As the concept of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) is getting increasingly popular in the recent years, more supporting hardware devices were pushed out into the market. VR devices now have a huge collection to choose from, including the high-end PC-based devices to mobile VR devices. Some notable console/PC headsets include the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive and the Sony Playstation VR, while some notable mobile VR headsets include the Google Daydream, the Samsung Gear VR and the Google Cardboard.

My most preferred VR device would be the Google Cardboard. Cardboard is initiated by Google in order to encourage the development of VR and VR apps. Named after cardboard, the main material making up the headset, Cardboard is very easy to construct with simple materials, such as tape, velcro and cardboard. This makes it much more affordable as compared to the higher end headsets. In addition, users just need a smartphone to operate Cardboard, making it easily accessible. Furthermore, Cardboard has various designs for users to choose from, or users can assemble their own device using Google’s step by step instructions. Due to its low cost of operations, the Google Cardboard is notable to be a good entry device for users interested in VR. As it supports smartphone apps, it opens up a lot of avenues for users to try out VR at their own time, which is what I appreciate from the Google Cardboard. However, as it is made up of cardboard, which is not a lasting material, it is imperative that users may need to replace their device regularly.

Mixed reality is a mix of VR and AR, where the hardware devices augments the real world with virtual objects, with the aim to look as if they are really placed in real life. Some notable devices for MR will be the Microsoft Hololens and the Samsung HMD Odyssey.

My preferred MR headset is possibly the Microsoft Hololens. Even though it was released earlier than some headsets, it still boasts impressive features among all the MR devices. The Hololens has been reviewed to be user friendly. Providing a holographic projections just on the head gear, and the lack of need of a handset, it can be quite a convenient device to be used. Furthermore, the Hololens is quite light compared to other devices, making it usable for longer periods of time. However, the downside of the Hololens is its exorbitant cost of $3000.

However, the market for VR and MR devices still remains big with plenty of potential. We can definitely look forward to more improved devices in the near future.

FAVOURITE VR HARDWARE – GOOGLE CARDBOARD

Taken from Amazon.com

Even though there is a myriad of different VR headsets to pick and choose from, I definitely like the Google Cardbord VR Glasses, purely for the fact that it was an attempt to make the technology of VR cost efficient and easily available. I like the concept behind it, even though it’s use is limited.

Although, in terms of wearability, the reviews are not the best, as users have to constantly hold it to their faces and it is definitely not the most aesthetic of headsets. Despite all the cons, the goal was to encourage users to explore and learn about VR, as well as to encourage developers to further innovate in the VR world without breaking their bank to purchase a VR headset.

In addition, there are lots of apps that are compatible with the cardboard goggles that can be found on Google Play Store and the iOS App Store for users to experience using the goggles with. In spite of all the limitations of the goggles, it’s still a good tool to begin the VR journey!

FAVOURITE MR HARDWARE – AJNALENS

Taken from http://dimensionnxg.com/

One MR headset that piqued my interest was the Ajnalens created by a Mumbai-based start-up. Ajnalens boasts a 90-degree field of view, as well as the ability to allow users to interact with AR objects through hand gestures, and navigate using gaze and voice command. However, this MR technology is still under development. The coolest part of this device for me is that it displays holograms on the visual display, helping us get yet another step closer to getting the Tony Stark level of technology.

Taken from http://dimensionnxg.com/

On an aesthetic level, in reference to the image, I also appreciate that the creators have experimented with using wood as the headset material instead of sticking with the conventional plastic.

Also, another thing to note is that it is a standalone headset, which is amazing given the amount of computational power I assume it would need to create a 3D map of the environment as it says it would, to provide a user experience that is as realistic and close to the real world as possible.

With the rapid improvements in technologies, companies such as Samsung, HTC, HP, Lenovo, Acer and ASUS have created various VR/AR/MR devices in 2019. However, which one will give you the most bang for your buck?

My personal favourite for a VR device is the HTC Vive. Not only is it powerful, but it works perfectly with both Windows and Mac OS. Although Mac OS isn’t really build for gaming, we do see Apple making certain improvements in their machines to cater to the hard core gamers. The wide tracking range area of 15*15 feet allows the user to experience a bigger virtual world compared to other devices.

Lenovo Explorer Windows mixed reality headset with motion controls is my personal favourite. It is currently on sale now on the Microsoft website for just $199(USD), and at that price it will definitely give you the most bang for you buck. It also has a wide range of movement, around 11.5*11.5 feet which gives the user sufficient movement to feel immersed in the game environment.

VR Headsets – HTC Vive Pro (Preferred)

The HTC Vive Pro headset is one of the most advanced consumer VR headsets available today.

When it comes to VR, I feel that immersion is one of the key aspects to having a great user VR experience. One of the key specifications to achieving a more immersive experience in VR is the visual fidelity of the VR headsets. The HTC Vive Pro has a crisp 2880 x 1660 resolution that minimizes much of the screen door effect, one of the usual complaints of current VR headsets.

Besides the impressive technical specifications of the Vive Pro, HTC’s collaboration with Valve Corp means that the HTC Vive has access to many current, updated content from the Steam platform. This means that I am definitely not worried about finding VR content/games from the expansive Steam library that I am sure to enjoy.

One of Vive Pro’s other standout features is the room-scale technology that it offers, which allows the VR setup to track user movement within a room for a game. The Vive blog mentions that this increases the “state of presence” in VR and therefore improves on immersion within the VR content.

Rounding off, built-in headphones are also included in the HTC Vive Pro, which means we do not need to get external headphones for audio to match the visual content on the VR headsets.

Many technical reviews have also complimented on the well-rounded offerings by the HTC Vivo Pro, and it is regarded as one of the best VR headsets on the market today. When we are talking about the latest and greatest, the HTC Vive Pro is arguably hard to beat.

Other great VR headsets –

Oculus Rift, Oculus Go, The original HTC Vive

AR – Focals AR eyewear

I think smart glasses are a great future mainstream application of AR. Unfortunately, many of the smart glasses today have designs that make its users stand out too much from the crowd. I think one of the best ways for smart glasses to gain traction is to have a design that is not too unique, bulky and unwieldy as it is in many current smart glasses. Unlike the google glass, AR focals display AR content by using a “projector” to “beam content” into the user’s retina, hence the less bulky design as compared to displaying user content though an external screen (such as the Google Glass).

Intel’s Vaunt smart glasses would have been a top contender in this category too, since it does have a sleek design with many promised useful features. Unfortunately, Intel has ceased development of these glasses, so I feel that the Focals AR is one of the current smart glasses that I really like and would love to try wearing.

Mixed Reality (Preferred)

Microsoft HoloLens

While I have never tried using the HoloLens before, its features certainly sound very impressive, despite being announced a while back in 2017. The HoloLens provide a unique “Hologram” display where reviews have mentioned that it has an impressive resolution.

User control of this device is also said to be extremely easy and the handsfree experience is said to be a refreshing, futuristic change for most users. This is because, unlike many VR headsets that require users to carry a hardware controller for user input into the system, the HoloLens can simply register pure hand gestures as control inputs instead. Thus, this removes a need for users to even carry an additional controller, freeing up our hands for many other tasks.

In addition, the audio prowess of the device is said to be very competitive. Since the HoloLens is a device that allows the user to continue interacting with the real world, the speakers do not isolate ambient sound. However, it supports binaural audio that provides a spatial awareness of sounds emitted from the speaker.

Lastly, interacting with the device itself is extremely easy, due to the Holographic Processing Unit powering the device. Together with the CPU and GPU included in the HoloLens, the user experience on the HoloLens have been reviewed to be very fluid and very pleasant to navigate around.

I think the HoloLens still has the biggest potential for future user and content growth as a consumer mixed reality head set. Thus it is still my preferred headset, even if there are already other newer competing headsets in the market.

Perhaps, its only downside is the exorbitant asking price of USD $3000.

Virtual Reality : Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift is nearing the 3 year mark, and had an amazing run in delivering a wholesome VR experience to the community. Requiring a minimum specs of GTX960 and Intel i3-6100, an entry-level gaming computer is all that’s needed to run the Oculus Rift. Priced $100 cheaper than its competitor HTC Vive, it’s certainly a grab for users with a tight budget.

                                                                 Oculus Rift

Mixed Reality : Magic Leap One

Developed by Magic Leap, it’s a MR headset that comes together with a small, light weighted wearable computer, which enhances the portability of the system. The headset has an advanced eye-tracking system, allowing gestures to be made via eye movements such as blinking etc. Although it’s priced at $2000+, this might be the future that we are all looking at: where digital meets reality.

                                                            Magic Leap One

If I was a rich girl, na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na… I would prefer the Hololens for Mixed Reality and HTC Vive for Virtual Reality.

My preference is mostly affected by my experience, because these are the only two high end headsets I’ve tried (once on the Hololens, and multiple times on the HTC Vive), and Ive been wowed by the experiences.

[Me trying the Hololens]

The HTC Vive and Hololens have competitive specs in their respective VR and MR markets, as many others have pointed out. These two also fare well when it comes to developer support. Here’s the Hololens forum and the HTC Vive developer community.

When it comes to developing applications for the Hololens and HTC Vive, there are enough materials online and open platforms to begin development. Hololens is listed as a supported headset in Unity’s Mixed Reality Toolkit and for the official document in unity they have a section specifically for the HTC Vive.

No matter how much XR may distort reality, reality still holds that many of these XR gears are too expensive for the ordinary student. The Hololens easily cost over $3000 the Vive over $1000! Fortunately, one can dabble with XR while on a budget.

Budget VR

Introducing…the VR googles: Google cardboard, free shipping to Singapore, for less then SGD$4!

This simple cardboard cutout can turn your Android phone into a neat virtual reality headset. The glasses creates a 3D effect when viewing split screen images like this:

Many such videos can be found on youtube. On the google cardboard app, there are many sample VR worlds that responds according to your phone’s orientation, and coupled with a 3D screen, emulates the VR experience well. There is a little magnet at the side, that acts like a button, so you may interact with your phone’s screen while your phone is tucked in the Google Cardboard. How this works is it sends signals to the phone using the phone’s magnetometer, which is usually used for compass functions.

Budget AR

If your mobile device has a camera, accelerometers, gyroscope and 3D rendering capabilities, you can run and develop full fledged AR applications on you mobile device. For example try AR.js on Github.  It works well on my Xiao Mi 5S.

Budget MR, in the future maybe?

Unfortunately, devices like the Hololens have set a high benchmark for what it means to be considered MR. To achieve MR, the virtual objects have to respond to the real world often in a realistic way. For example, the menu, a virtual object of the Hololens fixes itself nicely on a real world wall.

When you move away from the wall, the menu should appear to shrink, as if it were fixed in that spot (Accurate spatial mapping). You can also move and interact with this virtual menu, with hand gestures, without needing a controller.

Through the Hololens, you can pick virtual objects up and move them around, with just your hands. These amazing and advanced features defining MR currently can only be achieved with expensive equipment. Hopefully in the future there will exist a budget solution to achieve MR.

For this week’s CS4240 homework, we are to research on latest hardware in VR/AR/MR and then discuss about our favorite device for VR and MR.

In terms of MR, there are currently 3 on the market, the 2 more well known ones are the HoloLens and Magic Leap. For the 3rd device, it is known as the Nreal Light MR smart glasses and it is my personal favorite.

Below is how the Nreal Light MR glasses look when worn.

nreal light, read-to-wear mixed reality glasses

The first thing you would notice about the Light is that it looks like a fashionable sunglasses as compared to the HoloLens and Magic Leap which both looks bulky and are probably things you would not wear outdoors. Also, below you can see the entire hardware loadout for the light, which includes toast – the external processor, light – the MR glasses, oreo – the touchpad controller.

From ces reviews, the processing power is comparable to the other two MR glasses and the light has higher field of view compared to magic leap. The only arguing point is that the light glasses has to be wired to the toast but I prefer such a setup over wearing a bulky visor like the hololens or weird looking glasses in the Magic Leap.

For VR hardware, I think the latest advancements are trending towards untethered headsets which allow for more freedom in movement and is definitely welcome. In terms of computation power, while such HMD are not capable of tapping on the processing power of a PC as compared to tethered headsets as a trade off for freedom from tethering.

Why I chose the Oculus Quest – pictured below, as my favorite VR headset is that I value the freedom of movement a lot especially with the trend towards room-scale VR applications.

As for why Oculus Quest over other untethered headsets, I personally believe that how good a hardware is also depends on the ecosystem surrounding the headset itself. While google daydream was the first to come up with commercial standalone headset in the google daydream standalone by Lenovo, there just wasn’t much application nor games to try out on the google daydream playstore. Out of the various VR headset, oculus and HTC vive has the strongest developer ecosystem which allows for developers to get help easier and finish their product. This advantage means there will naturally be more things for you to try out with the HTC and oculus headsets.

As to why Oculus Quest over HTC Vive Focus (HTC’s standalone headset), I personally prefer the flagship controller on the Oculus. In terms of computational power, I think both are quite similar and offer 6 DOF tracking and same resolution. In terms of controller design, Oculus’s touch controllers feels more ergonomic and the ring allows for natural pointing gestures. The HTC controller on the other hand utilizes touchpad rather than analog stick. The issue I have with touchpad is using it as a button compared to analog stick doesn’t seem to give as good a feedback and can lead it the touchpad press being hard to utilize. Also, you do not feel directional movements through your fingers as naturally since you don’t feel any feedback as compared to having an analog stick being offset in a certain direction.

While Oculus Quest is my preferred headset for VR, I do feel that HTC and Oculus are both pretty competitive and it is probably down to preference since their specs are overall pretty close.

Favourite MR Hardware: HoloKit by Amber Garage

“Amber Garage, a Silicon Valley based creative art & tech studio, on June 1st at Augmented World Expo launched HoloKit, the low cost open source mixed reality experience, which includes the HeadKit cardboard headset and TrackKit software. With your smartphone and Mixed Reality apps, HoloKit provides you access to the world of Mixed Reality right in your hands, affordably.” (From, https://holokit.io/)

HoloKit is the MR equivalent for Google Cardboard; an extremely low cost way for users to experience augmented reality. What I like about HoloKit is that developers do not have to spend thousands of dollars to begin to try develop augmented reality applications. With the HoloKit, development of augmented reality applications could potentially be faster and more widespread solely based on the fact that it’s immensely more affordable than other devices that provide an augmented reality experience such as the Microsoft Hololens or the Magic Leap One.

Favourite VR Hardware: Oculus Go

The Oculus Go is the first truly cordless VR headset which allows for a truly immersive experience. Other headsets in the market such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift or Windows Mixed Reality headsets all require tethering to a PC and having all the computations and rendering done by the PC. The problem with corded setups is that the entire immersive experience trips up when you’re reminded that you’re still fundamentally in the real world by the fact that your experience is bound by the length of the connecting wires.

What I like about the Oculus Go is that it is the fact that its extremely easy to setup; this lowers the barrier to entry to the realm of virtual reality. To the uninitiated, virtual reality seems something right out of science fiction but the Oculus Go brings this experience to the everyday consumer. Further, the experience isn’t bound by cables which allows for a more immersive experience. However, the Oculus Go does not have any hardware to detect surfaces and as such despite its portability, it is still not entirely suitable for use in games that require movement.

Disclaimer: As we only have access to certain VR devices in our lab, I will only be reviewing those that are available alongside with other gadgets in the market. The goal is to decide which device is a good fit for our project.

Virtual Reality  (i.e. Fully artificial environment)

1. Device: Oculus Rift [Preferred]

Oculus Rift is easily on anyone’s bucket list being known to kickstart the VR scene in recent years.

Design: Oculus Rift is designed to come with two pentile OLED displays (1080 x 1200 Resolution per eyes, 90 Hz refresh rate, and a 110-degree field of view). The device features rotational and positional tracking plus an integrated headphone that produces a 3D audio effect. Rift units were initially bundled with an Xbox one controller as a result of a partnership with Microsoft. However, the device fell short of immersion as it fails to emulate hand presence in real life. To address this, the Xbox one controller was soon replaced by Oculus touch control in subsequent units. The new remote enables movements to be tracked in 3D space by its constellation system represented in the virtual environment. Embedded with touch sensors, users can now issue specific commands using common finger gestures adopted by touch devices.

Why I recommend it: Both Oculus Rift and rival HTC Vive require high-end GPU. In terms of graphics, there is barely any competition in that regard. According to them, a high-end GPU refers to a PC with an Intel Core i5-4590k and either a Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD 49 390 GPU. Hence, performance is much dependent on the computer specifications – often a battle of graphics cards and processor.

The biggest factor that sets Oculus apart from its competitors is the controllers. When it comes to ergonomics, Oculus touch takes this category by a landslide. Touch was clearly designed with the human hand in mind that makes users forget that they are holding something real in their hand. User’s fingers naturally fall into place over the buttons and joysticks that they correspond to, making the learning curve incredibly shallow even for newcomers. There is also a clever button in the grip to make picking up objects intuitive; users simply need to clench their fist. The Oculus’ controllers are a triumph in design and usability. Given the amount of time users would spend using the controllers, the design of the controllers becomes more crucial than ever. Hence, I would pick Oculus Rift over any other VR devices due to the extra ounce of user experience players would get from using its controller.

Mixed Reality (i.e. virtual objects interacting with the real world)

1. Device: Samsung HMD Odyssey [Preferred]

Design: Odyssey features a 1,440 x 1,600 OLED display and a refresh rate between 90 – 60 HZ. This is an impressive feat compared to other MR headset like Acer Mixed reality HMD whose resolution runs 1,440 x 1,440 per lens. The device also provides a 110-degree FOV to improve immersion of the virtual experience. Similar to other Window MR headsets, it is installed with two front-facing cameras to enables 6Dof insides out tracking and can be adjusted using a knob to acclimatize to the distance between pupils.

Why I recommend it: Being a person who dislikes complex setup that involves tons of cables and ports, Odyssey is a perfect fit. Unlike VIVE, Odyssey does away with physical configuration, allowing the user to roam freely the moment that don the head mount. For showcasing purposes, this would mean less work for facilitators and less limiting for potential users. I also like the idea that the headset claims to deliver a 350-degree spatial sound to simulate 3D sound to allow the player to immerse themselves in the mix reality environment.

More recent news suggests that AltspaceVR would soon be joining Microsoft via an acquisition. The company offers a social VRT app that enables users to enter virtual chat rooms, watch videos together, or attend virtual events. Samsung has plans to optimize Odyssey for such activities in its upcoming versions which MR enthusiasts can look forward to.

Headsets for VR:

• Oculus Rift / Go
• Samsung Gear VR
• HTC Vive
• Google Daydream

Headsets for AR / MR:

• Microsoft HoloLens
• Magic Leap
• Meta (just shut down)
• Google glass (for enterprise)

My preferred VR device is Google Daydream as it is cheaper and more accessible, yet provide enough immersion for the user to be engaged in the virtual world. Daydream is available in two modes – smartphone VR (using a supported Android phone as display) and standalone VR, and it comes with a handheld controller that allows the user to interact with the virtual world. Daydream VR apps are conveniently installed from the Google Play Store and one can watch immersive 360 videos from Youtube. Although not room scale VR, it is still a great starter kit for those prototyping or trying to get a taste of VR before investing in more expensive headsets.

My preferred MR device is Microsoft HoloLens. HoloLens, along with Magic Leap One, are considered state-of-the-art MR devices today. It has many interesting and useful potential applications such as for design visualisation, immersive communications and industrial training. However, it comes with a hefty price tag of ~$3000, which is out of reach of most consumers. HoloLens users are, as of now, mainly developers prototyping applications or businesses innovating for productivity.