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To Oculus: Add-on camera for augmented reality?

analog
Explorer
Back when I was reading about the Rift and Vive before I bought the Rift, I missed the BIG point where the Vive had a front-facing camera for AR. Big facepalm there. Now I deeply regret not getting the Vive just because I have been wanting to develop for AR.

So I ask this: Oculus, do you have any plans to offer an add-on camera that maybe would clip on somehow to the Rift? Please say yes, otherwise I'll probably try to sell my Rift and get a Vive, Of course, an add-on camera would mean that three USB slots would be taken up. Back when I was thinking about deving for AR, I expected I'd have to dev a cumbersome system that utilized a third-party cam that probably would be very bulky and awkward to slip on over top of the Rift, but after I got my Rift I realized that Vive had one *built in*.

AR is going to be EXTREMELY important in the future. Oculus, can you please share your thoughts on AR, and whether or not you expect to offer a camera for it?
15 REPLIES 15

Thoemse
Protege

OpticKing said:

To be honest, if you got either the rift or the vive solely for AR, you got the wrong thing.. both of them are vr-centric. The Peripheral for Ar would be the Microsoft Hololens. https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us The pass-through camera (one lens so no stereo vision) on the vive is really only intended for being able to see whilst wearing the HMD, not to go into AR mode.. And if you're a dev, you don't even need the hololens to develop for it, simply get the sdk and hololens emulator and you're off. Perhaps you assumed prematurely when delving into these HMD's, and should've done a bit more research before dropping the better part of a grand on something, no offense. 


The camera of the vive can be use by devs for whatever they want. Yes the Vive is a VR device. Noone hinders you from developing AR software with it though. 

pjenness
Rising Star
If they do make  a third party camera accessory it should be stereo and be able to match the ipd setting. Vive has the camera but I think their mistake was making it mono. Everyone I talk to that has one says its unnatural using the camera as it feels like a 2d plane in a 3d world. But, at least it does have one.

THe visualise in Leapmotion is very close to AR, except for the resolution and infrared display .
Combination of that with decent stereo colour cams (2 webcams?) would  probably work.

-P
Drift VFX Visual, Virtual , Vertical Want 970GTX on Macbook for good FPS? https://forums.oculus.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=17349

JaimieVandenber
Heroic Explorer
As a Vive and Rift owner, the Vive front camera is no good for AR. For a start there's only one of it so no stereo view! For seconds it's too low res to do anything more than be an occasionally useful little portal view into the real world, or an input into the generated 'chaperone walls' view in VR space.

Keep an eye on Hololens and CastAR - neither are anywhere near ready for release. AR is a harder job than straight VR.

OpticKing
Expert Trustee

Thoemse said:


The camera of the vive can be use by devs for whatever they want. Yes the Vive is a VR device. Noone hinders you from developing AR software with it though. 



While this may be true, it would seem counterproductive (at least in my eyes) to use the inferior vive camera (especially since he was talking about refunding the rift to get a vive solely for AR developing, when you can get the software for developing on the actual AR peripheral easily)

JakemanOculus
Heroic Explorer
Current VR headsets are crafted in a way that is very purposed for VR.  You need transparency to get AR.  The way you get transparency is by using a transparent screen, not an opaque screen with camera passthrough.  Trying to combine the two in this way is inappropriate and detracting.

mbze430
Rising Star
Can't wait for Hololens to go "consumer".  Totally getting that too!
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