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HoloKit relaunched, $129 AR Headset accessory for iPhone

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Re: HoloKit relaunched, $129 AR Headset accessory for iPhone

#81

Post by Eisenstein »

dmix wrote: post #64
zdragnar wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VR is, IMHO, a fundamentally flawed concept. To immerse yourself, you need to block out your peripheral vision and everything else. The average, casual user isn't going to do that on a regular basis. It's not something you can do with kids around if you need to keep an eye on them, unlike a book or a TV show or even a game on your phone or laptop. Fundamentally, immersion is a selling point to a very specific audienc…

Yet VR is extremely fun and provides a set of experiences unmatched by traditional gaming. Especially for the Wii/casual crowd. Much like TikTok-hate on HN, it's probably another example of adult nerds who fail to grasp the value in early-adopter zoomer heavy tech (even though adult nerds have plenty to love if they actually spent time investing into trying it, just like TikTok). > It's not something you can do with…

Being a kid and having to take care of a kid are fundamentally so opposite of things that I can't believe you are confusing the two of them.

Re: HoloKit relaunched, $129 AR Headset accessory for iPhone

#82

Post by Eisenstein »

abirch wrote: post #48
accrual wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To immerse yourself, you need to block out your peripheral vision and everything else. But what if that's what I want? I want VR so I can experience totally different worlds fully as if I was there. I can do that safely from my living room. I want AR so I can live the cyberpunk dream of seeing data and other extra info overlaid on top of my normal vision while out in public. I don't think either concept is flawed,…

I want VR so that I can have 8 different monitors and even more desktops. I want this at work so I can have different remote sessions up and just look right to see the current metrics, left for slack and email, vs code central...

I hope you know how to touch-type.

Re: HoloKit relaunched, $129 AR Headset accessory for iPhone

#85

Post by Eisenstein »

smoldesu wrote: post #80
jnsie wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll keep saying this until it happens...the biggest AR use case, for me, is replacing the television. The fact that we all have giant boxes as the centerpiece of our main rooms is something unnatural that we take for granted. I'm not sure how far AR devices that allows for social viewing of television content are away, but I feel in my bones that it will happen and when it does children of that generation will be co…

That's a fair point, but I struggle to see how we haven't already reached that point with smartphones. Most people today already have a portable screen they can comfortably stow on-person, it feels like a hard sell to get them to ditch their TV and smartphone for a situationally useful headset. Doubly so if every participant needs a discrete headset. While I enjoyed watching movies in VR, it's just more comfortable t…

You have to hold a smartphone. The great thing about TV is that it is on in the background and you can do other things while you (don't) watch it. Picture a cooking show while you cook or cspan while you work on your hobby or some TV show you kind of care enough about to talk over with your friends but don't care enough about to devote all of your attention to...

Re: HoloKit relaunched, $129 AR Headset accessory for iPhone

#86

Post by danielEM »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #70
gnopgnip wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nreal is pretty close to regular glasses for AR

I've been very, very happy with mine. Really excited for _eventual_ 4k.

I have not, used them for maybe 5hours in total, after one hour it is freakin inconvenient to have them on a nose. Lack of ipd adjustment makes it one eye to have part of the screen always blurred and last one is dumb lack of spec that would allow for full Linux support.

Re: HoloKit relaunched, $129 AR Headset accessory for iPhone

#87

Post by JKCalhoun »

jnsie wrote: post #71
smoldesu wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I've seen less compelling AR applications than I've seen VR ones. Between Windows Mixed Reality, Pokemon Go and the AR Lowe's app, there's not really a whole lot of compelling AR use-cases. VR at least has an entertainment niche, which gave us the likes of Beat Saber, Half Life: Alyx and an IMAX experience in the comfort of your sofa. Neither one seems poised to succeed IMO, but the push for AR adoption see…

I'll keep saying this until it happens...the biggest AR use case, for me, is replacing the television. The fact that we all have giant boxes as the centerpiece of our main rooms is something unnatural that we take for granted. I'm not sure how far AR devices that allows for social viewing of television content are away, but I feel in my bones that it will happen and when it does children of that generation will be co…

I can't imagine that at all.

A TV is like a piece of furniture, or a decoration like a painting. As compelling as it is, you can choose to ignore it, make eye contact with and talk to someone else in the room wether the TV is on or not. It's casual.

I imagine too what an outrageously high pixel count a VR set would have to have to render a virtual TV with the same resolution as a real one.

And even aside from the above, I really can't see myself putting something on my face and dropping out of my environ for anything more than about 5 or 10 minutes. It's just weird.

Re: HoloKit relaunched, $129 AR Headset accessory for iPhone

#88

Post by michaelgold »

jesuscript wrote: post #19

Form factor for AR is literally like nuclear fusion at the moment. I don’t know when they are going to get it looking like normal fucking glasses, but until then, no one is going outside with this shit. They have to pivot this soon enough to a cheap at-home AR thingy. VR headsets are getting smaller at least: https://en.shiftall.net/products/meganex I would suspect Apple will never release something that isn’t as sma…

I was involved in the original project on the business side.

So I can help answer the question of why it looks this way? Optics :)

Technical details are in the patent for the cardboard version from 2017:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180011327A1/en

Re: HoloKit relaunched, $129 AR Headset accessory for iPhone

#89

Post by peterept »

Not a very original or clever form factor. At least design it more like the Mira Prism (https://www.mirareality.com/) where the phone position is closer to your head and have a large open FOV. I get that they want to expose the phones back camera for tracking - but use some fancy mirrors or something?

Ultimately this is very google cardboard like and passive so $129 is quite expensive.

I built a fun toy like this in the early 2000’s for $10 using foam board and a $5 sheet of teleprompter glass.

Ultimately anything like this has failed to capture the market because people just don’t want to have their phones out of reach and/or risk their battery using the camera/tracking.

Re: HoloKit relaunched, $129 AR Headset accessory for iPhone

#90

Post by smoldesu »

Eisenstein wrote: post #85
smoldesu wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fair point, but I struggle to see how we haven't already reached that point with smartphones. Most people today already have a portable screen they can comfortably stow on-person, it feels like a hard sell to get them to ditch their TV and smartphone for a situationally useful headset. Doubly so if every participant needs a discrete headset. While I enjoyed watching movies in VR, it's just more comfortable t…

You have to hold a smartphone. The great thing about TV is that it is on in the background and you can do other things while you (don't) watch it. Picture a cooking show while you cook or cspan while you work on your hobby or some TV show you kind of care enough about to talk over with your friends but don't care enough about to devote all of your attention to...

Right. Say I prop my iPhone up against my rolling pin and put on Orange is the New Black, though - is that not the same effect? I don't think people will pay boucoup bucks to project a picture-in-picture display over their face.
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