasses VR headset. It was a hell of a lot chunkier, but had much the same spec as this device.
The i-Glasses had a very shoddy magnetic head tracker (once you got the data down a 9600 baud serial cable and then rerendered the image, you ended up with about 1/3 a second lag, ideal for inducing motion sickness). But being a VR headset, it also had stereo vision. You could drive each display separately.
Do these devices support stereo? Stereo video is incredibly cool: you have to see it to believe it. It's particularly good for gaming, although playing Half-Life 2 at 320x240 is probably not going to be easy. Given that they already have two screens it would seem rather easy to implement...
we need these in at least 1024x768, and both screens independently controllable please, then we can finally start getting some decent vr systems on the go by linking a pair of these to a wii controller maybe.
I've been waiting ages for vr, hopefully this is a good sign, or a step in the right direction at least.
I have 3 pairs of LCD glasses (yeh.. I'm a geek)
A set of old Olympus Eyetreks
A set of chinese 640x480 things
A set of 800x600 vuzix PC 3d ones (vga and support 3d).. bit of fun to use with my wee Sony UX280
Sure, the resolution on the vuzix is good, but the optics are crap.
The Olympus ones have awesome prism optics, but very low resoution, however the complete lack of chromatic aberations make them by far the easiest to use.
Why the hell 6 years later we still have crappy cheap plastic optics in front on decent OLED panels I cannot get my head around (sic)
Got one at home. eMagin z800 + Wiimote + Voice commands. Wii balance board for movement, one serious GlovePIE script for sticking it all together- playing Oblivion takes on a new feel when you feel like you're really hoverboarding through Cyrodiil! It's almost as good a game as the graphics would suggest. Though I imagine I seem a little odd to the neighbors...
Check out MTBS3D.com for all your stereoscopy needs!
VR headsets are also great for making yourself motion sick with jerry-rigged AR systems.
Had mine (the widescreen(!) £150 version) for a few days but they are going back tomorrow. The build quality is actually very good and I can put up with the low res screens BUT the optics do cause a big problem for me ... I get to see one screen perfectly but then the other one is dreadful (it appears to have a width of vision of about 5 degrees from centre on!) ... could be my eyes being not exactly the same width apart as the original designers 8-).
Yes you can use them with or without glasses ... I had to keep my glasses on because the built in focal adjust does not go far enough for me.
If they could up the resolution somewhat ... 1024 x 768 would be great ... and get the optics sorted out I would easily buy one again. Until then I'll just hold my iPod touch 10 inches away from my head instead (I can feel a headband attachment for the touch coming on 8-)