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> I've been trying to explain to people how certain I am that doing work in headsets will become mainstream but am (understandably) met with doubt Tech enthusi

> I've been trying to explain to people how certain I am that doing work in headsets will become mainstream but am (understandably) met with doubt Tech enthusiasts underestimate how much the general public hates having gear strapped to their faces and over their hair, especially more than half of women who put considerable effort into their face makeup and hair.

sleepybrett 3y ago
I think this 1.0 is problematic and it will take several more leaps to get to where we need to be. Something more like swimming goggles (without the suction), visualized in the bladerunner sequel on the face of 'love' when she's calling in artillery on K in the 'junkyard'.
_urvc 3y ago
Every headset I have seen looks really unfashionable. Even the Vision Pro looks kind of bad. It is too bulky for the relaxing atmosphere Apple was going for in its adverts. And too rounded to appear more edgy. It is not commiting to anything, kind of like the new Macbook Pro design. This stands in contrast to Airpods (small but bold shape) and the Apple Watch (practical and elegant).
- amelius 3y ago
  This is what the Airpods look like to me: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-37306404 https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-37306404
- throwaway675309 3y ago
  I must be one of the only people in existence who absolutely hates the aesthetic look of AirPods, for lack of a better word, they're abnormally "long" looking when they're hanging from one's ears.
  - hbn 3y ago
    The stems make them easy to orient in your ears without looking, and it brings the mics closer to your mouth.
- tommit 3y ago
  Yeah people weren't exactly thrilled about the look of AirPods when they first released. Everyone thought they looked so unflattering. I do agree that the AVP does look too clunky for the general public, but it's not hard to imagine that this will be improved upon with every future generation.
remich 3y ago
This raises an interesting use-case, though, which is the idea of a person who is working remotely or otherwise engaging virtually could rely on the 3D-model version of them, generated when they were professionally attired, to avoid having to go through that whole rigamarole every day.
zmmmmm 3y ago
I think it's one of the things they got right with the Quest Pro. It doesn't touch your face and is carefully designed so that all the support is via the forehead. It causes discomfort for some people but the upside is you put it on and off and it doesn't disturb your face or hair.
LoganDark 3y ago
I'm definitely not the general public, but the biggest factor for me has always been screen resolution, not size or weight. Until HMDs can achieve 8K+ per eye and match the fidelity of a sub-$100 4K monitor, I'm not going to be interested.
- faeriechangling 3y ago
  >match the fidelity of the sub $100 4K monitor This can >8k per eye Not required to get 4K fidelity… you only need somewhat higher than 4K resolution.
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    I'm not talking about "4K fidelity", I'm talking about "the fidelity of viewing a 4K monitor", which is different. When I'm looking at my monitor in front of me, it fills a small fraction of my visual field (around 15–25%?). So for a headset that covers nearly the entire visual field, the resolution would need to be much higher in order to reproduce the pixel density of the monitor. This is, for most people, pointless, as the rendering costs will be much, much higher (>8x for a quadrupling in resolution per eye), they probably won't care if text is not quite as sharp as a real 4K display, and they might not even be able to tell if their eyes haven't been trained on them. Unfortunately though, I require a 4K display for sharp text (I get really weird visual effects from low-resolution displays), and my current HMD (HP Reverb G2 at 2160x2160 per eye) is uncomfortably blurry, so I don't imagine the Vision Pro at an estimated 3400 pixels per eye according to their marketing figure (`sqrt(23000000 / 2)`) can do much better. I know it's revolutionary and this is about at the current limits of HMD technology, I'm not at all claiming that it's not impressive for the industry. It's just part of the reason why I don't use HMDs often is because the tech hasn't yet advanced enough to be comfortable for me.

sleepybrett 3y ago

I think this 1.0 is problematic and it will take several more leaps to get to where we need to be. Something more like swimming goggles (without the suction), visualized in the bladerunner sequel on the face of 'love' when she's calling in artillery on K in the 'junkyard'.

_urvc 3y ago

Every headset I have seen looks really unfashionable. Even the Vision Pro looks kind of bad. It is too bulky for the relaxing atmosphere Apple was going for in its adverts. And too rounded to appear more edgy. It is not commiting to anything, kind of like the new Macbook Pro design. This stands in contrast to Airpods (small but bold shape) and the Apple Watch (practical and elegant).

amelius 3y ago
This is what the Airpods look like to me: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-37306404 https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-37306404
throwaway675309 3y ago
I must be one of the only people in existence who absolutely hates the aesthetic look of AirPods, for lack of a better word, they're abnormally "long" looking when they're hanging from one's ears.
- hbn 3y ago
  The stems make them easy to orient in your ears without looking, and it brings the mics closer to your mouth.
tommit 3y ago
Yeah people weren't exactly thrilled about the look of AirPods when they first released. Everyone thought they looked so unflattering. I do agree that the AVP does look too clunky for the general public, but it's not hard to imagine that this will be improved upon with every future generation.

remich 3y ago

This raises an interesting use-case, though, which is the idea of a person who is working remotely or otherwise engaging virtually could rely on the 3D-model version of them, generated when they were professionally attired, to avoid having to go through that whole rigamarole every day.

zmmmmm 3y ago

I think it's one of the things they got right with the Quest Pro. It doesn't touch your face and is carefully designed so that all the support is via the forehead. It causes discomfort for some people but the upside is you put it on and off and it doesn't disturb your face or hair.

LoganDark 3y ago

I'm definitely not the general public, but the biggest factor for me has always been screen resolution, not size or weight. Until HMDs can achieve 8K+ per eye and match the fidelity of a sub-$100 4K monitor, I'm not going to be interested.

faeriechangling 3y ago
>match the fidelity of the sub $100 4K monitor This can >8k per eye Not required to get 4K fidelity… you only need somewhat higher than 4K resolution.
- LoganDark 3y ago
  I'm not talking about "4K fidelity", I'm talking about "the fidelity of viewing a 4K monitor", which is different. When I'm looking at my monitor in front of me, it fills a small fraction of my visual field (around 15–25%?). So for a headset that covers nearly the entire visual field, the resolution would need to be much higher in order to reproduce the pixel density of the monitor. This is, for most people, pointless, as the rendering costs will be much, much higher (>8x for a quadrupling in resolution per eye), they probably won't care if text is not quite as sharp as a real 4K display, and they might not even be able to tell if their eyes haven't been trained on them. Unfortunately though, I require a 4K display for sharp text (I get really weird visual effects from low-resolution displays), and my current HMD (HP Reverb G2 at 2160x2160 per eye) is uncomfortably blurry, so I don't imagine the Vision Pro at an estimated 3400 pixels per eye according to their marketing figure (`sqrt(23000000 / 2)`) can do much better. I know it's revolutionary and this is about at the current limits of HMD technology, I'm not at all claiming that it's not impressive for the industry. It's just part of the reason why I don't use HMDs often is because the tech hasn't yet advanced enough to be comfortable for me.