9 ms·
Relativ – A VR headset that you can build yourself for $100
- 52-6F-62 9y agoKids these days have all the fun. In school They taught us how to animate a 2d box across the screen. This looks like a real fun project. If you belong to it, then great work!
- realusername 9y agoI don't know them, I just found that project by chance and thought I would share it on HN since it looks cool!
- maxime-coutte 9y agoHi, I'm Maxime. This is really nice to share it! Thanks.
- koiz 9y agoCool. Can't wait for the day when we truly have modular VR. It's going to take a few years and I know Oculus has the right idea with their eco system but it sort of bums me out that the Vive didn't end up being the hackers headset. Today it feels like the Vive was built out of spite and HTC got lucky Valve went them first.
- mmanfrin 9y agoI think the less cynical answer is that HTC often has good ideas for physical devices but then often fails to follow through and iterate well. They're also just struggling as a company in general. But damn, so I 1000% agree with being bummed about it not being the hackers headset. I preordered the Vive because of a VR video of a guy programming the environment he was in at the moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-7J5OaSag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-7J5OaSag I would love to use a VR IDE some day.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mintplant 9y agoReminds me of Second Life, in which the tools to model, edit, and script the 3D environment were all integrated into the environment itself (and realtime-synchronized over the network, no less).
- mncharity 9y ago> I would love to use a VR IDE some day. The LCD Windows MR HMDs seem pretty close to being a sufficient display. The useful visual area is something like 900^2 px. Big, visible pixels, that are ok with a 7 pt font. And one can do subpixel rendering, so ~3x the horizontal resolution. If you are ok with working on a small laptop screen, you might be ok with this. Otherwise, there's Varjo[1] later this year. Similar resolution to looking at your laptop. ~55 px/deg. For "under $10k". For gloves, that you can still type in... we'll see. I had hope for https://senso.me/ https://senso.me/ , but they've gone quiet. If you don't mind spending $10k, there are existing trackers. For software... sigh. Maybe if market size explodes this Xmas, things will improve. There's been a lot of "do something, then abandon it, because the area isn't ripe yet" over the last half decade. And software dev in VR hasn't been where people's attention is focused. Oh, if one's interest is in-VR creation of VR, instead of in-VR general software dev, then there are a bunch of "authoring environments" being worked on. [1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/12102/varjo-announces-shipping-of-vr-high-res-headset-prototype https://www.anandtech.com/show/12102/varjo-announces-shippin...
- x775 9y agoThis is really cool -- also great to see a teacher having an impact in this manner. Awesome!
- txsh 9y agoI wonder if you could replace the Arduino with a battery-powered Steam Link without the headset being too heavy.
- bufferoverflow 9y agoMotion-to-photon latency isn't mentioned. It's basically the most important characteristic of a good VR set. That's why all smartphone-based VR solutions suck and make you sick. Carmack has long lectures about that issue.
- dsnuh 9y agoA 16 year old and her classmates built this. I'm sure your comment has technical merit, but man, give these kids some props!
- bufferoverflow 9y agoI'm not saying it's not a cool achievement, but they are comparing their product with the existing products. I would like to know how it stacks up. Maybe it's even better, who knows.
- dsnuh 9y agoYeah, but you're also still not saying it _is_ a cool achievement. It is. Period. Why not submit an issue or get involved with the project? It seems like you have expertise in the area that they would appreciate.
- mkempe 9y agoAgree with props! nit: Maxime is a boy's name, so his mates.
- coldacid 9y agoInspired by watching SAO? I wonder if they prefer Asuna or Lisbeth.
- maxime-coutte 9y agoHi, how did you guess? Me and my friends were completely in love with SAO, and we decided to build a virtual world to go after (or instead) school. But we ended up building a VR headset.
- QasimK 9y agoIt's pretty great (and unusual) that a TV show would result in doing something productive! They can be inspirational and give ideas. How did you go from watching the show to starting to build a VR headset? Was there any particular trigger at the start?
- coldacid 9y agoI wasn't asking if it was inspired by SAO, I saw the comment in the GitHub readme about it.
- kristaps 9y agoHere's one teacher who doesn't have to doubt if his work is meaningful, awesome!
- JepZ 9y agoWithout knowing anything about the quality I can say, this is pretty amazing. I mean putting together a team which builds hardware and software for what they want to have. Cool kids :-)
- mncharity 9y agoImagine this with a 4k panel. Depending on the lenses, it could be the highest resolution HMD currently available. Panelook seems down, but even if only 4K@30 5.5 panels are currently available/affordable... well, no gaming, but I use Vive and WMD at 30 fps as a desktop alternative.
- sitkack 9y agoI'd be interested in how your desktop alternative works with the VR displays. Do you edit text, code, email and surf inside the helmet? Do you have any issues with keyboard and mouse? Do you sit in a desk chair?
- sgtmas2006 9y agoI've done this in the past. I had 3 false displays set up using virtual desktop and HDMI dummies. When I got used to it, it was very pleasant. One day I sat down, did some working, and then watched some shows. I actually fell asleep with the headset on once. It was, to say the least, confusing when I first woke up in outer space. It was very pleasant. I wish I had a Rift to try it with, the lenses on the Vive are rough, with my only experience before the Vive being the DK2. http://www.roadtovr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/wearality-sky.jpg http://www.roadtovr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/wearality... This effect was highly noticeable for me. Never had an issue with my mouse or KB. I went onto the app where you were in a living room, with other people in the online room around you, and you each had your desktop in your lap. It was pretty cool to play Overwatch and this guy comment when something sick happened. I don't believe VR belongs in the gaming scene. Business / EDU all the way. I'd be curious if there's any plans to research trying to get kids to develop synesthesia using VR. I do also sit at a desk chair. I ended up stopping using it a lot unless I'm trying to drown out everything around me because I am very paranoid if I can't see all exits/entrances to a room with my back to the wall. Still probably the most eye-opening experience for VR for me. Being able to come into my office, with only my desk in a part of the room, sit there with my KB&M and virtual displays, and then move around my room separately for things like Tilt Brush would be amazing.
- mncharity 9y ago
- rsbartram 9y agoWe see DIY VR a lot within the STEAM educational programs. Focusing this type of educational attention on children at an early age is critical for future personal and professional development. This is what allows consumers to have a build yourself VR headset for $100. I have covered a few early STEAM programs in the Los Angeles area. https://latechnews.org/raymond-ealy-founder-steamcoders/ https://latechnews.org/raymond-ealy-founder-steamcoders/ https://latechnews.org/stem3-academy-open-house-november-4/ https://latechnews.org/stem3-academy-open-house-november-4/
- hrktb 9y agoAbout early age children using VR, there was a warning of potential risk for children using VR, two/three years ago: https://uploadvr.com/study-vr-children/ https://uploadvr.com/study-vr-children/ it’s not a big study nor does it comes to any concrete results, so I was wondering if you knew of more data on the subject, or knew of any real word feedback on the matter.
- jesscxc 9y agoFrom what I've read (which isn't hard to find, but I'm mobile right now), the danger of VR for kids is not an issue, and in fact can actually more quickly bring to attention if they have a biological issue (like more quickly reveal if glasses would benefit them).
- TipVFL 9y agoI was expecting this to be another phone holder, much more interesting that you hacked together some hardware. Does this feature a low persistence display? Also, you mention "cheap tracking for next big update", is this just going to be an improvement over your current tracking or a full 6 DOF tracking? I don't think I've seen any hobbyist 6 DOF tracking for VR yet. Oh, one note, in your read me, the part about Jonas convincing Chinese factories to sell you parts at premium prices should be changed. You probably meant he got really good prices, but premium pricing means basically the opposite.
- dannyw 9y ago“I know this request is a little bit out of the ordinary, but would it be possible for you to charge us premium prices for this item? We’d like to pay more. No? Please, we’ll only buy it if you charge us more. Ok, thanks!”
- lovemenot 9y agoThe opposite word he probably meant is discount price.
- usrusr 9y ago> I don't think I've seen any hobbyist 6 DOF tracking for VR yet. Webcam based hobbyist 6dof headtracking for use with desktop screens has been around for many years (freetrack, ftnoir/opentrack and so on), but the quality is rather dreadful. Still, people who don't mind glacial latency from very heavy smoothing have been very happy with those solutions. But VR requires so much headmounted technology that tradeoffs between cost/weight and quality shift a lot. For desktop tracking, adding head mounted sensors to the existing single camera 6dof tracking solutions would at least double the amount of hardware involved. But when your baseline is a full VR headset, those sensors are an almost negligible extension. Gyro sensors and/or an "inside out" camera could easily add a lot of precision/speed (effectively the same metric, with filtering) to the rotary axes of single cam 6dof. Last time I looked at opentrack it already supported some sort of fusion between stationary camera and Android gyros. This would be a good starting point for a hobbyist VR rig (not room scale).
- ensiferum 9y agoCool project by teenager kids shame that its useless in practice since thered be no sw support from major engines. So as a next project youd need to make an engine plugin for ue4 for example.
- loulouxiv 9y agoOr maybe get it working smoothly with WebVR compatible browsers ?
- DiThi 9y agoOr much simpler: make it OpenVR or OSVR compatible. With any of the two it will work with the vast majority of games available.
- ereyes01 9y agoAll the "useful" stuff you're thinking of very likely started out much less polished / refined than this project. It seems to have struck a chord with this audience, and it will only get better from here.
- ensiferum 9y agoI dont think this particular project will go anywhere really. But these kids will probably gain something for this for their future careers.
- yarrel 9y agoJust use OpenHMD.
- jsemrau 9y agoSometimes I would love to go through the black markets of Shenzen and pickup the parts for projects like these
- VectorLock 9y agoStrange to me this price point isn't being met by Alibaba/Banggood
- sitkack 9y agoBecause there is no software platform for driving it? There should be a serial usb / xml interchange format for sending the device capabilities to the driving PC. Something HDMI device-id but for VR displays.
- zackmorris 9y agoThis is really cool. Quick question for any experts reading this - do Oculus or VIVE use any sort of dead reckoning/movement prediction in their tracking? Also does anyone have any documentation on the APIs for this, or information on how the devices keep track of their latency and calibration information? There are fundamental limits on latency, especially with spread-spectrum transmission when all of this goes wireless. As accurate as the tracking and pointing are for controllers, I feel like some additional extrapolation is happening. It would be great to have an open source library for this so we can give hand-built rigs the best tracking that's mathematically possible.
- aphextron 9y ago>Quick question for any experts reading this - do Oculus or VIVE use any sort of dead reckoning/movement prediction in their tracking? Also does anyone have any documentation on the APIs for this, or information on how the devices keep track of their latency and calibration information? Absolutely. Vive uses a combination of IMU based dead reckoning combined with Lighthouse sensors to provide tracking. The dead reckoning is super important for maintaining tracking during sensor occlusion. The API it interfaces with is SteamVR, which is mostly open source, so you can even see how they’re doing it. The new generation Vive Pro will combine this along with stereo camera CV based inside out tracking for even better precision.
- DiThi 9y agoDo you have a source on the stereo cameras of the Vive Pro being used for inside out tracking?
- aphextron 9y agoThis is pure speculation on my part, but it’s the only concievable use for the cameras. They are laid out in the exact same way as the Samsung Odyssey headset which does that. I cant imagine they have solved the compositing issues involved with doing pass through AR yet, although I’d be impressed if that’s the case.
- j45 9y agoThis is incredible - well done guys. My immediate thought went to seeing if a VR headset could be created with a 200+ degree field of view similar to a Pimax or StarVR using two of these displays!
- praulv 9y agoThis should carry a trigger warning for imposter syndrome.
- arpa 9y agoWe're all impostors, so what? I sometimes feel that this basic insecurity in IT really creates strife and abrasiveness between people instead of mutual respect. I find it better to embrace your own imperfections and in this way find your own strengths, which, sadly, are too often shadowed by the need to keep up appearances. There is no perfect IT person. We all suck. All tech sucks. People in general suck at things people do. This is life, and I am ok with it: I am content with who and where I am, and I am ok with other people having different goals, different life experiences and different achievements. My friend works at NASA; I've tried a lot of psychedelics; somebody has been backpacking around the world with 5$ in their pocket - and we're all deserving to be allowed (by ourselves) to be happy. That having been said, these kids are really cool and I wish them the best of luck! *edit: punct.
- dTal 9y ago>the chief architect at Oculus, Atman Brinstock... gave me a precious piece of advice: "open source it". If only he followed his own advice.
- georgemcbay 9y agoWell to be fair, he doesn't own the IP he creates at Oculus, Facebook does. It is entirely possible he'd like to open source it, personally (though I have no idea if this is the case).
- supermatt 9y agoWhat would you have him open source? His employers property?
- admax88q 9y agoAs chief architect he probably has some sway to push FB to open source it. Even if he can't its pretty hypocritical for him to ask these people to open source their work, allowing Occulus to benefit from it rather than worry about them as competition.
- khedoros1 9y agoIs it hypocritical to encourage someone to open-source some IP that they own, while not being allowed to open-source some IP that you don't? It seems like a chief architect would have a lot of pull in technical decisions, but a lot less in business or legal decisions. Open-sourcing the code would have to be considered from all three perspectives.
- kirrent 9y agohttps://developer.oculus.com/blog/open-source-release-of-rift-dk2/ https://developer.oculus.com/blog/open-source-release-of-rif...
- maxime-coutte 9y agoYou can chat with Fellowship of this project! https://discord.gg/W9VKbjU https://discord.gg/W9VKbjU