Back in 1977 or even here and now in 2013 the entire might of George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic could not reproduce the Episode IV holographic Star Wars chess experience for you in your life size Corellian freighter replica/shed ...
With Technical Illusions' CastAR head mounted display we may just be on the way to getting our holographic Star Wars Chess set or have the ability to go all Tony Stark with our design projects...with our very own AR Pepper Potts along for ride....hmmh.. and this.....is naturally why I backed them earlier last week (that was sarcasm Palmer)
Following a well chronicled and daring escape, from The Valve Empire and freed from the chains of GabeN the Hutt (amicably), Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson have been leading their own growing HMD rebellion as Technical Illusions. One that offers a new hope to AR and VR fans everywhere..not least those currently suffering Rift Nausea type I and II* ..
* Rift Nausea : can now be separated into two distinct types :
Type I : defn : nausea caused by use or the mere thought or memory of use of an Oculus Rift device and Type II : nausea caused by sufferers of Rift Hype,Tagging,Trolling and having to listen to Hare Riftnas chant "this will be fixed in the consumer version"
We are around 2 to 3 years into the evolution of the consumer head mounted display. Even with all the hype and usual venture capitalist vultures encircling the ripening field of HMDs, the vast majority of the public that live outside tech and video game shows, remain nonplussed. And most "professional" reviewers have so little time with their review or show units they do not know how to categorize, let alone even set them up optimally..as for what they are for ..it is still a mystery to many..including their developers..John Carmack just discovered the possibilities of Android..for HMDS....fascinating...
So where then does CastAR fit into the evolution of the HMD?
The future of the head mounted display lies in combining both VR and AR .. This requires a radical HMD design and Technical Illusion's CastAR HMD is going to get there sooner than others....
The following highly technical video (thanks to a friend for the vision) illuminates the road to AR and VR...
Hmmh..it will be interesting to see if Oculus start recruiting Japanese school kids ...for Rift Prototype 3 (of?).. Oi Oculus ..leave them kids alone..
In 2013 a fully functional HMD one that does what you want it to..remains more science fiction/fantasy than fact..
CastAR is another Kickstarter promoted product ... but this one is different ...and so are we...For as you read this, in a post Oculus Rift hype world, people are actually savvy to the limitations of so called VR headsets and also to the whole Kickstarter experience. And so I took some time to look over this Kickstarter offering..before jumping on the bandwagon..or writing about it..
Virtual Reality ... is a nice idea...but in 2013/14 that is all it is ...to the people that matter.. the end users...and a HMD accessing or software creating it is as far off now as it ever was ...hyping VR does generate revenue for click hungry media though...like it did back in the early 90s..
But this does not mean we cannot get real about the state of HMDs and what they CAN do as opposed to what they MAY do in the future ... when they discover McDonald's is good for you...around the same time the first joint Chinese/Indian Mars bound astronauts set foot on Martian soil ..taking us along for the ride and having us experience those first steps with them through VR or be there with them through AR...on our sub scleral retinal projecting implants.. or Rift prototype 37 of ?...mustn't be biased to one form of HMD now ..should we ?
We know Zeiss, siliconmicrodisplay and Sony are evolving the HMD in a commercial not prototype space, in Sony's case with more than one HMD. We also await GLASS's mass arrival..And the entrance of Microsoft and the likes of Samsung mayhaps even Apple when Johnny Ives has some spare time with the diamond chamfering machine after finishing up on the iPad Air ..
All these companies offer very different devices, that are intended to compete for a single space ...not your room or under your TV ..but your head ..
Some are VR, some are AR with a bit of VR .. but none are AR and VR
All are largely singular personal experiences.
There exists then a space for a device that does both AR and VR and is multi user oriented and CastAR ticks all these boxes and comes with a wand...or wands..what happens when we cross the "streams" is going to be one of my first tests....
The combination of AR and VR in one device elevates this device beyond simple man cave trophy or youtube revenue TVRKING object...
So what in my experience of HMDs stands out about CastAR ?
let's look at CastAR through raw resolution, Display , 3D generation and othe HMD usage lenses ...
Resolution
For VR Is 720p enough?For twin display HMDs raw or native resolution is not as relevant as the size of the pixels, a native 800 by 570 resolution Cinemizer OLED hmd can throw up a 3D 1080p scaled image that is more impressive than a native 1080p or 720p HMD ..like the ST1080 or HMZ series.. it does this through among other things a pixel density 7 times that of an Apple retina display. Very few people are aware of this because very few people use four different types of HMD regularly...
It does this also through maintaining a 16:9 screen ratio : the golden ratio for all your media to date
The CastAR can use this 16:9 screen ratio with a native or raw 720p 1280 by 720 resolution on each of it's custom pico projectors ...
At 720p native 16:9 we can scale even 1080p res content , games,movies , videos: NO WARPING required = no NAUSEA and no overheads for your GPU..or CPU...
So for VR content we are sorted, as long as the display or the projected display does not suffer from flicker or Rift lag,Rift latency or Rift blur or screen door..which it should not ...from what I can see ..
And as long as the VR clip on does not attempt to warp or magnify the image/field of view to one where these issues start surfacing ..as they have done with rival HMDs.
As for AR and projection , the distance from you and the reflective surface should mean you see none of the screen door or visible pixel nonsense that plagues the Rift ..
Re the competition by September 2014 there will be native 4K dual screen HMDs , that is true 4K res per eye ..These will cost though and frankly I can't wait to save up ...siliconmicrodisplay had a 4K protoype almost two years ago you would be using right now if not for the false VR dawn of Riftmania...
Others will move to 1080p and beyond by that date as well...
Cost
CastAR is going to cost around a third of such devices and less than a Rift at retail , around a fifth of a Google GLASS . Throw in all the additional add ons though and it starts to get expensive....
Ergonomics and Weight
Ergonomics and fitting .. CastAR pops on like a pair of shades .. until I release my Brain Internet Display Interface (BINDI) this is the ideal that all HMDs should aim for .. Currently the only HMD that comes close to this is the Cinemizer OLED..
How the fitting and ergonomics change with the addition of the VR clip on will be interesting to see.
The target weight for the CastAR is 100g ... this is an ideal weight for any HMD .. atm the ST1080 and Cinemizer OLED hover around 180g .. anything over this and you are headed for complications that spout from ergonomics and weight issues..
You should never have to "tolerate" or learn to tolerate your HMD .. if you designed one that requires this in your end users ..you failed...try again...
Power
CastAR appears to be powered through a USB connection ...hallelujah ... let freedom reign.. the smd ST1080 and Cinemizer OLED run from one USB connection ...and CastAR will do the same ..
VR and AR and projected AR? Yeah baby....
I have yet to see how the VR clip on works , but two 720p projected/reflected displays should do well.
Issues will arise if the clip on contains optics that seek to magnify the image to give a large field of view ... and if that field of view is to be warped a la the Rift .. which may lead to possible Ruft like nausea issues.
Myself I prefer a smaller FOV but crystal clear like the Cinemizer OLED and SMD ST1080 ...if the VR clip on gives a 100 inch display , this is pretty awesome and with the improved detail and lack of screen door/ visible pixels over the Rift design
A Refreshing lack of Optics
Well okay not total lack ... but there is far less work being done by your eyes here than with other HMD designs .. And one of the claims for the CastAR is nausea free operation for AR use at least.
Head Tracking
I have probably more experience of using head tracking with HMDS than most people , head tracking that works , being key.. a faster head tracker that has no application ... is just that ... a faster headtracker that has no application ..or use ...
Technical Illusions have their own head tracker solution. Currently I see it applied to moving around the reflective surface for AR use... I cannot say much till I try it out . But the light weight of the CastAR means it will be incredibly easy to combine with other forms of headtracking , say a Zeiss Cinemizer OLED head tracker which requires no additional software .. . I use one with a pair of shades often to control legacy 2D desktops .. and with other HMDs like the Rift and ST1080.. for VR
It should also be possible to combine forms of motion sensing with the updated Kinect in addition to the native head tracking.
Video Input
HDMI : we should be able to connect any source of HDMI to the CastAR... including Android, iOS and console
3D generation : currently CastAR 3D generation as far as I can see is limited to Side By Side 3D
However I can see this technology being adapted (okay I intend to adapt it) so we could for different types of 3D .. and have the possibility of frame packed, over under or interleaved .. all running from Tridef 3D from your PC ..or your ...Android/iOS device...
The Rebirth of Isometric gaming ..
We could throw console 3D content at the Cast AR ... Final Fantasy Tactics ..(PSONE) just became holographic... and of course do the same from your iPad .. AR Plants V Zombies or roasting some AR projected sheep in projected AR Powermonger , Syndicate Wars .. wait .. Knightlore , and Alien 8 .. Batman and Robin ... (the Zx Spectrum versions) ..Diablo ...StarCraft ... okay so you see why I had difficulty not not backing the purchase of two units?
...or "oh my gosh" 10s of millions of kids playing AR Minecraft together ..or VR Minecraft...or just 10 sitting round a table playing the same Minecraft game ..
2D as well as 3D?
The two pico projector/display design should also mean that the CastAR can display 2D content, not just sbs 3D ... so your Windows 8 desktop or facebook page , your Twitter account ..basically let you do what you want to with it. Want a holographic phone call with the 3D or 2D visage of your favourite celebrities mapped over your friends *or frenemies ..now that's possible...
Refreshing lack of "Celebrity" endorsement
The worst thing about the claimed coming of VR is the clan of self appointed celebrity luminaries endorsing or hyping the field..often with less accuracy in fact far less accuracy or relevance than the anime, referenced above.
For any HMD to achieve mass uptake, it ..i.e. the product will have to enter a phase of real world self promotion ... without the need for people jumping out of planes , QuackCon speeches deriding competition or Reddit and MTBS3D troll armies (sometimes paid for) to trash rivals in an effort to draw attention away from obvious flaws in your latest prototype HMD .. Companies are going to have to give users what they want and stop the celebrity VR Hype sermons..though if it generates clicks who cares ..right?
Well people start to build up a picture of these luminaries delivering hype not product.. talking loudly about issues whilst others quietly go about solving them or walk around them.
CastAR feels different .. so different it seems to have silenced the Hare Riftnas ...for now...wait what am I saying they are already reacting hyping another prototype.
As a result many people are backing CastAR that have difficulty backing the Oculus Rift..just go read the CastAR twitter feed.
So two to three years into the evolution of the consumer head mounted display we see competition, collaboration and even a degree or respect between HMD camps coming to the field of HMDs.
Oh there is just one thing ... we have to wait till September 2014 for the CastAR , which they say will be close to retail product .. so none of this running round the video game show circuit for half a decade without releasing a product then.. or having our investment become obsolete as the developers release protohype for their next prototype and promise the world with a fabled "consumer version"
By September 2014 the HMD scene will look very different to what we have now...CastAR will be one of the devices competing for your VR and AR time.
A Sony VR HMD and anticipation for the HMZ-T4, a 4th Rift prototype if not retail or mayhaps the end for The Wonderful OVR , possible updates to the Cinemizer and smd lines.. as well as GLASS being allowed to run free from Google's tentacles..
No one device is going to finalise or standardise VR or AR by 2014.
We are not quite at the Denno Coil stage.Not least because HMDs require tolerable
hardware and useful application ..
The application part is going to be decided by the users, not the developers or industry cognoscenti ... it was not so long ago that Apple and games were mutually exclusive ..all it takes is one app ..one useful relevant app
And this killer AR and VR App, may not be a game at all ...what VR and AR need is a Google ,twitter or Facebook moment ..where the HMD finally becomes indispensable for day to day use and ceases being just a revenue generation engine for promoters ..
This only happens when enough real world usage data feeds back to engineers/developers/VR philosophers moving this field forward getting together solving problems instead of mitigating or reporting on them or pinning rosettes on the promise of them being solved by the next show.. or the next prototype...
Technical Illusions CastAR is one product that can actually evolve the HMD to fit the user, I can see why GabeN and co shelved it .. for a walled garden alternative ... but their loss is the rest of the worlds gain ...and brings much needed competition to the consumer HMD field..
So if you are feeling brave and literally sick from TVRKING your Rift get on over to Technical Illusions home page and back the Kickstarter ....
Something tells me the wait as a Kickstarter backer of CastAR is going to be far more pleasant and rewarding than that the whole Kickstarter Oculus Rift experience ..
And Jerry and Rick .. some advice ... over the next year or so you will be asked one question over and over : and when people ask that most annoying question which is ... "is this like the Rift" ... smile and respond with a resounding and celebratory " No " and proceed to explain why ... you are going to get sick of this over the next 12 months ..
Oh and send JC some toilet role tubes with his set ... so he can attach them and get back that QuakeCon 2012 HMD feeling...
I cannot wait to test the CastAR HMD out,though prior Kickstarter experience did have me holding out for a couple of days, more on this as soon as I get to try it ..
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