Virtual reality head wear equipment which is strong?

In the past few months, we seem to have entered the era of "virtual reality" all of a sudden. Several companies have introduced "augmented reality" technology and virtual reality head-wearing devices. In fact, the technology has been under study for decades, thanks to the technological revolution in the smartphone industry, which allows people to produce increasingly small and sophisticated electronic components, thus making "virtual reality" come to us earlier. From the current launch of the product, this technology appears to be able to enter the assembly line production stage.

Let's revisit what "augmented reality" means, by using digital devices, to project information directly into your first view of the world. If it is a game-type head-wearing device, this means that the boundary between reality and virtual will be completely blurred. In addition to the word "augmented reality", there is the concept of "virtual reality". The term refers to a broader category, meaning the further integration of the virtual world with the real world. Your head movements can be tracked in a three-dimensional digital world, which makes this technology more consistent with the needs of movies and games.

So the problem is, virtual reality head wear equipment which strong? We have listed the following series of recently introduced head-wear equipment, you are eager to start to touch the pocket now you have a few notes? Don't worry, there's one you can definitely pay for, and definitely fun to play with ...

Samsung Gear VR

At the 2014 Berlin International Electronics Fair, Samsung shook off red cloth and announced to the public its newly developed product, Samsung Gear VR. This headset is actually an enhanced version of Oculus Rift, which does not need to be connected to a PC like Oculus Rift to gain a virtual reality gaming experience, nor does it have to be connected to Morpheus as Project PS4, and Samsung Gear VR is wirelessly connected on the Samsung glaxy Note 4. In terms of hardware, it brings together batteries, a location tracking system, a touchpad mounted on the side, and a Bluetooth-connected game as a control terminal. Sony's Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift use cameras to track the location of their head-mounted devices, and the Gear VR of Samsung works independently, making it even more distinctive.

Since this product is connected to its own production of Galaxy Note 4, it is simpler to put a smartphone in front of the helmet, which greatly reduces the threshold for the use of technology, but so far we do not know how much the price will be appropriate. But it is also because smartphones are limited to Samsung Galaxy Note 4, which is also a short board for the product. Only those who bought the phone could enjoy the technology, and given the limitations of the smart watches that Samsung once had, it is no doubt that Samsung is building a high wall to circle its products. Of course it's not a good thing, for a piece of augmented reality like Gear VR, you have to make sure you open it up to more handheld digital devices to succeed.

In terms of picture quality, note 4 This handheld device has a 2560 x 1440 qHD AMOLED, which, if mounted on the Samsung Gear VR, is equivalent to assigning a picture of approximately 1280 x 1440 pixels to each eye. The 96-degree angle of the fan field has not yet reached the standard of Oculus Rift. Although pixels are higher, we believe that Gear VR provides images that are not as sharp as Oculus Rift or Project Morpheus. The whole screen still has some sense of granularity. As for the viewing effect, we enjoyed the famous Cirque du Soleil show, watching Penguin from Madagascar and experimenting with an interstellar shooting game, to tell the truth, it feels more like a smartphone than an experience on a game host, "said the man." To tell you the truth, we have not been shocked by this visual effect.

However, such a device is still worth some of our expectations. After all, the above three pieces of material is just a demo, developers should be able to develop a higher quality of the video experience and gaming experience before the machine is officially released. At the same time, Samsung has told us that at least 100 applications can run on the system when it is sold throughout the world.

In terms of sound quality and industrial design, we can not make a comprehensive and objective evaluation of the quality of Gear VR. It does have a 3D surround sound effect and is also compatible with Bluetooth headphones. We just had a simple test at the Berlin Industrial Fair, and it's too early to make a more objective and impartial assessment, and we need to give it a little time. Gear VR the entire product's texture is more likely to be part of the digital product, rather than play a major role. There is a lot of plastic in the product structure. Still, it feels better to wear it on the head than to wear the latest Oculus Rift developer version, and we don't have the heavy sense of a head being pulled down.

In general, the Samsung Gear VR has all the elements of the early success of a virtual reality-wearing device, but it's a shame to be bundled with Samsung's smartphone ecosystem. We hope it will not cost more than the threshold of 100 euros, so that it can return to a digital accessories positioning, so as to attract a large number of consumers eyes.

On the whole, Gear VR is not designed for hardcore fans, but for ordinary digital technology consumers and those who are committed to developing in the virtual reality revolution.

Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift's seniority is significantly older, and it pioneered the wave of virtual reality equipment. It was invented by the 21-year-old engineer Bolmer Lachi (Palmer Luckey), a project that was successfully Kickstarter. This device can be plugged into your computer's DVI and USB ports, while also tracking your head movement, providing 3D graphics on the screen. It allows game programmers all over the world to open their brains, even if it allows people to enjoy movies on oversized screens, even though this oversized screen exists in the virtual world.

Oculus Rift is still in the process of development and the final consumer-oriented version is still not finalized, and we can only briefly introduce it to Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 (DK2). DK2 is using an OLED screen to maximize the elimination of dynamic blur and the instability of the screen, and this is the two points caused by the wearer before the dizziness nausea. The retention time of the afterglow on the screen is also reduced further, which can further guarantee the visual stability. The quality of the single Pseudophakic pixel 960x1080 improves the sharpness of the screen and reduces the "screen gate effect". The DK2 also incorporates a sophisticated, low-latency head position tracking system that allows you to have a 6-degree mobile space in your head, which ensures that the machine adapts to all virtual reality games on the market.

The product also brings together improved directional tracking systems, built-in latency testers, USB ports and new optical devices, redesigned software development kits, and further optimized Unreal Engine 4 game engines.

Sony Project Morpheus

Facebook spent 2 billion of dollars to buy Oculus VR has caused a lot of controversy. If you really want to get into the virtual reality world, you may consider another option: Sony's Project Morpheus. It can offer virtual reality on the PS4 that the company has opened.

At present, the product is still in the design phase of the prototype machine, only PS4 developers can access. It is said that the product has undergone 4 years of research and development, and ultimately the consumer version that can be connected to the mainframe, it is estimated that it will wait until next year to truly launch. Sony's PlayStation Global Studio President Yoshida Kepen has revealed to GameSpot that the company is still improving the hardware of the product, thus excluding the possibility of releasing the product in 2014.

Similarly, the price of Project Morpheus is not certain, but it is widely believed that the price will be lower than that of Sony's hmz-t2 999-euro personal 3D glasses. In an interview with EDGE magazine in April this year, Anton Mikhailov, a software engineer, said: "If we can't be sure that we can't afford to spend on commodity pricing, we won't be able to develop this project." ”

In terms of display effects, Project Morpheus still has a complete 1920 x 1080-pixel Full HD screen with Monocular resolution of 960 x 1080, and a viewport of 90 degrees. The Project Morpheus prototype was exposed at the June Electronic Entertainment Fair (E3) and the Cologne International games show in August, when the wearer found that the head-wearing device did not cover all of the field of vision, leak will let you see your own feet. The refresh rate for this product is 60Hz, which also explains why some users feel an unnatural movement blur. In this respect Oculus Rift do better, refresh rate of h in, Oculus Rift is using OLED screen, and Project Morpheus use LCD screen.

Project Morpheus can connect PS4 via USB and HDMI, and the company's senior game designer Jede Ashforth (Jed Ashforth) has hinted at the possibility of developing a wireless version. The technology giant in Japan is believed to be focusing on developing OLED displays in the future in an effort to resolve the problem of motion ambiguity. There are also reports that OLED screens will be modified to 2560 x 1440 resolution, which means the Monocular resolution reaches 1280 x 1140! Project Morpheus uses the camera on the PS4 host to perform a sporting chase that is tracked 1000 times per second, providing technical assurance for the most perfect seamless experience.

Carl Zeiss VR One

The product is a bit like the Samsung Gear VR and must be paired with a smartphone, but the only difference is that the device is not tied to the Zeiss VR one. Any smartphone with a size between 4.7 and 5.2 inches on an IOS and Android platform can be used with this headset. The product was released last December with two apps based on app. One is the media player, which is able to play files such as photos and Youtube videos, and the other is an app designed specifically for augmented reality. Its designers hope that its open source Unity3d SDK will have a broader space for future development.

The product, priced at $99, can be used on a range of smartphones, with a screen size between 4.7 and 5.2 inches. The product is seamless to a variety of smartphones, you only need to lightly on the phone, no need to purchase additional equipment to immediately enter the virtual reality of the world. The product has the finest industrial design in Germany and includes ergonomic principles. The black and white fuselage uses the wearable polycarbonate material to build. The product uses cameras on smartphones to project virtual worlds.

Zeiss, a company of engineers and designers from Berlin, worked together to build this excellent product. The Open-source Unity3d SDK is now open to programmers. Any programmer who wants to develop apps on smartphones should try, both IOS and Android platforms, and it's worth mentioning that the Unity3d SDK has lowered the threshold and difficulty of development. The SDK can be downloaded on bitbucket.

Avegant Glyph

Imagine you're sitting on a plane, or a hospital waiting area with a big, cool-looking headset with a device that looks like a headset that covers your eyes, you can use it to watch a TV series "FireWire," or play a Call of duty. You adjust your sitting posture so that your eyes are fully adapted to the internal structure of the machine, and then suddenly a TV show or game screen appears in your field of vision. This is equivalent to appreciating digital content on a 80-inch TV screen! However, the fact that the content does not appear on the LCD screen is directly projected into your eyes.

This is Glyph, a 499 dollar head-wearing device that will further transform the immersive digital technology into reality. At first glance it looks like a big, black-and-white headset, but it's not as simple as it looks, and it has won a high degree of recognition from a number of tech media.

Most of the head-wear equipment is large and bulky. But Avegant's Glyph is small and exquisite, all thanks to its display technology. The common head-wear device uses a technique such as a traditional smartphone-like display image, and it uses a micro-mirror array to render the image directly. The most important technology behind the product, known as the "retinal virtual display technology", makes it so distinguished that it competes with other competitors, such as Oculus or Google Glass. This technique allows you to experience virtual reality in the most authentic way you can experience the real world, with no fatigue, no dizziness or nausea. 2 million micro-mirrors will light directly into your eyes, there is no so-called physical screen, the screen directly present in the retina, and then in your mind to form the most authentic, but also the most shocking picture.

The product is not only lightweight, power consumption is also relatively low, you can project a more sharp picture. The reviewers experienced the picture is extremely beautiful: high-definition, brightly colored, the picture is not distorted accurately, there is no so-called "window screen effect" or particle effect. The reviewers ' eyes don't get tired, and looking back at the real world doesn't need to be adapted.

The concept of the product really embodies the "Plug and play." "The fantasy drift of the youth pie" the movie is perfectly 3D, without any distortion. The reviewers also play "Call of Duty", which requires only the head of the user to move, so the character's head moves in the game. Glyph will not occupy your entire field of vision, probably occupy the picture 45 degrees of slice area. You can still look down at your keyboard, or on both sides. This and Oculus Rift and some different, Oculus Rift but completely immersed, your eyes completely away from the equipment.

Google Cardboard

What, like something strange came in? That's right! The image above is Google's virtual reality head-wearing device: cardboard! Embed the smartphone in a paper shell and tie it to your head. It is an April Fool's joke how to hear such an idea. But small knitting here very seriously to tell you: this is really feasible! And it also provides the cheapest way to enjoy virtual reality technology!

For the virtual reality of the head wearing equipment, Google for the public to provide this unique stunt, that is, DIY equipment, the exclusive strategy! First you have to cut the cardboard to fit the size and shape you want. Next you need a pair of 40mm lenses that will be used by the eye to watch your smartphone, a pair of magnets as a switching device. Velcro and rubber bands are used to keep your mobile phone in a certain position, near-field communication can automatically open cardboard app application!

After all, your smartphone has all the necessary gyro sensors and positioning systems that can be combined to track your head movements. Similar to this one product is the Durovis Dive, it only uses the higher quality material, but also has the function of preventing perspiration.

These bits and pieces are really hard to come by, so companies are starting to offer them. You can buy separate parts or buy one that has already been assembled. You can even choose some better material to replace the cardboard. Here, our reviewers purchased a complete set of materials from a dodocase company in Los Angeles and assembled them themselves!

When all is installed, the whole head wears the device to appear sturdy and strong, and the weight is very light! It's not on the head, you either hold it with your hand or fasten it to the head with a velcro. But anyway, it's a great performance! The entire cardboard successfully blocked the edges of the light, and the internal device successfully cut and separated the visual field of the eyes. The switch device of the magnet can even be called exquisite! Here, it uses the magnetometer on your smartphone to detect changes in the magnetic field around the head-worn device. But it should be noted that not all smartphones have magnetometer, so you can also stick a piece of copper tape on one side of the device, which is used to work with your touch screen, double-click on the copper tape to allow the phone to do the following, as if it sensed the magnet suction.

Velcro will make the phone very tightly attached to the paper shell, but whether Google or DodoCase in the official proposal to remind users to use a rubber band to make it more stable, so as to prevent the phone drop caused by the risk of broken screen. It's a bit difficult to put smart phones, paper shells, and all the places where the eyes are positioned, which requires repeated debugging. If there is no right, then 3D visual effects will be lost, the whole picture will become blurred. If you feel unwell after wearing this device, don't force yourself to push the phone a little bit to see if it works. If everything feels good and all the parts are in place, the image presented is enough to satisfy you.

To sum up, this paper shell version of the virtual reality wearing equipment for anyone interested in virtual reality is really a very good choice, you can use it to try the virtual reality of this new technology. Of course, for professionals, the effect it offers is certainly not satisfying. But it is really cheap, for the public, so that ordinary people can taste, the use of low-cost smartphones, such as Google Nexus mobile phones can be easily achieved.

DodoCase offers a built-in near-field communication feature (NFC) that automatically activates the DodoCase virtual reality app. Although the interface is a bit ugly, but can automatically aggregate all in the Google play Store with virtual reality function content, most of the current is a sample or beta version of the app application, there is no real meaningful content appears. One of them is called "VR toilet Simulator", in which your perspective is to start with a person standing on the toilet, looking around a dungeon-like toilet. These applications include the work of outdoor photography, and there is no point in it, and in fact, the best application that can truly embody this technology is in the official Google carboard app. You can enjoy a row of tribal masks inside, explore the Google Earth in three-dimensional mode, or watch Youtube video on a large screen in the virtual world, and follow a small mouse to see how it keeps losing its red-brimmed hat in windy days.

This product is sold in dodocase.com, the price is $24.95.

Archos VR Headset

This product is essentially Google cardboard. Only in the material above more elegant, no longer choose cardboard. The product can be connected to any smartphone that is below 6 inches or 6 inches. The French company that produces the product says it can be used on both the IOS platform and the Android platform, and even Windows Phone. This is the first two environments we believe the authenticity of this, as for this third environment, it is estimated that you want to find a Microsoft mobile phone platform to develop virtual reality technology application programmer, it is estimated to be more cost ...

So what's the strong one?

Say so much, in the end which is strong? Do not have the patience to read the full text of the friends can directly a pull in the end, see Small series to give the conclusion is good: Want to enter the virtual reality of the world faster, please go to understand Google cardboard, you can spend 24.5 dollars on the dodocase.com can buy a, but have to assemble their own hands Picture of the quality of Please choose Avegant Glyph, the major scientific and technological media to give the evaluation is extremely high, the key is that its display technology unique; people who want to think of their head-wearing devices as an accessory to smartphones, or Samsung's die-hard fans, will no doubt use Samsung Gear vr;oculus Rift and Sony Project Morpheus still need to wait and see, they are still a long way from the upper world sale and believe the final version will not disappoint.

Source: Wearable,verge.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)