Sony HMZ-T1 VR Headset

[Madfish]

Originally Posted by hc_wolf

I have the cash laying around. I will buy one when they get serious and build it with 180 degree FOV (wrap around) and a resolution double 1920*1080p. Head tracking is solved if you have track IR. Just build a damn good VR goggles under $1000 for god sake and stop pussy footing around with pathetic resolution. We should have had these 10 years ago.

You really know your stuff eh? *facepalm*

We're talking about OLEDs here. The resolution is fine. Sure 1080 would be better but be realistic. Do you have any clue how complex these optics are?

Also you request completely silly things and TrackIR is NOT working as it only covers a laughable angle. Why buy an HMD if your head movements are not translated 1:1? You could stick with a projector / current gen displays.

The most important things needed are:
- full tracking support e.g. 1:1
- focal depth and eye tracking to prevent harming the eye and irritation / strain
- extremely reduced weight for a strainless experience and to keep the HMD in place during rapid head and / or body movements



I'm in the same boat as phoenix1963. I worked with these things and often try to give them a chance but the technology isn't there yet still.
Additionally people / potential customers hold back development because they request the most silly things like FOV (every human has a unique FOV, you can't do this perfectly in hardware currently), resolution (the resolution alone has NOTHING to do with image quality) etc.

[Jamir]

I know TIR5 with these is not perfect but i know it will be a LOT better then standstill monitor front of me. Anyway i'm planning to do something like this in near future -----> http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/...num=1231185714

[MACADEMIC]

I wonder why Sony did not include an electronic gyro and accelerometer in the unit. It would have allowed 1:1 headtracking. Could imagine though that they've extensively tried and tested this.

Perhaps a reason why they didn't is that the optics only work properly when all is precisely in place and that head movements would lead to too much position shift? Or did they find it would lead to motion sickness?

Anyway, looking forward to more reports from early adopters, such as this one: http://widescreengamingforum.com/for...-t1-hmd-head-m

MAC

[Jamir]

Originally Posted by MACADEMIC

I wonder why Sony did not include an electronic gyro and accelerometer in the unit. It would have allowed 1:1 headtracking. Could imagine though that they've extensively tried and tested this.

Perhaps a reason why they didn't is that the optics only work properly when all is precisely in place and that head movements would lead to too much position shift? Or did they find it would lead to motion sickness?

Anyway, looking forward to more reports from early adopters, such as this one: http://widescreengamingforum.com/for...-t1-hmd-head-m

MAC

I think motion sickness will be problem for some users with or without headtracking. It's issue for sure if headtracking is not up the task and there is no easy and cost effective solution to do 1:1 tracking without lag and drift +other issues. So to me it's good thing not to have tracking built in, price would have been much higher or it would have been useless at this price...

[Madfish]

I believe that the issue with gyros is that they are not locking very well, especially considering rapid head movements / rotation. They are inert but not fixed in space. Sooner or later you'd lose your horizontal focus point. And that'd be a hazzle for "normal" people I guess.

Head tracking currently doesn't just not work well with it. It's damn irritating to me. The difference between a static screen environment and an HMD is that you're much less immerged and your brain doesn't get tricked by it. I just hate the feeling of an HMD with a tracking ratio other than 1:1 because my senses are governed by instinct and fast response from the brain and not by outside restrictions like IR tracking systems. It's just a pain to always search around the screen because your head automatically moved and found the picture out of place.

That said the ardunio solution might prove to be interesting but comes with the issues of usability and most importantly weight! It's so uncomfortable. Also keep in mind that naturalpoint with it's damn criminal attempts to monopolize the tracker market literally dampens these efforts to almost zero as you can't interface with most games. Freetrack anyone?
Also the only solution to cover the issue of even more weight is a helmet system that spreads the weight and takes away these rediculous strap solutions. However I need not tell you guys what a pain it is to wear a full helmet for hours. After all we're armchair pilots down here on the ground. :p

Add to this the issues I mentioned on the last page and you'll find that, once the euphoric feelings are gone you either want a better system or don't want to deal with the downsides anymore. For me it's that I want a better, lighter, focus sensitive and full tracking device before I can really feel comfortable with it. The only thing I could sacrifice is the eye focus part since that'd require support by the games anyways and I doubt we'll see this very soon.

[TomcatViP]

You are absolutely true.

But all they need now is to separate the head tracking unit and the display (what did Natural point but in the other way )

Kinect techno might give some helps here.

What surprise me the most is the poor plastics and low ergonomic. At the age of integrated dev with CAD system that have a full array of tools to do it right from start I am quite amazed...

[klem]

One solution to full headtracking could be something like the magnetic flux detection system that was used on some military simulator visuals back in th 80's. It was used to track the pilots eye vector or 'Area of Interest' for projecting high difinition display only where it was needed against a lower resolution 360' background - a remedy to the processing power needed and the limited technology of the day. The magnetic source was carried on the top of the helmet (read headset strap for us) and a detector fixed to the canopy overhead. It could perhaps be done with LEDs similar to TrackIR but allowing much more rotation of the head.

For that to be useful you would need these goggles or perhaps three or more displays because you would not be facing forward when "looking over your shoulder", something TrackIR currently manages to do on one screen.