12-21-2024 05:48 AM
Hello, I am a VR enthusiast from China. I have been following VR since 2016. When VR first started to become popular, I was very happy and thought that in a few years, VR would become as widespread as mobile phones, and everyone would be able to experience scenes like those in 'The Matrix'. However, the current development of VR has left us enthusiasts very disappointed. Not only has there been no significant progress, but it has also almost reached the point of being neglected.
As a fan of Quest VR, I sincerely hope that Meta can continue to improve. Here are a few suggestions from a user's perspective:
First of all, I have to complain that the current VR headsets are really, really ugly. Whether it's the Quest or Apple's Vision Pro, they are so ugly that they are unacceptable. It's fine to play with them at home, but I would never accept wearing them on the street.
Then there's the weight. To reduce the weight, performance has to be compromised, such as reducing the battery weight. However, whether it's performance or weight, both lead to a decrease in user experience. As it stands, it's impossible to balance the user experience.
I believe the root cause is that the design of VR headsets has fallen into a path dependency. The all-in-one headset should never have been designed as an all-in-one from the beginning. Concentrating all the weight on the face is a very inhumane design. The headset should be designed as a split system.
I think the ideal design should be to split the all-in-one headset into two parts: a helmet and glasses. Like this, put the CPU and battery in the helmet, and the glasses are only responsible for display.
This design has many advantages and almost perfectly avoids the current shortcomings of VR headsets.
First, it is no longer ugly. Not only is it not ugly, but it is also cooler. After all, people are more tolerant of wearing a hat on the street than a strap. Moreover, the helmet can have various styles, it can be designed in a cyberpunk style, or a sporty style, it can be breathable, or it can be sun-proof. People can change different helmet styles according to their preferences, which can increase more peripheral equipment.
Connecting the glasses and helmet together can greatly distribute the weight of the glasses, with most of the weight borne by the helmet, thus greatly reducing the pressure on the face. This way, even if you wear it all day, you won't feel tired.
Moreover, with this design, the performance and battery life of the CPU can be improved by several levels. After all, the area of the top of the head is much larger than that of a mobile phone, and wearing a 300g helmet on the head is no pressure at all, even lighter than a regular motorcycle helmet.
The glasses and helmet must be separate, connected by a buckle or interface. This way, users can freely choose the configuration. If users only buy the VR headset to watch movies, they only need to buy good lenses and a basic CPU. If users mainly use it for gaming, they can buy a more powerful CPU helmet.
Next, I want to mention another wonderful use of the VR helmet. Just a few months ago, Meta released an AR glasses, Orion. AR glasses are the trend of the future with great prospects, but due to size constraints, the functions that AR glasses can perform are severely limited.
If you take off the VR glasses and connect the AR glasses, it will be more convenient to go out. With the high-performance computing power and the huge battery capacity provided by the helmet, the AR glasses can transform like the Hulk into a superhero. It can fully realize the functions seen in sci-fi movies.
One of the most useful functions is navigation. You can install several cameras on the helmet for real-time spatial simulation, and display virtual arrows on the AR glasses to guide the way. Just this one function is enough to make many people buy it. There are so many people in the world who are bad at directions and long for such high-tech products, rather than just being satisfied with translation, watching movies, and other relatively limited functions.
If you only rely on an AR glasses, there is currently not enough computing power and battery life to support such complex technology. Even with the support of remote servers, the problem of high latency cannot be solved. With the helmet, many functions can be directly computed, and virtual objects can be displayed in real space. This is VR's mixed reality technology, but it is actually the most wonderful when used in AR.
12-23-2024 12:48 PM
Hi @yings
"Not only has there been no significant progress, but it has also almost reached the point of being neglected."
I disagree - think of the hundreds, maybe thousands of small improvements, not the FOV and resolution increases.
Think of how many companies are now involved - the offshoots into MR and AR - all those glasses that are now coming out.
I think progress has been rapid and it will continue.