OSNews takes a look at some inexpensive "Virtual Reality" monitor specs. You wear them like a pair of glasses, and your eye sees the equivalent of a relatively large monitor. It's been a science fiction dream for years, and now it's available for under $200 at Geeks.com, albeit in rudimentary form. So how do they work in real life? Read more to find out.
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Member since:1997-10-01
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VR is sooooo 1996. Wake me up when we have something better than a helmet with a TV in it. I remember in the late '90s seeing and reading a lot about virtual reality goggles that used lasers to paint the image directly on your eye, and apparently the military was already using the technology at the time. Whatever became of that? Until there's no gap between you and the image you're seeing, then it's no more "virtual reality" than pressing your nose to the monitor you're looking at now.
Member since:2005-09-02
I totally agree with you there about the sooo 1996.
Why? Why? Why?
Why does anybody want to were a helment with little tv's in it? Hows it gonna enchance anything?
The future is NOT VR headsets. its when reality and virtual are mixed. Its when computer's are so intergrated that you no longer know you're using it. There will be no "oh lets turn the comp on" it will be so part of life that it is there, everywhere in your home.
Oh and a pratical side, vr headset suck. Firehazard? carry it to work? Cant see your enviorement around you? Think of all the health and safety situations you can think of.
So in one word... no.
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There's a lot of really good true VR (stereoscopic) HMD's, they do however also cost somewhere in the ranges of $10k-$100k, which not even I, can afford 
There is some new company that has started producing some consumer VR HMD's that were supposed to be quite cheap, but then also very low in resolution. Can't remember the name though. I think they were mentioned on slashdot sometime back.
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I agree with the comments above but support the movement as whole to affordable VR. The more we buy these products the more money will go into developing them. What about someone doing a cross-section of all of the VR technologies available as well as predictions for the future? There are other technologies on the horizon bringing 3d to your flatscreen (look up DDD) which may be fair contenders to VR goggle adoption. Why have the fun alone when everyone can get in on the 3d fun!?
One last thing: Why do they always have to make the goggles look like plastic pieces of poo!? Someone get the Apple design team on that.
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2005-09-06
One thing to consider with any of this kind of display is whether they can damage your eyesight.
A traditional issue is "vergence lock" caused by the image being at an unchanging position w.r.t. your eyes. This is analogous to remaining seated in a fixed (goo or bad) position for too long, thus causing upper-limb disorders, and the problems that can be caused by vergence lock are analogous
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Good review - I'd always wanted to buy "VR" type goggles as a kid for playing computer games etc. Its a shame the unit review caused so much eye strain etc - though I suspect this is similar for any VR glasses of the same style.
While at university I had chance to study Augmented Reality, and I really believe it is an under utilised technology. Why take the computing power to regenerate a scene with additions when you can overlay those additions on the scene in front of the user. I believe Microsoft are developing "sat nav" for cars that actually projects a ghost car in front of the bonnet that moves with traffic, indicates before junctions etc. (See last week's AutoExpress Magazine in the UK for article).
AR is definitely the next big technology over VR... its just a shame no-one has come up with a way to mass market its use.
For those interested, someone actually ported Quake to use AR - i.e. monsters are superimposed over the view of the world around you.
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www/
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2005-08-22
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The problem with these things is that they are not stylish enough. Just like the watch calculator, or the watch TV, The old lugable laptops, the hard plastic pocket protector. is that they they are not stylish enough for normal use in normal society. They are bulky and rather an eyesore. Once you can make things stylish enough to really look good on you like the iPod or small enough to hide like most of the wireless hands free units for cellphones which are just placed in the ear and anyone with long hair it becomes invisible. Back in the 80s Cell phones were not stylish, they were toys for the rich or people who needed them in remote areas or in cars. They weren't something you teenager wanted to go to school with. They had portable MP3 players before the iPod but apple made the iPod small enough to hide if it wasn't a good situation to be showing it, and stylish enough to show to the public. Portable Gear is not about how much functionality you can cram in a small space but how well the public recieves it.
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Well it goes atleast as far back as the mid 80s.
There was a company in San Mateo CA called VR Reseach IIRC by Jaron Lanier etc. Their VR test program became Swivel 3d which evolved into a product range sold by the predecessor of Macromedia for creating 3d models.
Their kit esp the Dataglove was pretty hot with NASA.
I also remember seeing this stuff in the UK at parallel hardware shows where lots of cpus were used to render ever so badly shoot em ups in 3d worlds. It used to make people sick though. Alot of bad press followed. You had to be strapped down.
Then there was the Lawnmower Man, and after that it seemed to all go away.
transputer guy
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I bought the 3d Pro headset for ~$1200.
The stereoscopic mode works with most games (Doom 3, Halflife, etc).
[url]http://www.i-glassesstore.com/ig-hrvpro.html[/url]
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The cheapest real VR HMD is the Z800, see
http://www.emagin.com/3dvisor/
It has a headtracker and the two 800x600 OLED screens will give different images with the NVidia 3D drivers (framerate hit is about 30%).
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http://www.bedoper.com/bedoper/2004/ultimatereality.htm
Amiga people will like it most of all, but anyone interested in VR/AR should read it.
Abstract: This study explores various uses of virtual reality goggles in conjunction with consumer level items: color cameras, video effects, luminance keying and videotape, in an effort to ascertain what is feasible at the present time regarding consumer and industrial applications. As a measure toward eventual home theater display prospects, the viability of keying video into a see-through head-mounted display to form a virtual, wall-sized television will be determined. Another portion of the research will attempt to communicate aspects of the psychedelic experience into electronic form.