Head mounted displays are coming in hot and heavy this year. InfinitEye doesn’t have an official web page yet, so we’re linking to a review done by TheRoadToVR. Note that this is the second version of the display. InfinitEye released plans for their V1 HMD back in February. The InfinitEye prototype looks strikingly like the early Oculus Rift prototypes. Gaffers tape and what appears to be the frame from a face shield hold together the optical system. It’s this optical system which is interesting. InfinitEye has decided to go with head mounted LCD screens, similar to the rift, and unlike castAR’s projection system.
The InfinitEye team decided to go with two screens, giving them a whopping 1280×800 resolution per eye. The optics are also simple – fresnel lenses. This is all similar to the first version of the goggles, however the InfinitEye team claims that this new edition provides a 210 degree field of view. What we don’t know is exactly what they changed. We’re curious if the wider field of view will reduce the Sim Sickness some of us have felt with the rift – though to be fair, almost any head mounted display requires some time to adjust. What we are sure of is that the future is bright for virtual (and augmented) reality.
[Via RoadToVR]
This is good, but it would be better with a flexible OLED display curved instead of arrow angled displays.
A “whopping” 1280×800 per eye? What kind of adjective are you guys planning on breaking out for the upcoming HD version of the Oculus devkit, then?
The rift uses a single screen, so unless it goes 2560×1200 it wont even match 1280 width per eye. Don’t think there are many 7inch screens with that resolution available.
oh and I forgot Japan Display’s also thrown their hat in with a 5.4″ http://www.j-display.com/english/news/2013/20131024.html So I dont think the rift will have too much trouble bumping specs.
Woah
for some reason my original comment still isnt showing up?? But I had pointed out previous to this comment:
Yeah no way theyll bother making screens that high resolution anytime soon…..
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Toshiba-runs-for-the-pixel-density-top-with-a-6-tablet-screen-at-the-whopping-2560×1600-pixels_id23129
http://www.gizchina.com/2013/08/20/lg-display-shows-of-2560-x-1440-hd-display-for-mobile-phones/
Good luck finding an average Joe with the gpu power to push a constant 60fps at those resolutions.
Last i checked they’re going 4K HD with the consumer version, so yeah.
Official source on that please? I hope you’re not referring to the Carmack interview where he, in passing, mentions that “it wont be too long before we see 4k displays”. That’s just stating that it will happen, eventually.
What’s old is new again, but improved. Anyone recall Descent 3d from the late 90s using a cheap fresnel based commercial rig? Or the paper and fresnel setup that taped onto your monitor? Or a book called Garage VR that detailed how to build a dual LCD VR rig using replacement parts for portable 3 or 4 inch TVs? Using “hacked” Nintendo powergloves for cheap glove input and playing Doom with the same? Or using the sensor bar from the same for head tracking? The recent progress just makes me grin.
I remember everything but the powerglove hacks. I did play plenty of Descent in CyberMAXX mode with the paper rig taped to the monitor, until we got a pair of *giant* LCD shutterglasses.
It’s so encouraging to see proper VR finally picked back up with the current progress of technology, and to realize that it actually is starting to approach what we dreamed twenty years ago.
I wonder how many people will really use these long term. I bought the Nvidia 3d glasses several years ago, used them a handful of times and then threw them in a drawer because it was a hassle to keep them charged, they were uncomfortable, and would cause my eyes to hurt a bit after using it for a few hours.
The method of operation for HMDs like the InfinitEye is vastly different than the active shutter or passive polarizing glasses that you have experienced, and because of that they’re not prone to causing eye strain.
I do not get this. You can get FullHD (1920×1080) quad core 1.2GHz smartphones for about 200$ a piece (in quantity). This includes accelerometers, compass, 12MP cam, batteries. Seems one just has to attach 2 smartphones to your head with proper optics, and you get a FullHD HMD. And that includes enough processing power to run the simulation on the HMD. So why is any body working on some hacked together display-hdmi controller, sensors, hodge-podge ?
The latency of keeping them properly synchronized would be vomit-inducing.
they are! There are simple cardboard or 3d printed holders to use them. The problem is the latency between the tracking and the display. That and despite the incredible computing power of a mobile device they are still incredibly weak compared to a desktop (important when you’re needing to render at 30+ fps x2 with no tearing or buffering).
That screen is unbelievable, we really are living in the goddamn future now aren`t we!
I want to see someone take one of these head mounted displays and add a Kinect to the unit, facing forward. The Kinect would be used to look at the hands for gesture-based input.
I’d add a 2nd one facing back toward me. That way, the head-mounted Kinect would track hand movements for cool stuff like punching codes into keypads and turning doorknobs, while the stationary one would be used for tracking upper body movement. Imagine being able to peek around a corner in Half-Life 3 or CounterStrike by actually moving like you were doing it.