HMDs on a Plane :Joining the Mile High VR Club: Cinemizer OLED+smd ST1080+headtracking tests at 38000ft on transatlantic flights

at 38000 ft the back seat screen charts my actual flight to E3 whilst I fly in VR headtracked OLED 3D in Strike Suit Zero..

On my way to and from E3 I had about 18 hours to mess with. 10 hours there from London to LA and 8 hours back from DC to London.  Those are usually long painful hours staring at back seat screens, growing immune to engine noise and the rattle and hum that makes for a transatlantic flight. Your ears pop, people throw up, you cannot sleep and wifi ends at the coastline if you can be bothered to pay for it. Those tiny drinks do nothing for me and sharing your laptop screen with your fellow passengers is just so 90s ......  whilst jumping out of the plane with your Google GLASS AR unit is sooo 2012 ... or perhaps 2014 for those of us yet to be deemed worthy of the experience by Goodly Google ..

the Samsung Galaxy S4  rear camera captures the flight data whilst the front camera captures me looking through a 100 inch transparent Windows 8 Metro wall I am able to see  and use the phone behind the  hmd screen to take this picture 

What a perfect scenario then to test hmds at high altitude (sans extreme sports), Tridef 3D gaming, 3D video and do some work in the total privacy of your own head mounted display and to try this out on an otherwise oblivious volunteer.. which is why I took my Cinemizer OLED and smd ST1080 along with a Samsung Galaxy S4 ..as well as an iPad along with my Windows 8 Laptop on the flights ... In fact I took them all over the USA, more on that later... 

If you didn't know or were stuck waiting on Google GLASS to drop, it's 2013 and you can wear and carry both your computer ( Windows/iOS/Android) and display right now : The Cinemizer OLED and smd ST1080 are two such truly portable hmds but how will connecting all these devices work at 38000 ft over a 18 hour period? These displays are far superior and infinitely more open than the here I go again Walled Garden approach that GLASS or the Rift is following ..in fact there are too many usage possibilities to try out even across two transatlantic flights ..

So in the style of all those serious tech sites lets review hmds on a plane starting with 

Hardware : 

1 Cinemizer OLED hmd 
1 Zeiss headtracker ( works with both the Cinemizer OLED and ST1080!)
1 smd ST1080 hmd 
1 Windows 8 Lenovo X220T laptop with Tridef 3D Steam games set to run in offline mode  and 3D movies pre installed ( to be replaced with a Haswell Helix when they make one) 
1 Samsung Galaxy S4 phone ( with front and rear cameras for filming and Android for gaming!) with Samsung MHL HDMI adapter 
2 Virgin Atlantic A330 jet planes ( to get us there and back again) cruising at around 38000ft 
1 volunteer passenger  +/-from San Diego to act as a control and experience VR+headtracking for the first time.

Note all devices were in Airplane mode .. wifi and Bluetooth switched off..

Setup : It takes seconds to connect the hmds to your laptop or as you will see the Samsung Galaxy S4 /iPad..

Ideally you want to book a seat with a power socket.. and as luck would have it Virgin Atlantic have seats in Premier Economy and up that allow you hook your laptop through a power socket under the seat or between seats.. Just remind the stewardesses that this feature exists... once you have your laptop powered up , you can then connect the Cinemizer OLED ,smd ST1080 and Samsung Galaxy S4 via USB and they are powered for your entire flight ! 


Tests + Results 

3D PC VR gaming with headtracking at 38000 ft : 

Connecting the Cinemizer and smd ST1080, with the Zeiss headtracker to the X220T gives us VR gaming , true PC gaming in ghost free 3D  .. on our flight ..any game you want to play..right now ..no waiting in line for the VR revolution to be announced  people ...it already happened..just wasn't Reddittized ..  I took the opportunity to test most of the games that I would be demoing at E3. Well I did have 10 hours to fill! I also picked two games Strike Suit Zero and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, that I would ask a fellow passenger who had never used a hmd or headtracking before to try out:

This is a FRAPs recording of  Strike Suit Zero being played in 1080p 3D using the Cinemizer OLED HMD made on the ground  a few weeks before heading to E3:

Strike suit Zero is interesting for headtracking fans because it allows a fly to look control in the third person or chase view and also look to target /lock on whilst maintaining a fly to look control in the cockpit view. (Something the coders of EVE exploited in that  brief E3 Rift demo notable mostly for being able to look down at your legs ).  

With the Zeiss headtracker there is no extra code needed, the Zeiss headtracker works out of the box with Strike Suit Zero. And no you do not miss the roll, in a game as fast paced as this the last thing you want to do is control the roll with your head, what you do want is the ability to fly to where you look and switch to fine targeting like missile lock ons  by looking round your VR display/HUD/cockpit.

Strike Suit Zero also is one of the most stunning Tridef 3D games played with an OLED hmd with totally ghost free 3D. You can feel the size of the planets below, depth and separation of the layers of ships engaged in neon battles among the stars.Just play the above video on your 3D viewer of choice..if you have an OLED hmd this should be fun .. 

It is also heavy on flight being a space combat game so playing it on a plane flying at several hundred kph at 38000ft in 3D with headtracking should be a good test for challenging hmd nausea. 

The second game played on the plane was Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, another game for showing off the prowess of an OLED hmd since neon and dark backgrounds abound in this game FPS games are notorious for inducing nausea, how will the fast paced neon frenzy that is Blood Dragon fare at 38000 ft over several hours with headtracking used to control FOV and aiming , can you even aim with air turbulence?  : Headtracking is used to aim and also to look around in and out of vehicles here is a  FRAPs capture made on the ground using the Cinemizer OLED hmd and Zeiss headtracker. 

OK enough of that ,the videos above should show you that I can play sustained gaming sessions in 3D with headtracking without nausea.. playing as long as I would on a normal PC display. However  what is it like to play these games at 38000 ft in a plane seat  for someone who has never played them ?   Check out the video below:

Do I need to emphasize how cool it is to play your favourite game in ghost free 3D with headtracking, finish playing and realise you just arrived at your destination... ? What I was on a flight all this time? I thought I was hunting Blood Dragon..with  Michael Biehn playing crazy in my ears ...

From the moment you take to using a hmd like the Cinemizer OLED or smd ST1080 on a plane, it is evident it takes you "out" of that plane making you oblivious to the negative aspects of transatlantic long haul flights. 

There is no need to feel shut off either , you can use your PC webcam or say the Samsung Galaxy S4s dual camera mode to keep an eye on your environment turning even an opaque hmd like the the Cinimizer OLED into a  AR OLED hmd ..

So I finally got to test the smd ST1080 out on a plane, a 100 inch transparent display, you can see through back to your seat screen, the laptop screen , which I have turned off here and of course you can see the Stewardess offering you a drink.  

Having a 100 inch portable display that you are wearing in your plane seat is not to be scoffed at , want to work at true 1080p res .. this is the hmd for you. I powered it through one USB lead connected to the X220T ..smd ..siliconmicrodisplay got many things right with their first commercial hmd , which to this date remains unsurpassed in many aspects. No your consumer Rift will not be matching the res or abilities of this by then 3 year old hmd. But what will smd have released by then? 

So at this point I just kick back and watch some 3D films  .. or type this blog entry .. in total privacy .. and by this time around 8 hours of flight have passed .. to me it seems to be a normal day of gaming,computing work rest and play ... 

There is one more device that I needed to connect to the hmds the Samsung  Galaxy S4 itself ..in portrait mode you get a full screen ..1080p res .. if you do not want to carry around your laptop , or even iPad .. you can just connect your phone to the Cinemizer OLED and smd ST1080 through HDMI .. and play games or movies ... oh in 3D too  ..

Here it is connected to the Samsung Galaxy S4, using the LCOS screen of the smd ST1080 I can actually see through to the phone behind and operate it's touch screen:

HMDs, good and bad excel at disconnecting you from your real world surroundings. Using the hmds I actually ran out of time to test games and films on my 10 hour flight there and 8 hour flight back.  And as you can see my fellow passenger who had never been near a hmd enjoyed himself too: 

A bad hmd will produce nausea within seconds, the Cinemizer and smd ST1080 are the first consumer hmds you can use nausea free. There is a world of difference between the experience of nausea you get within minutes of using the HMZT series and Rift series .. 

When people ask which HMD is best you have to consider what is possible with a hmd at this moment in time. Separate hype from the Virtual Reality 

No nausea :  Really? 

Gaming with a portable hmd using headtracking and fast paced games in 3D , on a plane over 18 hours across two flights my chief aim is to look for nausea, gamers may have worries about being able to aim steady with the rattle and hum of the plane around us. This is why I chose the two games above to test and gave them to the guy sitting next to me to try.  Should we be worried then ?  Did you see anyone upchucking in that video ?

The answer is no .. as the Cinemizer and smd ST1080 are so effective at taking you out of your physical environment you lose just enough consciousness of peripheral real world stimuli. Oh I am not talking VR hype here, I am exploiting the ability of these consumer hmds to isolate you from the real world around you. Not talking hype garbage about the creation of VR worlds that will happen when technology catches up to the hype..

Playing Strike Suit Zero and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon with headtracking, in 3D using a hmd on a plane is just like playing the games with the hmd on the ground. You are so busy lost in your vast game world, oblivious to your cramped plane environment, this serves a purpose to completely numb you to the pains of long haul flight! And that includes countering claustrophobia and fear of flying.. 

Should you play for 10 hours, of course not, remember to eat, share the experience with your neighbours and if they have a Cinemizer too, why not break out that Ethernet cable and play some coop.. or go chill out in some Virtual location together..
If they had Ethernet on these planes you could literally sit next /game with watch movies with a person in VR space that is sitting 30 rows behind you...on the plane...

The joys of headtracking at 38000 ft : the Zeiss headtracker as I have said many times and many attendees of E3 2013 will have experienced just works. Say you are playing using your laptop aiming with the track pad or mouse a slight judder from air turbulence will knock you off your aim. This takes time to correct. With the headtracker we can adjust it's sensitivity to not even pick up the turbulence, through mouse settings in game . Secondly the Zeiss headtracker rests as a boom attachment behind your ear but never touching your head, so air turbulence is less likely to effect your head tracking. Severe turbulence will get picked up by your body and transferred to the headtracker, but since you look to aim or move it takes milli seconds to adjust your aim ..move your cursor back over your desired target, icon or text . Far easier than correcting a mouse that just moved or scraping at a trackpad on a laptop shaking due to air turbulence.

I had no problem playing Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon or Strike Suit Zero and neither did my fellow passenger as you can see. 

If you are afraid of flying or have alien civilizations to save mile high hmd use should be something you consider next time you take to the air. 

Oh and remember  it's not as if gaming is your only option, using the ST1080 for instance I had a 100 inch transparent 1080p Windows 8 desktop to work from, or 3D screen to view 3D films on. And then there's the ability to film and take photographs :

After around 7 weeks wandering the USA ( i went walkabout after E3 ) with my hmds ,I had learned to exploit the Cinemizers opaque display to take photos and film in bright sunlight . So on the flight from Washington Dulles to London Heathrow of around 8 hours I could take pictures through using the S4 , which in bright sunlight has it's display obliterated by sunlight , like all tablets, phones and cameras . Using a hmd as the viewer I get a clear OLED display of the picture I am about to take .... something I would exploit during my trip .. thanks to the existence of wearable , portable computers and displays .. which if you are wondering are already here now , within your reach or you could wait ... but waiting's  old ....

And the future of long haul in flight hmd gaming?

We already have the tech to play and display in the Cinemizer OLED , Zeiss headtracker and smd ST1080 hmd series. 

We/they need to get Wifi working throughout flights, not just over land and this needs to be included in flight costs. Come on Mr Branson throw up a balloon over the Atlantic or something.... our ancestors could send cables across the Atlantic why can't we have hi speed wifi? Or at least some form of wired Ethernet /Intranet that would allow passangers to interact in VR .. 

Once this happens we can stream games from the cloud, movies, media, work, heck they could even get rid of  those horrid back of seat screen devices ... Use Onlive say to play LA Noire on the S4 at 38000ft on a 100 inch hmd display that you carry with you ...You can now of course if you pay for Wifi ..but that wifi is hardly up to the 120 meg I get at home in the UK ..

I would have loved to use my LEAP on the plane, but the developer version required a log on and there is only so much you can do on a plane these days before you are Harold and Kumar'd off it! 

Till then though I know how I am spending my long haul flight time...  and if you find yourself sitting next to me on a plane ...join in! 

Thank you San Diego ... 

and good night .....

More interesting uses for hmds and comments on my adventures in the USA including my uncanny ability to come into contact with various game and hardware developers,  to follow ... 








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