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Facebook wants to put an image of your eyes on the outside of VR headsets, if its latest research is anything to go by. A prototype has been unveiled from Facebook Reality Labs that would allow users to âconnectâ to people in the outside world with their real-time gaze.
If it sounds a bit weird, it is â but it marks a smart reversal of the âpassthroughâ technology used in the Oculus Quest 2âs cameras, which records the wearerâs surroundings and displays them on the headsetâs screen, effectively allowing you to look through the headset and see whatâs around you.
This new application of passthrough tech would instead utilise an internal camera that projects âa three-dimensional view of the wearerâs eyes [âŚ] in a perspective correct mannerâ onto a screen located on the outside of the headset, allowing someone to make eye contact with others in their vicinity.
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Called âreverse pass-through VRâ, the prototype tech is ostensibly designed to aid âmore seamless interactions between people with and without headsets in social or professional contextsâ â especially ânatural eye contactâ.
So whether youâre screaming at the VR arcade or wandering around a virtual building at a real estate agency, this kind of technology could help reduce the sense of awkwardness and isolation that still comes from being siloed in a VR headset â allowing nearby users to view each other in real life, albeit through several layers of screen.
The announcement comes just a week after Oculus announced its passthrough tech could be used for augmented reality (AR) applications, projecting virtual images onto video feeds of the space around you.
[HEADING=1]Analysis: How much eye contact do we need?[/HEADING]
While the technology displayed by Facebook Reality Labs is at the prototype stage, thereâs certainly a case to be made for its commercial use.
The isolating nature of VR can be off-putting for some, and the big challenge for VR headset manufacturers like the Facebook-owned Oculus will be in widening the audience of VR beyond die-hard technology geeks and gamers such as ourselves.
Helping the technology to feel social, and more grounded in our actual surroundings, can only help make VR more accessible to the everyday user.
However, if weâre talking about a whole second screen on the outside of a headset â as well as internal cameras â there will be costs involved.
The great strength of the Quest 2 is that itâs a relatively affordable standalone headset, and seeing that price jump up for secondary screen many wonât use doesnât seem like a smart move either.
We could see a dedicated âsocialâ iteration of the headset, possibly one with generally lower specifications compared to flagship Oculus models â for younger, older, or more casual users.
However, itâs also just as likely for this reverse pass-through tech to never make it to market at all. The study states that âImproved facial reconstruction [âŚ] remains a challengeâ, which suggests that launching this technology early could result in some quite unnatural eye contact, which we imagine nobody wants.
Given the prototype stage that this technology appears to be at, we donât expect it to appear in the Oculus Quest 3, at least, and we can see its application being far more useful when VR headsets finally slim down to something more approaching ânormalâ spectacles.
[ul]
[li]Best VR games[/li][/ul]
Via RoadtoVR
Continue readingâŚ
If it sounds a bit weird, it is â but it marks a smart reversal of the âpassthroughâ technology used in the Oculus Quest 2âs cameras, which records the wearerâs surroundings and displays them on the headsetâs screen, effectively allowing you to look through the headset and see whatâs around you.
This new application of passthrough tech would instead utilise an internal camera that projects âa three-dimensional view of the wearerâs eyes [âŚ] in a perspective correct mannerâ onto a screen located on the outside of the headset, allowing someone to make eye contact with others in their vicinity.
[ul]
[li]Oculus Quest Pro will arrive long before any Oculus Quest 3 VR headset[/li][li]PSVR 2, Oculus Quest 3, and Apple VR headsets predicted to launch in 2022[/li][li]Best VR headsets: Oculus Quest 2, PSVR, Valve Index and more[/li][/ul]
Called âreverse pass-through VRâ, the prototype tech is ostensibly designed to aid âmore seamless interactions between people with and without headsets in social or professional contextsâ â especially ânatural eye contactâ.
So whether youâre screaming at the VR arcade or wandering around a virtual building at a real estate agency, this kind of technology could help reduce the sense of awkwardness and isolation that still comes from being siloed in a VR headset â allowing nearby users to view each other in real life, albeit through several layers of screen.
The announcement comes just a week after Oculus announced its passthrough tech could be used for augmented reality (AR) applications, projecting virtual images onto video feeds of the space around you.
[HEADING=1]Analysis: How much eye contact do we need?[/HEADING]
While the technology displayed by Facebook Reality Labs is at the prototype stage, thereâs certainly a case to be made for its commercial use.
The isolating nature of VR can be off-putting for some, and the big challenge for VR headset manufacturers like the Facebook-owned Oculus will be in widening the audience of VR beyond die-hard technology geeks and gamers such as ourselves.
Helping the technology to feel social, and more grounded in our actual surroundings, can only help make VR more accessible to the everyday user.
However, if weâre talking about a whole second screen on the outside of a headset â as well as internal cameras â there will be costs involved.
The great strength of the Quest 2 is that itâs a relatively affordable standalone headset, and seeing that price jump up for secondary screen many wonât use doesnât seem like a smart move either.
We could see a dedicated âsocialâ iteration of the headset, possibly one with generally lower specifications compared to flagship Oculus models â for younger, older, or more casual users.
However, itâs also just as likely for this reverse pass-through tech to never make it to market at all. The study states that âImproved facial reconstruction [âŚ] remains a challengeâ, which suggests that launching this technology early could result in some quite unnatural eye contact, which we imagine nobody wants.
Given the prototype stage that this technology appears to be at, we donât expect it to appear in the Oculus Quest 3, at least, and we can see its application being far more useful when VR headsets finally slim down to something more approaching ânormalâ spectacles.
[ul]
[li]Best VR games[/li][/ul]
Via RoadtoVR
Continue readingâŚ