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infinityinterac
Participant
September 8, 2013

External Camera + Headset Button (safety feature!!!)

I was thinking it'd be a pain in the ass to unhook all the wires from around your head to see who's calling on your cellphone to make sure you answer the phone for that new job you applied for, or take a look at the plate of food your wife puts in front of you so you don't knock it over while you're playing a game and get the third-degree that you're playing games instead of eating/helping/etc.

To remedy this huge issue so you can still come back to a decent life when you're done playing virtual reality, the Occulus Rift needs a button on the headset that you can press and hold temporarily to view the room around you so you can be aware of real-world hazards like your wife's angry face or your kid's toys while you're playing in VR. Releasing the button would put you back in the game, while pressing it would temporarily show you what the camera sees in front of you.

You would need an external camera and a button on the Occulus Rift device in order to do this, but it would be an invaluable and important safety feature that I can't understand why the Rift doesnt already have.

    9 replies

    SlowRiot
    Up and Coming
    September 8, 2013
    Or just add a hinge and a clip on the screen and backplate to flip it up temporarily without taking the whole thing off, like a visor on a welding helmet.
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    kpikejr
    Participant
    September 8, 2013
    "SlowRiot" wrote:
    Or just add a hinge and a clip on the screen and backplate to flip it up temporarily without taking the whole thing off, like a visor on a welding helmet.



    I like both ideas!
    infinityinteracAuthor
    Participant
    September 8, 2013
    I think both would work, but, for the consumer, a simple button with a software-based switch of visual input from the in-game graphics via button press to the external camera for just a quick moment to check your phone or surroundings until you release the button, instantly allowing you to continue playing would work better as far as having less chances of being broken and having to get your Rift repaired imo, and would be a *much* faster switch without a visor.

    Both, imo, simultanously, would be much better than just one, however, if there was ONLY one added, I'd prefer the button for the sake of speed and user-friendliness.
    infinityinteracAuthor
    Participant
    September 9, 2013
    I wouldn't consider that much of a remedy imho. Maybe more of a stopgap. You'd still need to see the keyboard in order to press Alt+Tab on it. And if your hands arent on your keyboard at all times, you might still knock over a drink or whatever fumbling around to find the keyboard in the first place.

    So, yeah, it is a good try, but not enough of a solution for the average person who just doesn't want to step on their dog, slap their wife's knicknacks off the table, or knock something off of their desk.

    My biggest concern with the Rift is that you're essentially blind unless you have some external input to fix it. I would think it'd be more reasonable to build this feature into the hardware itself. A webcam isn't expensive, so why not build one into the Rift for good measure, and overall, saftey?
    Marculus
    Up and Coming
    September 9, 2013
    A webcam would be very usefull. The camera would enable more gamemodes, aswell. For example melt 3D grafics with your real environment.
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    Trampzy
    New Participant
    September 10, 2013
    I do completely agree that in future releases of the Rift they should give you some sort of camera view out, without removing any equipment, but I generally am not to worried in the mean time. My office is completely dark except for any light coming from my computer, and I walk around with my eyes closed alot anyways so I don't imagine it'll be a challenge to navigate my desk with the Rift on. The real issue is I know eventually someone is gonna try sneaking up on me while I have both the Rift and headphones on!
    johnnypope
    Participant
    September 10, 2013
    Maybe also an option to have it only fade-in the lower third of the display (like an overlay) so that when you need to look at the keyboard you aren't completely removed from the world.
    or how about an option for it to be connected to the gyroscope so that when you look down at a certain angle it fades camera view in.
    Or for an ultimate option - have it lock to a set coordinates so it only fades in a set position - for example - I only want to view where my keyboard is, but nothing to my left/right or above. So when the oculus is facing my keyboard - it shows a life cam view of just that area, but when I'm looking away it doesn't.
    Obviously with a manual override to turn on or off.
    ShaggnBrau
    New Participant
    January 16, 2014
    I have been thinking this is also needed. I have played many games with the Oculus Rift now and the biggest pain is always having to take off headset to find stuff on my desk like my can of soda, the home row keys on my keyboard, my keyboard, my mouse, you get the point.

    even if it was a small cell phone camera and it just had a small overlay pop up in a corner of the oculus screen that would suffice no need to switch out to complete view why can't one be in game and view an overlay view of your front outside view at same time.

    to control the toggling of the overlayed external view would have to be controlled by a button on the device I would think. keyboard shortcut would not work because you first need to find the keyboard. having a small button on the sides of the device to toggle on and off the overlay would work though. Maybe could even trigger the screen by strugging shoulders or lifting your shoulder to your ear area to hit the button.

    Just some thoughts but I agree this is the worst part about oculus is being blind to the outside world completely and having to mess with the hardware clumsily to see the real world around you.
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