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New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

arstechnica.com

361–370 of 465 posts

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#361
post #144

Sooo looking forward to being able to live fully in a virtual world. Virtual cash, virtual socially distanced "relationships" and friends, a virtual body so I don't have to work out, and Neuralink attached to my brain (or whatever's left of that) so other people can make decisions for me. What a relief it's all coming together

>Sooo looking forward to being able to live fully in a virtual world. Virtual cash, virtual socially distanced "relationships" and friends, a virtual body so I don't have to work out

A surprising aspect of VR is that this is actually the complete opposite, just how much your real body actually matters. VR is exhausting. 10 minutes of Thrill of the Fight and I'm physically incapable of continuing. An hour of Rec Room or Echo VR and I have to stop from the sweat buildup. Even hanging out and just talking VR Chat is so more physical (standing, actively interacting with both arms, potentially full body tracking) than sitting at a desk during the day job, more comparable to something like being at a conference where at the the end of day you really feel it, all the standing around and slow walking, since in total it was more than an average day.

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#362
post #359

Productivity strongly correlates with screen size. Immersive VR/AR experience would replace all large displays, and could allow complete redesign of a human-computer interaction. No more trying to fit windows on a screen. I think that the Apple AirPod Max is an experiment to test the structure. That's why they are so heavy.

Anyone I know can't stand using VR headset for more than few hours. The headset gets sweaty and I get dizzy. I don't think this is getting solved soon. And I don't see significant upgrade from 3 monitors with i3 anyway.

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sports are a special case as, arguably, they're mostly boring and their main value is the social context I think this is a bit of a fringe opinion. I can certainly see how people appreciate the social aspect of sports events with necessarily appreciating the sports. But I don’t think I wake up in the middle of the night to watch F1 alone for the social benefit.

yup,im watching f1 for the last 20 years mostly alone. there are boring races but those would not be fun even if i watched it with somebody else.

Just remember. If you accidentally fall asleep, Lewis will somehow lose. I nodded off during Monza this year and then the moment I was asleep all hell broke loose.

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least when I think of what could be done with a virtual work environment, I imagine it being used to go beyond the limitations of a workstation. We’ve been stuck with the same peripherals for 50+ years, the same GUIs for 25 and we’ve been trying to balance sedentary office work with health for as long as we’ve had swivel chairs. VR allows you to be on your feet moving around and literally putting your hands into t…

While that sounds like it would work in theory, we've been experimenting with 3D interfaces for work for decades and... it just hasn't caught on. I used to have a 3D desktop application back in the day, where your character could walk through a virtual room to open up a browser, apps, etc. It was a gimmick. Nothing beats hitting cmd+space and three letters to start an app (besides having it open already / cmd-tabbing…

Sure some things would stay the same but what if I rephrased it and asked: if you had an infinite budget, what would your ideal office look like?

There have already been inklings of the new interfaces we could invent like Tilt Brush. We shouldn’t be thinking along the lines of how we could do easy things differently, we need to think how can we do hard things intuitively?

Edit: another consideration is that if we want to be less sedentary maybe it is worthwhile actually getting up and walking over to a filing cabinet in order to open a file browser. If it were an option it would probably be more effective than setting reminders to get up and move.

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having done a fair bit of AR/VR work in medical and industrial settings, I've always thought the 'killer app' of VR is not in gaming. It's this very weekend: The Super Bowl. Well, not the Super Bowl precisely, but in experiences like sports or other time/space limited events. Sitting ring-side for the next big match. Or at the 50-yard line at the Super Bowl. Or at the finish line of the 100-m dash. All for, I dunno,…

They've been trying to do this but they always put the 360 camera somewhere really dumb, like next to the goal (this is soccer I've tried it with) and just normal head height, so you can't actually see the game at all. I agree if they put the camera somewhere cool, like right above the pitch kind of like god-view, that would be awesome. Not sure I'd pay 3,500 for it though....

> they always put the 360 camera somewhere really dumb, like next to the goal

Human stereo vision doesn't work at long distances, because of the geometry - the exact distance depends on how good your eyesight is, but somewhere around 18 feet [1] the brain starts using other cues because the difference between what your left and right eyes see is so minuscule.

This all happens unconsciously so you don't notice - but when you estimate the speed of a car 100 meters away, you actually start comparing its motion to the road markings, using your knowledge of about how big a car is, and so on.

So a bird's eye view doesn't really benefit from stereo vision. I suspect they like to put in those weird close-up shots to make the people paying $$$$ for 3D notice the 3D effect and feel they've got their money's worth.

[1] http://scecinfo.usc.edu/geowall/stereohow.html

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#366
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds utterly unappealing. If I'm in a coffeeshop I have zero reason to want to cut off from the outside world. Otherwise I wouldn't be in a coffeeshop. Most of the reason I'd work in a coffeeshop is for an ambient social vibe. And for many things I do a 13" laptop screen is fine. (And I probably wouldn't feel comfortable being utterly cut off from the environment in an urban space.)

This is described as a joint AR/VR device. I don’t expect we’d be totally cut off, probably more like an overlay of computery stuff while still being able to see the real world behind it. Sort of like a virtual screen.

Correct, it sounds like they are getting the AR using a 'passthrough' mode stitched together from the multiple cameras and some sensor fusion to give you an eye-level perspective live video feed they can manipulate with all manner of neat effects.

Wearing an HMD is always going to disconnect your attention from where you are and teleport it to someplace not shared by those around you, there is no way around that and it's not a bug either. AR just makes that separation a little fuzzier.

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#367
post #95

Bear in mind that the iPad was rumored to cost >$1000 but then launched at $499. On the other hand it might sense to launch this as a pro-workstation for the usual kinds of task: architects, designers and engineers being able to visualize and interact with models directly in space. If they can make that affordable and usable for pro designers at every level, (which $3500 clearly would be), they will have a hit. A con…

> they will have a hit.

This right here is Appleism.

And why wouldn't Occulus, HTC, Magic leap or big boy Microsoft have a hit?

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having done a fair bit of AR/VR work in medical and industrial settings, I've always thought the 'killer app' of VR is not in gaming. It's this very weekend: The Super Bowl. Well, not the Super Bowl precisely, but in experiences like sports or other time/space limited events. Sitting ring-side for the next big match. Or at the 50-yard line at the Super Bowl. Or at the finish line of the 100-m dash. All for, I dunno,…

Ehh. I've owned a VR headset for a long time now, and I think many people underestimate how fundamentally isolating being in VR is. Humans are social creatures and unless you live by yourself and want to escape into VR, you're a lot more likely to enjoy watching the big game with friends and family so you can shoot the shit, and share the experience. Don't get me wrong... VR is and can be a lot of fun, but I just don…

For people who are really sports fans (which might be a little out of the Hacker News audience, I know) not having your friends and family talking during the game might be a pro, not a con.

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#369
post #9

I could see this as a virtual office, as some of the comments speculate. If I had a set of AR glasses that projected what appeared to be an 8K monitor on top of my dining room table, and integrated with my MacBook Pro for input / output, and that had batteries to last a workday, I’d pay $2K/$3K. Even more if it worked well at brightness levels I’d have in my backyard. Never mind gaming, mobile high-quality virtual of…

I'm confused by people saying that they would use VR for work. My head hurts after one or maybe two hours of using it, and if I would work whole day in it?... ugh.

Wearing a HMD reminds me of a diving mask - its a little awkward and can get fogged up and etc -- but the overall benefit of seeing underwater as an experience makes up for the inconvenience. My guess most of the problems are a result of limited early hardware and limited early software, both of which are expected to change over time ;}

Re: New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3k price tag

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the screens in the goggles themselves are 8k, the "monitor" is only going to be a small fraction of that unless you have your face up really close. (Although you could effectively have much higher than 8k when you do stick your face right up next to it.)

Would it need to display and confine your workspace to a "monitor"? Couldn't it show floating windows of some kind in 3D space?

I personally would like my 2d rectangles to be in a limited 2d rectangle area for organisation and not cluttered all over the 3d space.
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