As we sit on the precipice of two main VR bulletins this 12 months — Apple’s VR glasses and Meta’s upcoming Venture Cambria headset — it’s changing into more and more clear that each of those headsets have an unimaginable quantity in frequent. On the coronary heart of all it is a design philosophy that isn’t centered round one medium. As an alternative of simply VR, you get a mixture of digital actuality and augmented actuality often called XR or, typically, combined actuality.
I had the pleasure of talking with John Fan, PhD, the CEO and founding father of Kopin Company, who has been working within the AR/VR business for over 30 years. What particularly obtained my consideration was Kopin’s Pancake lenses, a product that delivers thinner lenses than something at the moment accessible within the client AR/VR area. Actually, the slim and smooth Apple VR headset and Meta Venture Cambria (opens in new tab) are made doable by pancake lenses, which substitute the Fresnel lenses on headsets just like the Oculus Quest 2 (opens in new tab).
However do these flatter lenses actually make a distinction? Does a wider FoV matter? Will Apple really attempt to take the VR area over from Meta, and what position does Fan’s firm play in all of this? These solutions and extra are beneath.
The Quest for smaller headsets
Over the previous six years, client VR headsets have shrunk significantly in measurement and bulk. Regardless of utilizing the identical lenses, the Meta Quest 2 was a whopping 84mm thinner than the unique Oculus Quest when it launched. Now, with the approaching Apple VR headset and Meta’s Venture Cambria — which is assumed to be known as the Meta Quest Professional at this level — headsets are being shrunk even additional.
The key? Pancake optics.
However, what’s notably attention-grabbing is that pancake optics aren’t something “new,” per se. Kopin Company really owns the worldwide trademark for the time period “pancake optics” since Fan is the inventor of the time period.
So what makes pancake optics totally different from the present tech? Fan describes pancake optics as an “accordion” that bounces gentle and magnifies a picture. Consider it like a kind of rooms stuffed with mirrors, which make the room seem for much longer than it really is. Pancake optics can take a tiny show and enlarge it, all with no need a lot bodily area.
3M confirmed off a pancake-style prototype in 2021, which illustrates the large bodily distinction between present Fresnel lenses and upcoming pancake ones (seen beneath).
The distinction in headset depth will be simply seen within the leaked prototypes for Meta’s Venture Cambria which were floating round, which showcase a headset that’s considerably thinner than the Meta Quest 2. Equally, Apple’s VR headset is assumed to make use of some type of pancake optics, which assist give it the smooth profile we’ve seen in leaked schematics and renders on the internet.
Pancake optics aren’t simply good for slimming issues down. They’re additionally nice for dropping the burden that VR headsets have turn into infamously identified for.
Regardless of client VR headsets solely simply now showing with slimmer profiles, Fan factors out that his firm has been producing pancake optics for navy use for over a decade now, particularly in gunsights. Nevertheless, the expertise is just now changing into inexpensive sufficient to be put right into a client headset. As we properly know from the rumored $799 value (opens in new tab) of the Quest Professional (and the assumed lofty value of the Apple VR headset), that doesn’t essentially translate into inexpensive for a lot of potential customers.
However pancake optics aren’t simply good for slimming issues down. They’re additionally nice for dropping the burden that VR headsets have turn into infamously identified for. Except for the smaller measurement, pancake optics — at the very least, those from Kopin — are made from plastic as an alternative of glass. Plastic can also be cheaper and simpler to mass-produce than glass in these types of merchandise. Primarily based on what we all know, that’s not going to assist Apple or Meta’s new headsets a lot however, at the very least sooner or later, the lenses shouldn’t be a cost-prohibitive half.
Greater will not be at all times higher
Anybody who has used a VR headset will inform you how slender the sector of view (FoV) is on most headsets. Within the case of the Quest 2, you’re a roughly 88 to 90-degree FoV, which is roughly half that of what the human eye can naturally see. The result’s a kind of tunnel imaginative and prescient at first, though the sensation tends to soften away the longer you immerse your self in an expertise or sport.
Fan informed me he does not assume {that a} wider FoV is the reply to creating VR headsets higher. At the very least, not in the intervening time.
As such, many have known as for future VR headsets to widen the FoV to create a extra pure sense of being and immersion. Upcoming headsets just like the PS VR2 (opens in new tab) might be using a wider, 110-degree FoV because of this.
However Fan informed me he does not assume {that a} wider FoV is the reply to creating VR headsets higher. At the very least, not in the intervening time. I discovered this fairly shocking for the reason that prevailing knowledge amongst lovers says that wider FoV is at all times higher. Actually, some headsets from firms like Pimax push that FoV to 200-degrees.
Regardless of just a few fanatic headsets pushing that narrative, Fan will not be the one one which thinks FoV isn’t an important a part of the puzzle proper now. Andrew Bosworth, the present CTO of Meta, additionally agrees and even talked about it on his most up-to-date AMA on Instagram.
Unpopular opinion however I am with Boz on that one.Including 10% extra fov will not promote any extra headsets. It should simply make the hardcore followers happier imo.Add processing energy, higher battery life and pixel density.Shadows are extra immersive than seeing blurry on the sting of the eyes. https://t.co/b70OngOwxlJune 2, 2022
Wider FoV reduces efficient decision, subsequently making the show look decrease high quality.
Some might say he’s doing this to downplay expectations of super-wide FoV on the upcoming Venture Cambria headset, however Fan says that wider FoV reduces efficient decision, subsequently making the show look decrease high quality.
Working example, the PS VR2’s show pushes a decision of 2000×2040 per eye, whereas the Quest 2 solely hits 1832×1920 per eye. Regardless of that distinction, the efficient decision of the 2 headsets is similar due to the FoV distinction.
Some have surmised (opens in new tab) that peripheral imaginative and prescient will be simulated through the use of lights as an alternative of an precise show. That might create an identical impact for the reason that human eye doesn’t understand a lot element within the periphery, and would seemingly work equally to a Govee TV backlight (opens in new tab), offering a wealth of depth data with little processing effort.
The previous is clear
When Google Glass first launched, the lone crystal show that hovers simply above the appropriate eyeball turned a focus for the gadget’s design. Once you wore it, data displayed on Glass was at all times seen simply above the middle of your view.
However this sort of design was extraordinarily limiting. Not solely might you solely match a really small quantity of data on the tiny show, but it surely wasn’t comfy to look upward for lengthy intervals of time.
Know-how isn’t the limiting issue, on this case. It’s really the human mind.
That’s as a result of expertise isn’t the limiting issue, on this case. It’s really the human mind — perhaps, extra particularly, how human eyeballs work and the way the mind perceives data via totally different focal planes. Working example, if you happen to’re making an attempt to deal with a small clear show proper in entrance of your face, then focus again on the true atmosphere round you, your mind and eyes are going to get drained in a short time.
Fan notes that this was one of many greatest limitations of Google Glass when it was launched and why future XR headsets that make the most of video see-through will win the patron mindshare over glasses or headsets with clear shows.
That’s as a result of video see-through — or what many individuals simply confer with as combined actuality in a headset — is all offered on the identical visible aircraft. When every little thing is offered on a single show, digital objects higher meld in with actual objects and don’t require an individual’s eyes to continuously refocus on various things. It’s all proper there to see and takes no actual effort on behalf of your mind.
The Meta Quest 2 already does this however is proscribed to displaying simply black and white video due to a number of components. The upcoming Venture Cambria claims to repair this and, as Zuckerberg confirmed off (opens in new tab), could make it doable to do much more in VR than ever earlier than.
Considered one of my favourite examples is understanding with a coach in your individual bodily area at dwelling, because the individual instructing the exercise seems to be realistically “beamed” into your area. But it surely’s not nearly “realism” right here for me. It’s additionally about serving to folks work out with the correct type. Meta’s video confirmed how the teacher would ask customers to place their fingers in a sure place to get the place proper, and I think about rumored Cambria options like physique monitoring (opens in new tab) would additional improve such a possible characteristic.
It’s mentioned Apple’s VR headset could possibly be utilizing the identical form of combined actuality expertise to allow higher at-home exercises, improve productiveness by creating digital displays in your pc, and plenty of extra issues. The Quest 2 can already do most of this however, as is at all times the case in expertise, one thing higher is simply across the nook.
Irrespective of which firm you go together with ultimately, the long run appears fairly clear. Future headsets will provide the power to combine the digital with precise actuality in a method that’s not at the moment accessible, and that’s extraordinarily thrilling to consider.
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