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State of Gaming VR for PC in 2022 – and other things the sites don’t tell you

Despite VR having been hyped up for the last couple of years, not very much has happened in the past two years. The hardware has not really refreshed, but this year at least one new exciting entry has come in and another is promised. Search results of reviews usually have the same group of suspects but usually leave out two important companies that are definitely worth a view. Surprisingly, setting up your VR headset is not a question of plug and play. It’s a bit finicky and takes some time. Games need to be optimised and you will run into strange new terms and things you need to run (Windows Mixed Reality, SteamVR, Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR, OpenXR) and settings you need to optimise per game. This article offers a primer on that. Despite this, the experience in games is quite amazing!

Tethered or Untethered
Options and Specifications
Headsets
Specifications Table
Software Setup
Optimising Graphics Settings
Troubleshooting

Tethered or Untethered

First you need to make a decision on how you want to use your VR goggles. They come in the types Tethered (which has a cable connected to the PC) or untethered, which uses wireless communication of some sort to send the image signal.

The biggest advantage of tethered is that the cable data throughput is much much higher, allowing for much more detail and higher framerates (which are important for some games, especially simulators. If you are going to use your VR headset in Flight Simulator 2022, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Star Wars Squadrions, driving sims, etc you really will need a tethered headset). The disadvantage is that walking around can be a bit more tricky as there is a cable to mind. Considering the length of cables (6m +) this doesn’t have to be a problem, especially if you are sitting down. There are also pulley arrangements available to have the cable come off the ceiling if you don’t mind how that looks.

The biggest advantage of untethered is that you can wander around easily without tripping on a cable.

Speaking of wandering around, one of the first things you do when you install the headset is set up a border with your headset delineating where you can and can’t walk so you won’t bump into things like your walls, chairs, desk, etc.

Most manufacturers also have a “pro” version which is better. As this article is for gaming, I will leave these out.

Options and Specifications

Then come a plethora of options to look at. For the specifications, higher is usually better (unless you are talking about latency and weight). You do pay for the privilege though:

  • Resolution – be careful, sometimes it’s a per eye resolution, sometimes it’s a total resolution for both eyes. Sometimes there is just one display and sometimes there are two displays (one for each eye). Two is better.
  • Field of View (FOV) – this can be both vertical and horizontal and is expressed as an angle.
  • Camera system – some VR sets (the Quest 2 and the Pico 4) have a camera mounted on the helmet so you can “see” through the headset when turned on (Passthrough). The Pico 4 is colour and very good, the Quest 2 is black and white. Some VR sets offer eye tracking inside your headset. Some systems use these camera’s to see the controllers as a tracking system. (see video from 13 minutes)
  • Tracking system – an external tracking system (base station) is best (but takes up space) and your controllers won’t lose tracking so often. Camera’s on the headset can be confused if it is too dark or light or if you swing your controllers out of the field of view.
  • Controllers – some people prefer some controllers to others, eg the HP Reverb G2 has a bad reputation for it’s controllers and the Pico 4 design is praised. Sometimes you can use other system’s controllers, eg you can use the HTC Vive controllers on the HP Reverb G2 and the Valve Index. Check to see if the controllers are in the box you buy (if you want them. If you’re upgrading headset you may not want them).
  • Data throughput – is the data throughput sufficient for your needs?
  • Refresh rate
  • Peak Pixel Density (PPD) – Readability on the screen. Some screens are sharper than others
  • Glare on the screen
  • Amount of light bleed – light can get into the headset, which is a distraction. How well does the foam sit around your face.
  • Comfort of the headband – also a function of foam, how easy the straps are to adjust
  • Weight and balance – a heavier headset can be more comfortable than a lighter one if the headband is more comfortable and better balanced. I haven’t put weight in the table as this is a very subjective experience.
  • Interpupillary Distance (IPD) or eye seperation configuration – is it easy to adjust this to your eyes?
  • Software in the ecosystem – Meta has spent some time gaining exclusive software for the Quest 2 to entice you to buy their hardware, so if you buy something else you won’t be able to play their games. the PS5VR system only works on a Playstation 5.
  • If you wear glasses, check the size of the glasses spacer – sometimes you can find aftermarket spacers.
  • Sound quality / Microphone
  • Ease of setup!

I have a comparison table at the end.

The Headsets

I have divided this into 2 parts – the standard list you will have seen everywhere, the extended list contains headsets not so frequently indexed by Google.

The standard list:

  • Meta Quest 2 for EUR 449,-

Until the coming of the Pico 4 this was the ‘best value’ option. However, you are being tracked in everything you do by Facebook – it requires a Facebook account login, so for me personally, this makes it a no go. It’s a few years old by now and a bit outdated. Enough said.

Find it here: https://www.meta.com/fi/en/quest/products/quest-2/

  • HTC Vive Cosmos Elite

The affordable option to for the low end of the market. Tethered. $449 headset only, full kit $749.

  • HTC Vive Pro 2

The better VR Set. This is the high spec standard unit (but not the highest spec on paper!). Tethered. The controllers are often used by owners of the Valve Index and the HP Reverb G2. $799 without kit, $1399 with base station and 2 controllers. You can buy trackers for your arms and legs seperately. Using a wifi kit can be turned into an untethered unit.

  • Valve Index

The upper midrange unit. Tethered with base station. $1079,- for the full kit, $539,- only the headset.

The extended list

  • Pico 4

The newest addition to this list – and everyone is raving about it. The new (2022) technology is a step up for everyone. Untethered (unfortunately, as I’m a simmer!). $429,- with 128 GB, $499,- with 256 GB. You only need the extra memory if you want to load games from the eco system on the device. If you PC game apparently this is not necessary. Also see the video above if you want to know more about this device.

Note: It’s a Chinese product created by ByteDance – the owner of TikTok. Whilst there is no proof that I have found yet that this is a data grabbing monster (but please correct me if I am wrong) there is plenty of fingerpointing at ByteDance and TikTok is!

  • HP Reverb G2v2

Tethered. A very good upper mid range with the sharpest screen and best audio. A very popular choice for simming. $650,- for the complete set. Make sure you get a v2 version – you can recognise this by the cable having a box on it with a button to turn it on and off and the headset itself having 2 magnetically removable pieces (glasses spacers) in front of the screen – they also look different

Left is the G2V2, right is the G2V1

There is a problem with the cable guide which in some cases makes it snap in half. You can contact HP for a RMA for this. There are rumors that HP is getting out of the VR business.

  • Varjo Aero
https://www.linkielist.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aero_desktop_0aa0923902.png

The absolute top end, tethered. EUR 1999,-.

  • Pimax 5K Super

Great specs, but apparently setup is fiddly. EUR 641,- and EUR 289,- for the controllers. Optional hand and eye tracking modules and I am unsure if you need to buy the headphones seperately.

  • Pimax 8K X

Great specs, but apparently setup is fiddly. $1179,- and EUR 289,- for the controllers. Optional hand and eye tracking modules and I am unsure if you need to buy the headphones seperately.

  • Pimax 12K

To be released. Hopefully.

Specifications Table


HTC Cosmos Elite HTC Vive Pro2 Valve Index Pico 4 HP Reverb G2V2 Varjo Aero Pimax 5K Super Pimax 8K X
Resolution 1440 x 1700 pixels per eye (2880 x 1700 pixels combined) 2448 × 2448 pixels per eye (4896 x 2448 pixels combined) dual 1440×1600 RGB LCDs 2160×2160 per-eye 2160 x 2160 pixels per eye (4320 x 2160 pixels combined). RGB sub-pixels Dual Mini LED LCD; 2880 x 2720 px per eye 2560 X 1440 pixels per eye (5120 X 1440 pixels combined) 3840 X 2160 pixels per eye (7680 X 2160 pixels combined)
Field of View Up to 110 degrees Up to 120 degrees (horizontal) Optimized eye relief adjustment allows a typical user experience 20º more than the HTC Vive 105 degrees 114 degrees Horizontal: 115°
Diagonal: 134° at 12 mm eye relief
Diagonal 200 degrees Diagonal 200 degrees
Refresh Rate 90 Hz 90/120 Hz (only 90Hz supported via VIVE Wireless Adapter) 80/90/120/144Hz (144Hz experimental) 72Hz / 90 Hz 90Hz 90Hz 90/120/144/160/180Hz*
*Higher refresh rates are only available at lower FOV settings.
60/75/90Hz (native mode) 110Hz (upscaling mode)
Tracking system 6DoF Inside-out Tracking SteamVR™ Base Station Tracking 2.0 SteamVR 2.0 sensors, compatible with SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 base stations 6 DoF positioning system HP Reverb G2 inside/out 6 DOF motion tracking, gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer SteamVR™ 2.0/1.0
Eye tracking 200 Hz with sub-degree accuracy; 1-dot calibration for foveated rendering
G-sensor, gyroscope, SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 Tracking System G-sensor, gyroscope, SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 Tracking System
Headphone Stereo Headphone Hi-Res certified headset (via USB-C analog signal)
Hi-Res certified headphones (removable)
High impedance headphones support (via USB-C analog signal)
Built-in: 37.5mm off-ear Balanced Mode Radiators (BMR), Frequency Response: 40Hz – 24KHz, Impedance: 6 Ohm, SPL: 98.96 dBSPL at 1cm.

3.5 mm audio jack 3.5mm audio jack (integrated microphone) 3.5mm audio jack (integrated microphone)
Microphone Integrated microphones Integrated dual microphones Dual Microphone Array, Frequency response: 20Hz – 24kHz, Sensitivity: -25dBFS/Pa @ 1kHz

In-ear headphones with mic in-box

Connections USB 3.0 (or later), DP 1.2, Proprietary Connection to Faceplates Bluetooth, USB-C port for peripherals, DP 1.2 (DP 1.4 required for full resolution) 5m tether, 1m breakaway trident connector. USB 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2, 12V power, Aux Headphone Out 3.5mm
DisplayPort™ 1.3, USB 3.0 type C, power adapter Headset adapter and USB-C cable (5-metre) in-box
PC connections: DisplayPort and USB-A 3.0
1 x DisplayPort 1.4
1 x USB 3.0 Type A
1 x USB 2.0 Type A
1 x DisplayPort 1.4
1 x USB 3.0 Type A
1 x USB 2.0 Type A
IPD Adjustable Eye Comfort Setting (IPD) Adjustable IPD range of 57-70mm 58mm – 70mm range physical adjustment 62 – 72mm best adjustment system 64mm +/- 4mm by hardware slide Automatic IPD adjustment with motor
Supported IPD range: 57–73 mm
60mm – 70mm range physical adjustment ± 2mm with software adjustment 60mm – 70mm range physical adjustment ± 2mm with software adjustment
Camera

Stereo 960 x 960 pixel, global shutter, RGB (Bayer)
2 front-facing cameras and 2 side-facing cameras,


PPD


20.6
35

Software Setup

When you set up a VR headset, you will need to download and install Windows Mixed Reality from the Windows App Store. After setup You most likely will need to install SteamVR. SteamVR allows you to play games, even if they were not bought in the Steam Store (eg in the Epic store). You will also need to install Windows Mixed Reality for Steam. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/enthusiast-guide/using-steamvr-with-windows-mixed-reality.

Do you need to install OpenXR?
Use OpenXR
From your computer, open the SteamVR app
Head to Settings
Select Show in Advanced Settings
Head to the Developer tab
Set Current OpenXR runtime as “OpenXR runtime”

Sign up for betas

This is advised by Microsoft in their guide https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/enthusiast-guide/using-steamvr-with-windows-mixed-reality

In Steam, use the drop-down under the Library menu to filter to Tools.
In the list, right-click SteamVR and select Properties.
Select the Betas tab.
Opt in to “beta – public beta” and select Close to confirm. The beta access code field should be left blank.

In Steam, use the drop-down under the Library menu to filter to Software.
In the list, right-click Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR and select Properties.
Select the Betas tab.
Opt in to “beta – public beta” and select Close to confirm. The beta access code field should be left blank.

Optimising your Graphics settings

Motion Reprojection

With it entirely off there is a bit of stuttering, but detail clarity is very sharp. With it on motion is fluid

Disable overlays

  • Epic: C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Extras\Overlay and rename or move the two files:
    EOSOverlayRenderer-Win64-Shipping.exe
    EOSOverlayRenderer-Win32-Shipping.exe
  • Steam: settings>In Game>Enable Steam Overlay while in-game UNCHECK
  • XBOX: Disable the Xbox Game Bar overlay (yes on windows) Enter windows settings from the start menu, Select Gaming -> Xbox Game Bar -> Toggle the overlay to the off position

External Apps

https://store.steampowered.com/app/908520/fpsVR/ – fpsVR

Troubleshooting

not enough virtual memory can be a problem

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/crash-to-desktop-without-error-message/130085 – limit fps in nvidia control panel

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/crash-to-desktop-without-error-message/130085/3244 – The HP Reberb G2 goes to sleep after a while despite the change in the registry, and to have prevent the sleep in the device manager. I switch it to VR and it starts again. We are now at 4 hours of flight. And 0 CTD
In Device Manager → Universal Serial Bus (USBs) controller go through each device and in the “Power Management Options” tab uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device”. SteamVR settigns Startup/Shudown

https://www.reddit.com/r/HPReverb/comments/xo5v2z/holographicshell_processwindows_11_performance/ – Run cmd/terminal and paste ‘logman query HolographicShell -ets’ to see if it’s running. If it is, end it using ‘logman stop HolographicShell -ets’ and check

Can’t see steamVR settings – click on icon in taskbar, right click on settings window, select ‘move’ use the keyboard arrows to move it to main display

If you have a large monitor you can run into the problem that your monitor will move all the icons to the top left when it turns off. To stop this you either need to get an EDID pass through adapter, but a hdmi edid pass through adapter has to work for the given resolution as well as the refresh rate – and for > 60Hz at 4k (HDMI 2.0 specs) must be HDMI 2.1 compatible. There is not much in the >4K@60Hz space and what is there, is expensive.

https://www.amazon.com/EVanlak-Passthrough-Generrtion-Eliminated-Thunderbolt/dp/B07YMTMMH5/ref=pd_day0fbt_img_sccl_1/144-2713285-9100846?pd_rd_w=sYUmB&content-id=amzn1.sym.b7c02f9a-a0f8-4f90-825b-ad0f80e296ea&pf_rd_p=b7c02f9a-a0f8-4f90-825b-ad0f80e296ea&pf_rd_r=CJQKNYGXPKDGCV8A9TG7&pd_rd_wg=ZNHTB&pd_rd_r=0abd637b-5927-4172-a1a5-6455822beee1&pd_rd_i=B07YMTMMH5&psc=1

You can try https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/8e35fe49-6f89-4476-b138-c24a93d98089/change-the-screen-resolution-using-registry-or-command-line registry settings.

https://www.tenforums.com/graphic-cards/10681-tutorial-how-change-windows-10-default-resolution.html

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1108325-windows-10-set-default-resolution

Good luck and have fun – playing Elite Dangerous is a whole new experience in VR!

LG’s Stretchable bendable scrunchable Screen Promises a Future of Shatter-Proof Tech

LG is working to bring the flexibility of OLEDs to smaller devices, and today revealed the world’s first 12-inch panel that’s both flexible and stretchable, like a giant piece of rubber band, improving its ability to survive wear and tear.

A person demonstrating the stretchability of LG's new 12-inch high-res OLED panel.
Image: LG

The 12-inch panel can display full-color RGB images (LG doesn’t specify exactly how many colors it’s capable of reproducing) and a resolution of 100PPI. That’s a bit behind the resolution of screens like the 12.9-inch panel in the iPad Pro, which hits 264PPI, but drop that iPad onto a sidewalk and you’ll probably wish you had LG’s latest and greatest inside it.

Outside of the rigid frame of a tablet or a desktop display, this 12-inch panel can be stretched a full two inches to 14 inches diagonally, and then snap back to its original size without requiring a warranty claim. Its underlying structure uses S-shaped micro wire structures that act like springs to accommodate the stretching, and while the technology isn’t quite at the point where you can crumble up a tablet and stuff it in your pocket like a handkerchief—it’s tethered by a ribbon cable to electronics that provide power and drive the image on-screen—LG believes it’s one step-closer to expanding the potential use cases for OLED displays.

Source: LG’s Stretchable Screen Promises a Future of Shatter-Proof Tech

Google Starts Testing Holographic Video Chats at Real Offices

https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/google-starts-testing-holographic-video-chats-at-real-offices/

Project Starline, a holographic chat booth

Google’s Project Starline, a holographic chat booth being installed in some early-access test offices this year.

Google

Project Starline, Google’s experimental technology using holographic light field displays to video chat with distant co-workers, is moving out of Google’s offices and into some real corporate locations for testing starting this year.

Google’s Project Starline tech, announced last year at the company’s I/O developer conference, uses giant light field displays and an array of cameras to record and display 3D video between two people at two different remote locations. 

Starline prototypes are being installed at Salesforce, WeWork, T-Mobile and Hackensack Meridian Health offices as part of the early-access program, with each company that’s part of the program getting two units to test for start. 

Google’s Project Starline makes it seem like you’re talking to someone in real life through a window, instead of through video chat.  Google

According to Google, 100 businesses have already demoed Project Starline at the company’s own offices. The off-Google installations are a next step to test how the holographic video chats could be used to create more realistic virtual meetings, without needing to use VR or AR headsets.

This tech won’t be anything that regular customers will be seeing: it’s being installed for corporate use only and only in a few test sites for now. But, it’s technology that Google believes could help remote communications with customers, creating a more immediate sense of presence than standard video chats.

Cybersickness Could Spell an Early Death for the Metaverse and Virtual Reality

Luis Eduardo Garrido couldn’t wait to test out his colleague’s newest creation. Garrido, a psychology and methodology researcher at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic, drove two hours between his university’s campuses to try a virtual reality experience that was designed to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and different types of phobias. But a couple of minutes after he put on the headset, he could tell something was wrong.

“I started feeling bad,” Garrido told The Daily Beast. He was experiencing an unsettling bout of dizziness and nausea. He tried to push through but ultimately had to abort the simulation almost as soon as he started. “Honestly, I don’t think I lasted five minutes trying out the application,” he said.

Garrido had contracted cybersickness, a form of motion sickness that can affect users of VR technology. It was so severe that he worried about his ability to drive home, and it took hours for him to recover from the five-minute simulation. Though motion sickness has afflicted humans for thousands of years, cybersickness is a much newer condition. While this means that many of its causes and symptoms are understood, other basic questions—like how common cybersickness is, and whether there are ways to fully prevent it—are only just starting to be studied.

After Garrido’s experience, a colleague told him that only around 2 percent of people feel cybersickness. But at a presentation for prospective students, Garrido watched as volunteers from the audience walked to the front of an auditorium to demo a VR headset—only to return shakily to their seats.

“I could see from afar that they were getting sweaty and kind of uncomfortable,” he recalled. “I said to myself, ‘Maybe I’m not the only one.’”

[…]

In order to make VR more accessible and affordable, companies are making devices smaller and running them on less powerful processors. But these changes introduce dizzying graphics—which inevitably causes more people to experience cybersickness.

At the same time, a growing body of research suggests cybersickness is vastly more pervasive than previously thought—perhaps afflicting more than half of all potential users.

[…]

Garrido and his team decided to run their own study, recruiting 92 people to try the same VR program that first made him sick.

[…]

In sharp contrast to the 2 percent estimate Garrido had been told, the results from his study, published earlier this year, indicated that more than 65 percent of people experienced symptoms of cybersickness, and more than one-third of these people experienced severe symptoms. Twenty-two participants decided to stop the simulation before the 10 minutes were up.

[…]

Cybersickness doesn’t just arise from the controls of a VR experience. It can be built into the fabric of hardware (individual headsets) and software (experiences, apps, and simulations). Kyle Ringgenberg, an AR and VR developer and the co-founder of software company Dimension X, said that there are two major sensory conflicts that lead to cybersickness in VR. The first is the same brain-body mismatch that leads to car and seasickness, but the second is a different physiological response—and potentially even harder to fix. When we look out at the world in front of us, our eyes automatically focus on an object based on its perceived distance from us. A VR headset projects images a set distance away from a viewer, but when a virtual object appears close, it may seem blurry since the person’s eyes are trying to focus on it as if it truly were.

[…]

Source: Cybersickness Could Spell an Early Death for the Metaverse and Virtual Reality

Researchers find way to shrink a 3D holographic VR headset down to normal glasses size using pancake lenses and a waveguide

Researchers from Stanford University and Nvidia have teamed up to help develop VR glasses that look a lot more like regular spectacles. Okay, they are rather silly looking due to the ribbons extended from either eye, but they’re much, much flatter and compact than your usual goggle-like virtual reality headsets today.

“A major barrier to widespread adoption of VR technology, however, is the bulky form factor of existing VR displays and the discomfort associated with that,” the research paper published at Siggraph 2022 (opens in new tab) says.

These aptly named “Holographic Glasses” can deliver a full-colour 3D holographic image using optics that are only 2.5mm thick. Compared to the traditional way a VR headset works, in which a lens magnifies a smaller display some distance away from it, shrinking all the prerequisite parts down to such a small size is quite the spectacular step forward for VR.

The Holographic Glasses prototype uses pancake lenses, which is a concept that has been thrown around a couple of times in the past few years. These pancake lenses not only allow for a much smaller profile but reportedly they have a few other benefits, too:  the resolution they can offer is said to be unlimited, meaning you can crank up the resolution for VR headsets, and they offer a much wider field of view at up to 200°.

[…]

The research paper lists the glasses as such: “a coherent light source that is coupled into a pupil-replicating waveguide, which provides the illumination for a phase-only SLM that is mounted on the waveguide in front of the user’s eye. This SLM creates a small image behind the device, which is magnified by a thin geometric phase (GP) lens.”

[…]

(Image credit: Nvidia, Stanford University)

 

the final result is a very small VR device that could be game-changing if made a reality outside of the lab. It also only weighs 60g, which is notably far lighter than even the Meta Quest 2 (opens in new tab), which rolls in at 503g.

[…]

You can read up on the whole project in the recently published research paper titled “Holographic Glasses for Virtual Reality (opens in new tab)” by Jonghyun Kim, Manu Gopakumar, Suyeon Choi, Yifan Peng, Ward Lopes, and Gordon Wetzstein.

[…]

Source: Researchers find way to shrink a VR headset down to normal glasses size | PC Gamer

“Parallel Reality” Display Shows Different Info to Different People at Same Time

Imagine if you, me and a dozen other people were standing in a room staring at the same screen—but the screen showed something different to each of us, simultaneously.

A California-based tech company called Misapplied Sciences has made this possible. They’ve developed a “parallel reality” display “enabled by a new pixel that has unprecedented capabilities,” they write. “These pixels can simultaneously project up to millions of light rays of different colors and brightness. Each ray can then be software-directed to a specific person.”

They’ve partnered with Delta Airlines, who will be installing a parallel reality display at Detroit Metropolitan Airport this month. Customers who opt in to using it, either by scanning their boarding pass or by enrolling in Delta’s app-based facial recognition program (no thanks!) will look at the screen and see only the flight and baggage claim information relevant to their trip. A person standing five feet away will see nothing but their own information.

Up to 100 viewers can be accommodated by the single screen. Delta refers to the technology as “mind-bending” and states that the display will be in Concourse A of the McNamara Terminal starting on June 29th.

Source: “Parallel Reality” Display Shows Different Info to Different People at Same Time – Core77

Transparent Display Hacked to Look Like Shower Door

[…] The most practical use for transparent LCDs has been in hospitals, where rooms with large windows can be made private at the push of a button that causes the panels to instantly become opaque.

µProto「Wipe Fake」

That’s presumably what inspired this team of designers from IMG SRC, who in just two months created the “Wipe Fake” prototype. The transparent LCD screen was paired with a touchscreen interface that reacts to swipes and finger gestures to wipe away the opaque parts of the panel, revealing what’s behind it like a layer of steam and humidity being wiped off a shower door. The effect looks especially convincing thanks to the virtual water drops that appear to run down the panel as the thin layer of simulated humidity coalesces into larger drops.

Is it the most practical alternative to a whiteboard when it comes to jotting down and working through ideas? Probably not, but just think back to how many eureka moments you’ve had while in the shower. […]

Source: Transparent Display Hacked to Look Like Shower Door

Survey of Alternative Displays

[Blair Nearl] has been working on an information database for artists and hackers – a collection of non-conventional display technologies available to us. We’ve covered this repository before, six years ago – since then, it’s moved to a more suitable platform, almost doubled in size, and currently covers over 40+ display technology types and related tricks. This database is something you should check out even if you’re not looking for a new way to display things right now, however, for its sheer educational and entertainment value alone.

[…]

If you’re ever wondered about the current state of technology when it comes to flexible or transparent displays, or looked for good examples of volumetric projection done in a variety of ways, this is the place to go. It also talks about interesting experimental technologies, like drone displays, plasma combustion or scanning fiber optics. Overall, if you’re looking to spend about half an hour learning about all the ways there are to visualize something, this database is worth a read. And, if there’s a display technology the author might’ve missed and you know something about, contributions are welcome!

Someone setting out to compile information about an extensive topic is always appreciated, and helps many hackers on their path. We’ve seen that done with 3D printer resin settings and SMD part codes, to name just a few. What’s your favourite hacker-maintained database?

Source: Alternative Display Technologies And Where To Find Them

Things like Transparent displays, volumetric displays, modified polarizers, e-ink, flexible displays, lasers and projectors, lightfield displays, head mounted displays, projection on water or fog, diffusion and distortion, switchable glass, drone displays, electrochromic paint, acoustic levitation display, plasma combustion and many more

The survey itself is here

Smart Contact Lenses with AR screens

 

[…]The BBC recently covered Mojo, a company developing smart contact lenses that not only correct vision but can show a display. You can see a video from CNET on the technology below.

The lenses have microLED displays, smart sensors, and solid-state batteries similar to those found in pacemakers. The company claims to have a “feature-complete prototype” and are going to start testing, according to the BBC article. We imagine you can’t get much of a battery crammed into a contact lens, but presumably, that’s one of the things that makes it so difficult to develop this sort of tech.

The article mentions other smart contacts under development, too, including a University of Surrey lens that can monitor eye health using various sensors integrated into the lens. You have to wonder how this would be in real life. Presumably, the display turns off and you see nothing, but it is annoying enough having your phone beep constantly without getting messages across your field of vision all the time.

It seems like this is a technology that will come, of course. If not this time, then sometime in the future. While we usually think the hacker community should lead the way, we aren’t sure we want to hack on something that touches people’s eyeballs.[…]

 

[…]

Source: Smart Contact Lenses Put You Up Close To The Screen | Hackaday

Acer Debuts External Monitors With Stereoscopic 3D

[…]

Two products revealed today, the SpatialLabs View and SpatialLabs View Pro, are standalone external monitors with 15.6-inch, 4K displays with glasses-free stereoscopic 3D technology. We’ve seen this tech from Acer before when it debuted in ConceptD notebooks where it was meant for designers, but never in this format.

Acer SpartialLabs View
Acer SpartialLabs View
Image: Acer

Distinguishing these two monitors is their audience; the standard model is meant for entertainment (watching movies, gaming, etc) whereas the Pro edition is for commercial users. For the former, SpatialLabs TrueGame is a portal for playing games in 3D. The app gives each of the 50 or so 3D-compatible games a pre-configured profile so gamers can feel more immersed. The list of games that Acer shared by email includes some big titles like Forza Horizon 5, God of War, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

To use it, gamers need to launch the app then go to the game they want to play and press “play.” That’s it! The app does the rest, automatically launching the game file while activating its associated TrueGame 3D profile so it can boot in Stereoscopic 3D mode. It’s not just games, though. With SpatialLabs Go, you can turn just about anything into a 3D image, including photos and videos taken on your device. And designers can use plug-ins to render creations into stereoscopic 3D so the digital versions appear closer to the physical product

[…]

Source: Acer Debuts Pricey External Monitors With Stereoscopic 3D

Changing touchscreen friction and rendering of virtual shapes through change in surface temperature

In this work, we show a large modulation of finger friction by locally changing surface temperature. Experiments showed that finger friction can be increased by ~50% with a surface temperature increase from 23° to 42°C, which was attributed to the temperature dependence of the viscoelasticity and the moisture level of human skin. Rendering virtual features, including zoning and bump(s), without thermal perception was further demonstrated with surface temperature modulation. This method of modulating finger friction has potential applications in gaming, virtual and augmented reality, and touchscreen human-machine interaction.

Source: Surface haptic rendering of virtual shapes through change in surface temperature

LG’s Next-Gen OLED EX Tech Promises Major Improvements

[…]

OLED EX (the EX stands for Evolution and eXperience, unfortunately) promises to boost maximum brightness, enhance picture quality, and allow for smaller display bezels. The underlying technology—millions of individual self-lit pixels—hasn’t changed, but the use of an isotope called deuterium combined with algorithmic image processing can increase brightness by up to 30% over conventional OLED displays, LG claims.

As boring as that may sound, the science behind it is actually pretty fascinating. LG found a way to extract deuterium, a rather scarce isotope (there is one deuterium atom in 6,000 hydrogen atoms) that’s twice as heavy as hydrogen from water, then applied it to its TV’s OLED elements. LG says stabilized deuterium compounds let the display emit brighter light while improving efficiency over time.

Moving to the second change, LG is using a “personalized” machine learning algorithm that predicts the usage of each light-emitting diode (on up to 8K TVs) based on your viewing habits, then “precisely controls the display’s energy input to more accurately express the details and colors of the video content being played.”

Source: LG’s Next-Gen OLED Tech Promises Major Improvements

Don’t Buy an HDMI 2.1 TV Before You Read the Fine Print

[…]If deciphering every version of HDMI wasn’t already tedious enough, we now know that the latest and greatest HDMI 2.1 standard, well, isn’t very standardized. A TFTCentral investigation revealed that the TV or monitor you purchase with “HDMI 2.1″ might not support any of the latest features.

TFTCentral smelled something fishy when it saw that a Xiaomi monitor with HDMI 2.1 support only reached the specifications for HDMI 2.0. Instead of 4K resolution, the panel was limited to 1080p. And the thing is, Xiaomi technically didn’t do anything wrong. It all comes down to semantics and some murky (and consumer-hostile) guidelines set by the HDMI Licensing Administrator.

[…]

in short, HDMI 2.0 is a subset of HDMI 2.1, meaning its specifications are housed within the newer standard. The standards organization even said it would no longer certify for HDMI 2.0, telling TFTCentral that HDMI 2.0 “no longer exists” and that the features and capabilities of HDMI 2.1 are optional. As long as a monitor supports one of the newer standards, it can be called HDMI 2.1.

As you’d expect, HDMI 2.1 consists of many standards, so TV and monitor makers could theoretically grab the lowest hanging fruit, add it to their (formerly) HDMI 2.0 ports, and slap an HDMI 2.1 label on the box.

The HDMI standards body even confirmed to The Verge that what Xiaomi is doing is perfectly within the rules and that we all depend on manufacturers to be honest about their products. The problem is that they rarely are.

[…]

HDMI 2.1 has made headlines in recent months because of the capabilities it enables on next-gen consoles and gaming PCs—specifically, the ability to run 4K games at 120Hz.

[…]

Source: Don’t Buy an HDMI 2.1 TV Before You Read the Fine Print

Samsung’s has larger, stretchier OLED display that looks a bit like a rubber sheet

Hot on the heels of LG’s “Real Folding Window” showcase, Samsung is taking its moment to shine with a new stretchable OLED display demo.

At this week’s Global Tech Korea 2021, Samsung presented an impressive 13-inch OLED panel that appears to stretch at varying degrees. The panel displayed a video of lava flowing while different sections rose and fell as if to mimic the flow of the lava and thus adding another level of 3D immersion to the content.

According to Changhee Lee, executive vice president of Samsung Display, the degree at which stretchable displays could be deformed “was about 5% in the past, but now it has improved significantly,” going on to suggest that the company plans to use this technology in future products like rollable smartphones and more (via ETNews).

This isn’t the first time Samsung showcased impressive display technology aimed at future form factors. Earlier this year, the company presented a video showing off display concepts like a slideable smartphone, a display that folds in two parts, and folding tablets. The company has also shown off an earlier concept of its stretchable display technology back in 2017, although the panel was smaller at 9.1-inches.

[…]

Source: Samsung’s larger, stretchier OLED display technology is creepy and cool | Android Central

Another Neuro Study Proves Changing DOOH content Boosts Long Term Memory

Leading Australian digital outdoor media company QMS, has unveiled its latest neuroscience study that demonstrates the relative impact of different Out of Home creative approaches and their overall effectiveness for brands.

In partnership with Neuro-Insight, this research study captured real-life, continuous digital and static OOH panels over consecutive days, to accurately measure how the human brain responds to a piece of creative advertising each day.

The study revealed that long term memory encoding, critical for campaign effectiveness, continues to grow in respondents that are exposed to evolving creative. In fact, creative that evolves was shown to deliver a 38% higher impact than that of static creative by day five.

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Spanning 30 creatives across 15 categories, one of the strongest performing campaigns in the study harnessed the capabilities of digital OOH (DOOH) with a simple creative change that displayed the day of the week matched with the live temperature at the time, to deliver an 18% stronger result than the average DOOH campaign.

QMS Chief Strategy Officer, Christian Zavecz said that it was integral for both media owners and advertisers to properly understand the additional value the capabilities of DOOH delivers and how they can be used to drive greater campaign efficacy.

“DOOH in Australia already represents 61% of the industry* however, the uptake of creative capabilities amongst clients is still quite low. Now, for the first time, we can quantify what we have always intuitively thought about the medium. Incorporating the strategic use of creative evolution into a brand’s campaign is now proven to increase its effectiveness. The study also uncovered some important lessons about frequency and the role that DOOH, through its breadth of capabilities, can play in being able to maximise effective OOH campaign reach.”

[…]

Source: DailyDOOH » Blog Archive » Another Neuro Study Proves Evolving DOOH Creative Boosts Long Term Memory

Normal Touchscreens Can Also Detect Contaminated Water

We take for granted that the water coming out of the kitchen faucet is safe to drink, but that’s not always the case in other parts of the world. So researchers at the University of Cambridge are developing a new approach to testing for contaminants using a device that billions of people already use every day.

Modern capacitive touchscreens (the kind that can easily detect the subtlest finger taps instead of requiring users to press hard on the screen) feature an invisible grid of electrodes that carry a very small electrical charge. When your conductive finger touches the screen it changes the charge level at a specific location that the smartphone can detect based on grid coordinates. That’s a grossly simplified crash course on how the technology powering modern touchscreens work, but what’s important is their use of a changing electrical charge.

In a recently published paper, the University of Cambridge researchers explain how a stripped-down touchscreen—the same hardware used in smartphones and tablets—was found to be able to detect the electrically charged ions in an electrolyte. Different liquids were piped onto the surface of the touchscreen and using the standard software that’s used to test these screens, the researchers were able to differentiate the samples based on how “the fluids all interact with the screen’s electric fields differently depending on the concentration of ions and their charge.”

The touchscreens used in mobile devices are tuned and calibrated to best respond to interactions with fingers, but the researchers believe that by altering the design of the electrodes, even in just a small area of the screen (a custom app could indicate exactly where a sample needs to be placed) the sensitivity could be optimized for detecting contaminants in samples like soil and water.

[…]

Source: Normal Touchscreens Can Also Detect Contaminated Water

This Is What Pilots Actually See Inside Red 6’s Augmented Reality Dogfighting Goggles

Augmented reality systems are on the verge of making a huge impact on how America’s military fights and trains. When it comes to the latter, one company, aptly named Red 6, has identified an inflection point where cost and existing capabilities become problematic for America’s tactical aircraft communities—training for air-to-air combat. While contractor aggressor services have ballooned in recent years to bring down the cost of providing bad guys for frontline fighter pilots to train against, while also upping the potential density and complexity of the threats that can be portrayed, Red 6 thinks it can do much of this without any other jets, pilots, and millions in yearly fuel costs all. This can be accomplished by moving the adversary aircraft into the synthetic realm via augmented reality goggles. Now we finally get to see exactly what the pilots do when donning Red 6’s increasingly capable helmet-mounted hardware.

You can read all about Red 6, where the company has been, and where it plans to go, in this in-depth feature interview with its founder and former F-22 Raptor pilot, Daniel Robinson. In it, he talks about how Red 6 started out by creating a huge geometric open-sided cube in the sky to test the original idea and has progressed with better hardware and software ever since. The tech has developed to the point where pilots are actually dogfighting synthetic AI-enabled fighters in augmented reality using Red 6’s gear. And, of course, without any actual flying hardware constraints, any aircraft with any performance capabilities can be accurately represented. So what does this look like from the pilot’s perspective? We can finally share the answer to that question below:

Red 6’s system is called the Airborne Tactical Augmented Reality System (ATARS). The company officially describes ATARS as “the first wide field-of-view, full color, demonstrably proven outdoor Augmented Reality solution that works in dynamic outdoor environments. ATARS allows Virtual and Constructive assets into the real world by allowing pilots and ground operators to see synthetic threats in real-time, outdoors. and critically, in high-speed environments. By blending Augmented Reality and artificial intelligence and using both the indoor and outdoor space around us as a medium, Red 6 has redefined the limits of how the world will experience, share, and interact with its information.”

Red 6

CEO Daniel Robinson donning an ATARS for a test flight.

Red 6, which just closed a $30M Series A financing round, with the vast majority of those funds coming from Snowpoint Ventures, is on the attack and plans on spreading its innovations into other combat domains in the future, just as we discussed in our big interview piece. Still, the potential for this system to revolutionize one of the most costly aspects of preparing for modern warfare—air-to-air combat training—is becoming very real. The savings from introducing this system, even to a limited degree, for some recurrent air-to-air training would be massive in terms of all the costs involved, including the wear-and-tear these training flights impose on the adversary aircraft, which is usually a similar fighter from the unit’s own squadron.

The company scored another big win last March when Dr. William Roper, who left his previous job as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics earlier this year, and is considered a highly influential visionary by some, joined Red 6’s advisory board. This vote of confidence from one of the Pentagon’s leading minds on airpower definitely helped the company’s position as a potential major market disruptor.

As for what comes next, Red 6 is about to enter into phase three of their Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) initiative with AFWERX, which will see ATARS deployed aboard T-38 Talon trainers of the 586th Flight Test Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. There, Air Force pilots will put ATARS through its paces. The next step will be integrating it into an F-16 Viper fighter jet, which will bring another level of challenging performance to the concept.

USAF

586th Flight Test Squadron T-38 over White Sands Missile Range.

At the very least, we can hope that allied air forces will have another tool to better and more efficiently train their pilots where applicable in the not so distant future, and in essence, augmenting the reality of their training capabilities.

Source: This Is What Pilots Actually See Inside Red 6’s Augmented Reality Dogfighting Goggles

BYU hologram experts can now create real-life tiny images that move in the air

 

They may be tiny weapons, but BYU’s holography research group has figured out how to create lightsabers — green for Yoda and red for Darth Vader, naturally — with actual luminous beams rising from them.

Inspired by the displays of science fiction, the researchers have also engineered battles between equally small versions of the Starship Enterprise and a Klingon Battle Cruiser that incorporate photon torpedoes launching and striking the enemy vessel that you can see with the naked eye.

“What you’re seeing in the scenes we create is real; there is nothing computer generated about them,” said lead researcher Dan Smalley, a professor of electrical engineering at BYU. “This is not like the movies, where the lightsabers or the photon torpedoes never really existed in physical space. These are real, and if you look at them from any angle, you will see them existing in that space.”

[…]

Smalley and Rogers detail these and other recent breakthroughs in a new paper published in Nature Scientific Reports this month. The work overcomes a limiting factor to optical trap displays: wherein this technology lacks the ability to show virtual images, Smalley and Rogers show it is possible to simulate virtual images by employing a time-varying perspective projection backdrop.

“We can play some fancy tricks with motion parallax and we can make the display look a lot bigger than it physically is,” Rogers said. “This methodology would allow us to create the illusion of a much deeper display up to theoretically an infinite size display.”

To see more of the holography work professor Dan Smalley is doing with his students, check out his lab website here: https://www.smalleyholography.org/

Source: BYU hologram experts can now create real-life images that move in the air

Volumetric OLED Display Shows Bladerunner Vibe, Curious Screen Tech

Sean Hodgins] is out with his latest video and it’s a piece of art in itself. Beyond a traditional project show and tell, he’s spun together a cyberpunk vibe to premiere the volumetric display he built from an OLED stackup.

The trick of a volumetric display is the ability to add a third dimension for positioning pixels. Here [Sean] delivered that ability with a stack up of ten screens to add a depth element. This is not such an easy trick. These small OLED displays are all over the place but they share a common element: a dark background over which the pixels appear. [Sean] has gotten his hands on some transparent OLED panels and with some Duck-Duck-Go-Fu we think it’s probably a Crystalfontz 128×56 display. Why is it we don’t see more of these? Anyone know if it’s possible to remove the backing from other OLED displays to get here. (Let us know in the comments.)

The rest of the built is fairly straight-forward with a Feather M4 board driving the ten screens via SPI, and an MPU-6050 IMU for motion input. The form factor lends an aesthetic of an augmented reality device and the production approach for the video puts this in a Bladerunner or Johnny Mneumonic universe. Kudos for expanding the awesome of the build with an implied backstory!

If you can’t find your own transparent displays, spinning things are a popular trend in this area. We just saw one last week that spun an LED matrix to form cylindrical display. Another favorite of ours is a volumetric display that spins a helix-shaped projection screen.

Source: Volumetric OLED Display Shows Bladerunner Vibe, Curious Screen Tech | Hackaday

Turn a Touch Interface Touchless with Intel RealSense TCS

Today, Intel announced Intel® RealSense™ Touchless Control Software (TCS), a simple solution for converting a touch-based kiosk or digital sign into a safer, touchless one while maintaining a familiar and intuitive user experience. With the pandemic affecting people worldwide, pay and check-in stations, automated teller machines and ordering kiosks could use the Intel RealSense software and camera to offer safer, touch-free options.

Source: Turn a Touch Interface Touchless with Intel RealSense TCS | Intel Newsroom

Flexible color ePaper displays could soon adorn your clothes | Engadget

Whenever the runways of Paris, London, Milan and New York open back up, designers might be showing off looks adorned with flexible color ePaper displays. E Ink has teamed up with Plastic Logic to make the first such panels based on its Advanced Color ePaper (ACeP) tech.

The glass-free organic Thin Film Transistor (oTFT) displays are lightweight and ultra low-power. E Ink claims they’re more durable, thinner and lighter than glass-based TFTs. That, according to the company, makes oTFT displays “ideal” for wearables. For instance, designers could build the Legio-branded displays into smart clothing and jewelry. Until now, ACeP displays have mainly been used for signage, which of course doesn’t require panels to be flexible.

The first Legio panel is a 2.1-inch, 240 x 146-pixel display with support for six colors, including black and white. It’s powered by an Ultrachip UC8156 single-chip controller.

Source: Flexible color ePaper displays could soon adorn your clothes | Engadget

Defeat COVID-19: put positive spin to a grim 2020 by showing global covid recoveries on screen

The campaign was conceived by DOOH firm Orb Screen, produced by Creative Conscience and L&CO, developed by Voodooh and Nicole Yershon, and designed by advertising graduate Megan Williams. It has now made its way to Asia, with Location Media Xchange (LMX), the supply-focused arm of Moving Walls Group, amplifying the creatives on partner screens across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and India.

The displays run a tally of individuals known to have recovered from COVID-19 worldwide, while showcasing inspiring messages of how survivors have defeated it by refocusing some of the grim language often associated with the pandemic. A+M has reached out to Moving Walls for comment.

image 7.0 jalan maluri by spectrum outdoorimage 7.0 jalan maluri by spectrum outdoorimage 7.0 jalan maluri by spectrum outdoorimage 7.0 jalan maluri by spectrum outdoor

Among the list of media owners in Asia Pacific that ran the dynamic creatives include Dana Intelek, VGI Global Media Malaysia, Visual Retale, Vestigia Malaysia, LOOKhere Network, Titanium Compass, Spectrum Outdoor Marketing, 3thirds Inc, LEDtronics Media, Danendra Abyudaya Adika, KALMS, Pitchworks Incorporated Philippines and Nexyite Entertainment.

Source: Defeat COVID-19: APAC OOH firms put positive spin to a grim 2020

The data comes from John Hopkins University and apparently you can find a PDF brief from Orbscreen containing HTML code.

Samsung, Stanford make a 10,000PPI display that could lead to ‘flawless’ VR

Ask VR fans about their gripes and they’ll likely mention the “screen door” effect, or the gaps between pixels that you notice when looking at a display so close to your eyes. That annoyance might disappear entirely if Samsung and Stanford University have their way. They’ve developed (via IEEE Spectrum) OLED technology that supports resolutions up to 10,000 pixels per inch — well above what you see in virtually any existing display, let alone what you’d find in a modern VR headset like the Oculus Quest 2.

The newOLED tech uses films to emit white light between reflective layers, one silver and another made of reflective metal with nano-sized corrugations. This “optical metasurface” changes the reflective properties and allows specific colors to resonate through pixels. The design allows for much higher pixel densities than you see in the RGB OLEDs on phones, but doesn’t hurt brightness to the degree you see with white OLEDs in some TVs.

This would be ideal for VR and AR, creating a virtually ‘flawless’ image where you can’t see the screen door effect or even individual pixels. This might take years to arrive when it would require much more computing power, but OLED tech would no longer be an obstacle.

It’s also more practical than you might think. Samsung is already working on a “full-size” display using the 10,000PPI tech, and the design of the corrugations makes large-scale manufacturing viable. It may just be a question of when and where you see this OLED rather than “if.”

Source: Samsung, Stanford make a 10,000PPI display that could lead to ‘flawless’ VR | Engadget

LG’s rollable OLED TV goes on sale for $87,000

After years of teasing, LG is finally selling a rollable OLED TV. The RX-branded Signature OLED R launched in South Korea today, offering a 65-inch 4K display that tucks away into its base at the press of a button. Besides being able to hide completely, as LG has promised in CES previews, the TV has different settings (Full View, Line View and Zero View) for different situations.

Source: LG’s rollable OLED TV goes on sale for $87,000 | Engadget