ODG Introduces Consumer AR Device That Looks Like Sunglasses

[kcarbotte]

Osterhout Design Group (ODG) revealed its eighth and ninth generation AR glasses during CES 2017. For the first time, ODG has a consumer facing product to show, and it’s kind of a big deal.

ODG Introduces Consumer AR Device That Looks Like Sunglasses : Read more

 

[cryoburner]

It may work as a lightweight augmented reality device, but that field of view would be quite narrow for VR. A 40+ degree diagonal FOV would be somewhere in the vicinity of 20 degrees vertical. That might be fine enough for informational overlays, but probably not particularly good for an "immersive VR" experience. There's a reason all the top VR headsets are significantly bulkier than something like this, and that's to allow for the optics and screens to enable wide fields of view. Just snapping a cover over the lenses on these isn't going to create a VR experience on par with those devices. I imagine that with curved screens and high-quality optics, much higher FOVs could be done in something this compact, but putting a ~100 degree field of view in a consumer device this size is still probably a number of years off.

 

[kcarbotte]

It may work as a lightweight augmented reality device, but that field of view would be quite narrow for VR. A 40+ degree diagonal FOV would be somewhere in the vicinity of 20 degrees vertical. That might be fine enough for informational overlays, but probably not particularly good for an "immersive VR" experience. There's a reason all the top VR headsets are significantly bulkier than something like this, and that's to allow for the optics and screens to enable wide fields of view. Just snapping a cover over the lenses on these isn't going to create a VR experience on par with those devices. I imagine that with curved screens and high-quality optics, much higher FOVs could be done in something this compact, but putting a ~100 degree field of view in a consumer device this size is still probably a number of years off.

With the glasses that close to you eyes it could be ok, but I'm skeptical too.

 

[bit_user]

I'm just stunned they fit a Snapdragon 835 in them. And not just the SoC, but also the requisite battery power, cooling, etc.

Unfortunately, to beat Microsoft, it's not enough just to be smaller & lighter. They need equivalent supporting software, and that's where I think MS probably has them beat.