Analogix's ICVR Could Make VR HMDs Less Cumbersome

[FritzEiv]

Analogix Semiconductor, Dell, LG, and Tencent revealed plans for ICVR, or "Interface for Connected VR," in an attempt to standardize the physical connectivity of VR HMDs.

Analogix's ICVR Could Make VR HMDs Less Cumbersome : Read more

 

[bit_user]

So, I guess this would mean your Graphics card would have a USB type-C connector on it?

I think the PC-based VR industry will quickly converge on wireless HMDs with inside-out tracking. Even if you need to hang a poster or two on your wall, that's a lot better than having to install lighthouses.

BTW, the article forgot to mention that Google has also demo'd inside-out tracking, with its Daydream HMD (made by Lenovo).

 

[SockPuppet]

Need to ditch the side arms and start going with over-the-head designs like those crazy Oakley sunglasses from the 90's. A strap that has the yank the unit backwards into your eyesockets is not ideal.

 

[Alex_462]

The problem is wireless will ALWAYS have more latency when with VR the target will always be for LESS latency. So wireless is far from ideal.

Plus even if you go wireless, wouldn't that be easier to have a USB-C cable to the wireless box than multiple wires?

 

[Th3pwn3r]

Am I the only one who read ANAL-ogix?

 

[bit_user]

The problem is wireless will ALWAYS have more latency when with VR the target will always be for LESS latency. So wireless is far from ideal.

It depends. Some wireless solutions add tens of ms of latency and do nothing to cover it, while others add only a couple ms and potentially move the Async time/space warp onto the HMD - leading to potentially less perceived latency than the current wired solutions. This is where I think the PC segment will eventually end up.

 

[edzieba]

"Bluntly, it would allow the creation of mostly “dumb” VR headsets. "

Changing the PHY layer would do ah heck-all to change this. The problem is that HMDs are inherently NOT dumb displays. This was tried during the early prototypes of the Rift, and again during early prototypes of the Vive. Both abandoned the 'it;s just a display!' approach as both learnt that it doesn't work in practice. You don;t get guaranteed refresh intervals, you don't get guaranteed refresh timings (critical for both synchronous and asynchronous timewarp), latency is all over the place, and it plays merry hell with trying to get applications to even display on the correct 'screen'. It is also completely independent of the PHY layer (occurs on both DVI/HDMI and Dispalyport) so changing that would improve nothing.

Whether Analogix can get this actually implemented is another matter. Spectra7 brought out a whole bunch of VR interconnect gubbins, but all that ended up being implemented was their cable tuning IC and Microchroma connector within the Rift CV1.

 

[grimfox]

Being able to use a single standardized cable interconnect between any VR HMD and your PC is a good thing. That said I could easily see this tech being integrated into the next DP standard. 4k @ 100hz plus VR data, could fit within the reported bandwidth capacity of the next version of DP, based on wikipedia. I think that is the better way to go than using USB.

 

[gdmaclew]

The only way VR is going to receive wide-spread adoption is if the community ditches the idea of HMD's completely and develops a "sunglasses" type model for its display.
Whenever I see someone with those enormous HMD's on their face I have to laugh.
I would love to use VR for gaming but I'm not going to strap one of those things to my face.
Ten years from now (hopefully) people will look back and say "why did we ever accept that kind of klunky interface?"
My 2 cents.