Prescription Lenses In VR: VR Lens Lab Smashes Kickstarter Goal, Production Starts Next Month

[kcarbotte]

VR Lens Lab has been running a Kickstarter campaign for its lens adapters that allow you to add prescription lenses to your Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. The campaign ended with over eight times its funding goal. Production is on track for June delivery.

Prescription Lenses In VR: VR Lens Lab Smashes Kickstarter Goal, Production Starts Next Month : Read more

 

[Strider_X]

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

 

[wifiburger]

this seems very stupid, just put mechanical lenses on your VR Kit, you can manually adjust with a dial on the VR itself

 

[heinlein]

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

Interesting question; wish I had an interesting answer for you.

 

[SteelCity1981]

the problem with this is people that wear glasses eye sight doesnt stay the same. so every couple years you will need new lenses and that could get costly.

 

[grimfox]

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

Interesting question; wish I had an interesting answer for you.

Not that I'm aware of. One benefit of VR is that if you are near-sighted the focal distance doesn't change and is close to your eye's so it should be pretty clear, no glasses needed. If you have astigmatism or are far-sighted then what you would see is going to be blurry. There is no way to digitally compensate for blur.

the problem with this is people that wear glasses eye sight doesnt stay the same. so every couple years you will need new lenses and that could get costly.

Lenses are relatively inexpensive for a plan glass/polycarbonate. It's the coatings and frames that a really expensive. In my experience.

 

[rayden54]

the problem with this is people that wear glasses eye sight doesnt stay the same. so every couple years you will need new lenses and that could get costly.

You're going to have to buy new glasses anyway. I doubt it would cost that much more.

(Wonder if anyone will end up wearing these as emergency glasses?)

 

[KermodeTech]

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

I would imagine each frame's post-processing performance cost would be too high to be considered within reason. VR stereoscopic images at 90hz is already pushing the best cards to their limits. It does make me wonder if it would be possible to have a prescription slider on top of older computer games that don't require much performance, or even television.

 

[Jason_128]

The article has old information. The final Rift frames are two separate pieces just like the Vive frames and will work with the IPD adjustment just fine.

 

[skit75]

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

Interesting question; wish I had an interesting answer for you.

Not that I'm aware of. One benefit of VR is that if you are near-sighted the focal distance doesn't change and is close to your eye's so it should be pretty clear, no glasses needed. If you have astigmatism or are far-sighted then what you would see is going to be blurry. There is no way to digitally compensate for blur.

the problem with this is people that wear glasses eye sight doesnt stay the same. so every couple years you will need new lenses and that could get costly.

Lenses are relatively inexpensive for a plan glass/polycarbonate. It's the coatings and frames that a really expensive. In my experience.

I'm far sighted with an astigmatism and this has been my fear\gripe about the new VR headsets. You're saying I have to stay on the sidelines? What is the limitation of correcting in "software" for people like me?

 

[dark_lord69]

My solution: Contact lenses

 

[seshysama]

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

I truly doubt it. If the user has bad eyes, and sees a blurry image, no amount of after effects or rendering differences are gonna suddenly make it clear for them. You can't "cancel out" the bluriness by doing the opposite or something like that. You need something physical.

 

[grimfox]

Skit - I don't think you need to sideline yourself. I also have astigmatism. I can't answer about comfort, as I've not had a chance to try out the Vive or Rift. I do recall reading about how the Rift went to great pains to try to reduce the pressure where the arms of glasses would pass through. You have a few options. You can try it out and see how comfortable it is. If you enjoy the experience but find glasses to be uncomfortable then you can invest in some lenses or thinner frames or go for the Morpheus look and get some armless frames.

 

[kittle]

First ive heard of this project. but it leaves me wondering.. do I take these 'vr-frames' to my eye doctor and have them put lenses in? I had enough problems trying to get new lenses for existing frames.
If so, I think there will be many people who will be disappointed when their Dr says they cant (Although I hope not).

I also wear glasses -- and cant get contacts (not for lack of trying), so im anxious to see where this goes

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

this has the same problem of trying to an out of focus photograph using only software -- it wont work.
Most "bad" eyesight is caused by the lens on your eye focusing the incoming light on the wrong place in your retina, so its perceived as blurry. Eyeglasses and contacts work by refocusing the incoming light into the correct spot on your retina so things are clear.

 

[Strider_X]

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

this has the same problem of trying to an out of focus photograph using only software -- it wont work.
Most "bad" eyesight is caused by the lens on your eye focusing the incoming light on the wrong place in your retina, so its perceived as blurry. Eyeglasses and contacts work by refocusing the incoming light into the correct spot on your retina so things are clear.

The problem with correcting a photograph is that the 'correct' data was never recorded and therefore can't be used to refocus. With image rendering we have the correct data, moving pixels so that the light strikes the right place on a retina is possible. The data for the lens gives everything necessary to make this happen. Time will tell.

 

[Anathemata]

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

this has the same problem of trying to an out of focus photograph using only software -- it wont work.
Most "bad" eyesight is caused by the lens on your eye focusing the incoming light on the wrong place in your retina, so its perceived as blurry. Eyeglasses and contacts work by refocusing the incoming light into the correct spot on your retina so things are clear.

The problem with correcting a photograph is that the 'correct' data was never recorded and therefore can't be used to refocus. With image rendering we have the correct data, moving pixels so that the light strikes the right place on a retina is possible. The data for the lens gives everything necessary to make this happen. Time will tell.

Unfortunately that's not how optics works. Even if you "knew" what a perfect image should look like, you can't make an image counter-blurry to correct for this. The result would just be a blurry image.

What could have worked is an VR headset with extra optical elements that allow for this. You don't wear eye-glasses while using a microscope; you adjust the focus to make a crisp image for you. I can see people paying extra money for a "corrective lens" version of the VR headset. Hell, make it the same price. As extra optical elements will make the resulting image slightly worse I would certainly not make ALL of them that way, but I'm having trouble seeing a compelling reason not to include it as an option unless the result is too expensive or too cumbersome.

 

[grimfox]

I wonder...could this be handled in software? Upload your prescription details and let the software adjust the rendering accordingly? It is a virtual image after all.

this has the same problem of trying to an out of focus photograph using only software -- it wont work.
Most "bad" eyesight is caused by the lens on your eye focusing the incoming light on the wrong place in your retina, so its perceived as blurry. Eyeglasses and contacts work by refocusing the incoming light into the correct spot on your retina so things are clear.

The problem with correcting a photograph is that the 'correct' data was never recorded and therefore can't be used to refocus. With image rendering we have the correct data, moving pixels so that the light strikes the right place on a retina is possible. The data for the lens gives everything necessary to make this happen. Time will tell.

I read around on this a bit. Technically there exists a mathematical filter that can be applied to an image to remove the blur. The problem is that the contrast of the image is greatly reduced and image appears washed out. You have to limit the color intensity of the output image in order to apply the filter. Basically you can't have black or dark shades. The image as seen by the user is then clear but faded.

Another alternative involves changing the phase of the light so that it hits the users lens and retina in a way to counteract the lens distortion. This technology is currently in use but at a much simpler level the resulting screen would be 1000's of times more complex than what is currently available.

Simply put a 'mechanical' lens is the best solution.

As for people that can't find an eye doctor that will custom cut lenses to fit a frame. Find another doctor. My eye doc does this with hardly a second thought. They send the frames away and they come back with prescription lenses. It takes 2-3 weeks. Further more if your doctor can put your prescription on a piece of paper you can take that to this companies website to get the lenses made when they open up for general purchases.

 

[ddpruitt]

Unfortunately that's not how optics works. Even if you "knew" what a perfect image should look like, you can't make an image counter-blurry to correct for this. The result would just be a blurry image.

What could have worked is an VR headset with extra optical elements that allow for this. You don't wear eye-glasses while using a microscope; you adjust the focus to make a crisp image for you. I can see people paying extra money for a "corrective lens" version of the VR headset. Hell, make it the same price. As extra optical elements will make the resulting image slightly worse I would certainly not make ALL of them that way, but I'm having trouble seeing a compelling reason not to include it as an option unless the result is too expensive or too cumbersome.

+1 on this. Image correction can't be done in software easily. As someone who has worn glasses most of his life I can tell the problem is that the focal plane of the lenses in someone who needs glasses isn't the back of the eye like it's suppose to be. You can't use software to move that plane around.

My solution: Contact lenses

There's a huge list of reasons that people might not be able to use contact lenses, prescription strength, astigmatism, and so on.

That's what always bugged me with these VR headsets. They put so much effort into the lens system and completely forget about those of us that have to wear glasses. David Carmack wears them for Crissake! I can't use them even with glasses because the lens system causes me migraines due to problems with focusing. You would think that for $600 they would give you an adjustable lens system, even a cheap microscope has a workable solution.

 

[GWLucid]

One of the reasons I like the OSVR: adjustable lenses. It covers most people, apparently.

 

[Jason_128]

This article has old information. The final Rift frames are separate pieces just like the Vive frames and will work with the IPD adjustment just fine.