I'm not VR veteran. I don't have Rift or Vive. But I'm interested in this technology for years. I saw some VR setup has additional front camera. I just wonder why Oculus not add one or two cameras to Oculus Go at least we can have PIP to see the outside world just for safety. And dev team can use this camera to blend VR to the real world much like AR concept. I think mobile grade camera not that expensive to add to this mass Oculus Go. May be next model/generation or it's not a good idea at all?
And if my dream may comes true. The 2nd generation Oculus Go may have built in cameras. May be old model can have USB cameras expansion module stick to the front of the goggle easily.
For this generation? Cost. The goal was to put out a solid VR experience at a very attractive $200 price point. A camera doesn’t bring much to the table, and safety isn’t really an issue with a 3 DOF headset, since there’s no point to be moving around while wearing it.
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I believe that this is a feature we may see with Santa Cruz,
Facebook’s VP of AR/VR Andrew “Boz” Bosworth showed a quick glimpse of a “mixed reality” game of soccer using Oculus Santa Cruz, the company’s 6 DOF standalone VR headset prototype.
Android can support usb webcams. Also it may be possible for the Oculus app to stream your phones camera via wifi with an update. Not sure they'll do that but it is possible.
Depends on what you want it for.. If you are talking just for passthru video (seeing what is outside the goggles), then it would be pretty simple. There is a USB port on the side, a camera with a mount would weigh next to nothing.
It's mostly just coming up with the software to support it.
But anything else more involved (AR and/or some limited 6DoF) is also going to require processing power and the Go has kind of been optimized to do what it is doing now.
You are also adding battery drain, and the battery isn't huge as it is. So you need more battery.
Now you are adding weight, which is something else they were trying hard to keep low with the Go.
Now, give it 2 years when this current tech is smaller, lighter, has more CPU and possibly draws less power...
That's why I think the Go is probably just about the right choice of tech for now.
The Go v2 (Santa Cruz or ???) in 2-3 years should probably be able to add those things and still keep this price point.
OK so... to make additional cameras AR is in development. And adding camera to existing model just for pass through image seem not much necessary. Agreed now. Considering launching Oculus Go for lowest price to raise up all VR users base sounds reasonable.
Antilatency has implemented 6DoF on the Go with a structured tracking environment. It looks like they are using a camera of some sort. Seems like if there is enough processing power to do this there aught to be enough to provide a live window into the real world. I'd pay up to $100 to add this capability to my Go.
There's Nolo CV1 set that enable 6DOF to OG. Check out VROasis youtube channel. It's pretty cool. But..adding $199 device to make it 6DOF I'd better wait for Santa Cruz.
