VR Goggles

http://www.flyingmag.com/avionics-ge...or-enthusiasts

Hope Condor is next.

Craig

A long time ago (late 1990's), while at a trade show, I saw a similar VR headset demoing a flight simulator. It was amazingly good. I can't remember the name of the manufacturer, but I walked away fully convinced that the technology would be available "any day now".

Somewhere along the way, VR headsets simply... fell off the radar. Then the flightsim industry vaporized, with Microsoft laying off their flight sim development crew (twice), and most of the sim hardware manufacturers moving on to other products. I think the only survivor has been X-Plane, but that's really just a one-man operation.

I'm glad to see something happening on the flightsim hardware front again. TrackIR makes my Condor experience much more immersive, but a good VR headset could probably do even better if done properly.

Cheers,
-Mark Rebuck

Craig Funston wrote:
http://www.flyingmag.com/avionics-ge...or-enthusiasts

Hope Condor is next.

A month ago I went to a talk and demo of a prototype Oculus Rift,
partly because of the possibility of using it with Condor, partly
because I'm a geek, and partly because I've been taking stereoscopic
photos for, gulp, 30 years.

This is my impression of five minutes using it.

When the Oculus headset is on, nothing other than the game scene
can be seen - unlike google glasses where the image is translucent
and you can see round the edge of the glasses.
I was surprised that the headpiece had no adjustments, but
nonetheless the optics gave a good field of view and respectable
stereo effect.

The demo scene was inside a room with internal
upstairs balcony and external garden with tree overlooking a lake.
The resolution was just about adequate for the demo but would,
IMHO, be insufficient for seeing sufficient ground/cloud detail.
Given the choice between stereoscopic vision and increased
resolution, I'd opt for the latter. However, it was a prototype
unit, and I see no reason the resolution could not be significantly
increased.

Rotating my head about all three axes allowed caused the scene
to change in exactly the way I would expect. This effect was
good and compelling.

The stereoscopic effect was not overdone; it looked natural so
that you didn't really notice them. That's the same as in James
Cameron's "Avatar", and unlike the "poke something through the
screen" that you see in most stereo films.

The "avatar" could be translated through the scene using a
standard "top hat" games joystick. Moving forwards rapidly
towards a wall caused me to involuntarily jerk my head back
to avoid hitting the wall - compelling.

Using the joystick to turn the avatar slowly clockwise or
anticlockwise worked as expected. However, doing that rapidly
caused me to feel instantaneously nauseous, to involuntarily
rotate my head up/down and move my shoulders. Most disconcerting.

So, if my head (and therefore my labyrinths) rotated and the
scene moved correspondingly, all was well. If the scene rotated
and my head didn't then I had problems. I conjecture this would
probably be problem when practicing spins, and possibly when
thermalling.

So, overall I really liked the panning effect, but disliked the
resolution and disliked the scene rotating unless caused by my
head's movement.

It will be great when we can start wearing these in a real glider and have a seamless scene depicted by multiple video cameras. That will make the glider disappear completely from view, and then we will finally be real bird men.
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just kidding!

On Wednesday, June 12, 2013 12:42:30 PM UTC-7, Craig Funston wrote:
http://www.flyingmag.com/avionics-ge...or-enthusiasts



Hope Condor is next.


I'll pass... I tried something like this and realized I couldn't see the keyboard to type or lower the gear, release, use the GPS, etc.

A head tracker and a very wide screen monitor works well enough for me.

On 12/06/13 20:42, Craig Funston wrote:
http://www.flyingmag.com/avionics-ge...or-enthusiasts

Hope Condor is next.

A few months ago I went to a talk and demo of a prototype Oculus Rift,
partly because of the possibility of using it with Condor, partly
because I'm a geek, and partly because I've been taking stereoscopic
photos for, gulp, 30 years.

This is my impression of five minutes using it.

When the Oculus headset is on, nothing other than the game scene
can be seen - unlike google glasses where the image is translucent
and you can see round the edge of the glasses.
I was surprised that the headpiece had no adjustments, but
nonetheless the optics gave a good field of view and respectable
stereo effect.

The demo scene was inside a room with internal
upstairs balcony and external garden with tree overlooking a lake.
The resolution was just about adequate for the demo but would,
IMHO, be insufficient for seeing sufficient ground/cloud detail.
Given the choice between stereoscopic vision and increased
resolution, I'd opt for the latter. However, it was a prototype
unit, and I see no reason the resolution could not be significantly
increased.

Rotating my head about all three axes allowed caused the scene
to change in exactly the way I would expect. This effect was
good and compelling.

The stereoscopic effect was not overdone; it looked natural so
that you didn't really notice them. That's the same as in James
Cameron's "Avatar", and unlike the "poke something through the
screen" that you see in most stereo films.

The "avatar" could be translated through the scene using a
standard "top hat" games joystick. Moving forwards rapidly
towards a wall caused me to involuntarily jerk my head back
to avoid hitting the wall - compelling.

Using the joystick to turn the avatar slowly clockwise or
anticlockwise worked as expected. However, doing that rapidly
caused me to feel instantaneously nauseous, to involuntarily
rotate my head up/down and move my shoulders. Most disconcerting.

So, if my head (and therefore my labyrinths) rotated and the
scene moved correspondingly, all was well. If the scene rotated
and my head didn't then I had problems. I conjecture this would
probably be problem when practicing spins, and possibly when
thermalling.

So, overall I really liked the panning effect, but disliked the
resolution and disliked the scene rotating unless caused by my
head's movement.

Originally Posted by Tom Gardner[_2_]

On 12/06/13 20:42, Craig Funston wrote:
http://www.flyingmag.com/avionics-ge...or-enthusiasts

Hope Condor is next.

A few months ago I went to a talk and demo of a prototype Oculus Rift,
partly because of the possibility of using it with Condor, partly
because I'm a geek, and partly because I've been taking stereoscopic
photos for, gulp, 30 years.

Got a good demo of these from Otserhout Design Group (ODG). They are developing these for mil applications, but they'd work great for simulation as well, much cheaper than google glass:

ODG X-5 Glasses:

Cinema Quality See-through AR Display
- Virtual 65-inch 3D display @ 10 feet
- Dual 1280 x 720 resolution Displays (binocular 3D)
- See-through and see-around optics (on axis, "See through" for all content)

Lightweight & Comfortable Design
- Photochromic Lenses
- Supports Adjustable Optical Correction
- Less than 4oz.

Wearable Camcorder - 5MP Stills, 1080P Video
- Curved in X and Y directions (look like thick sided sun glasses)

Self-contained Computer and Communications
- Dual core 1.5 GHz Processor
-- Android 4.20
-- Wireless communications: WiFi, Bluetooth and 4G (extra cost)
-- Positional sensors: GPS, 9-axis IMU, Altimeter
-- Expandable 16GB Internal Memory
-- 1300mAh Li-on Battery
-- Magnetic USB & Power Connector

Digital Surround Sound

Production Cost: $600-$800

The glasses work great with no latency or issues while turning your head and they respond correctly to head position. You can see through the projection, but if watching a movie (yes, part of demo) then it is easy to become immersed and not see through. Works like a Heads Up display in a fighter cockpit. Would still allow keyboard use as it's easy to look through when needed/desired. Lots of applications available to develop for these babies... I wanted a set!

Squeak