How to head into VR without wearing a headset

(kyushu-u.ac.jp)

22 points | by Betelbuddy 3 days ago

4 comments

  • happymellon 1 hour ago
    Didn't they do this with arcade machines 20 years ago?
    • FrankyHollywood 1 hour ago
      Well, not with a micromirror array which directs a different image to each eye.

      Would love to have it at home and watch a concert! I tried watching a VR concert at YouTube with goggles but the experience is not very relaxed

    • pnut 54 minutes ago
      And the SGI CAVE 35 years ago
  • schobi 1 hour ago
    Well.. it sounds like they want to "avoid bulky VR headsets"

    But their alternative is even bulkier. A chair with a big screen, more like a personal holodeck box to sit in.

    I totally believe this can be used to place better optics and avoid motion sickness, for better immersion.

    The product vision is not clear for me - maybe as a better version of the single person privacy phone booths that can be found in shared office environments? At home? Rather not

    • oniony 41 minutes ago
      It did make me laugh. I read the whole article envisaging some sort of mini holodeck only to get to the final reveal image at the end.
  • cubefox 12 minutes ago
    This is not a head-mounted display, it's a chair-mounted display and as such totally unsuited for VR. The mirror system they are using for the display is autostereoscopic (the eyes receive different pictures), but this is not sufficient for VR, which also requires head tracking.

    How the autostereoscopic effect is achieved isn't explained either, and it sounds as if this part isn't even new.

    Their main innovation seems to be: they mounted the display to a rotating chair and attached an iPad to the chair in order to track the chair rotation.

  • chaostheory 1 hour ago
    Only Gen Alpha and younger accepts VR headsets. The problem with non-wearable solutions is both space required and price
    • sReinwald 38 minutes ago
      I'm a millennial, and I've been using VR for the better part of seven years, ever since the Oculus Rift S. If you look at niche communities like sim racing, flight sims, or space sims, you'll find plenty of millennials and Gen Xers who use VR extensively because it offers a level of immersion that a screen (or three) simply can't match.

      I suspect your perception of VR users is somewhat skewed by 12-year-olds playing Gorilla Tag on standalone Meta Quests. There's a substantial enthusiast community outside that demographic.