Hasta La Gadget!

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset was originally developed with only gaming in mind, but since the company has been sending out units to game developers, the headset has been used for all sorts of neat things. Most recently, the Oculus Rift has given users a first-person view of RC drones thanks to a little hack.

Co-founder of Intuitive Aerial Erik Torkel Danielsson took his company’s Black Armor Drone and paired it with the Oculus Rift. Since the VR headset essentially uses two displays, two cameras were mounted on top of the drone to stream video simultaneously. The drone also has a laptop on board that encodes the video as it’s being received.

From there, the video is then sent to the computer on the ground, from which it is then transmitted to the Oculus Rift. You’re probably thinking this creates a lot of lag, and you’re almost correct, as Danielsson noticed a latency of about 120 milliseconds, which isn’t bad, but it’s ultimately not ideal.

Danielsson and company are working to make the system better, though, including using newer hardware and cutting down the weight of the electrics on board the drone, as well as upgrade the cameras and increase the range of the transmitters.

If you’re wondering what the company will do with this technology, they haven’t mentioned whether or not they plan to sell these kits to the public at some point in the future, but Oculus Rift and drone owners would undoubtedly love to get their hands on this type of technology, and frankly, it’s possible for anyone to do this with a little know-how.

VIA: Hackaday

Oculus Rift hack puts user inside Black Armor Drone with first-person view is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is a pretty cool device and while not all games are supported by the device, we can imagine how the headset will be able to take regular games, and even old ones, and change […]

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The Oculus Rift team still intends to ignore the Xbox One and PS4 and focus on PC and Android, concerned that lengthening development cycles for consoles could see them left behind in virtual reality, even with the cloud’s help. “There’s no reason it can’t technically work,” Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe conceded to OXM, but pointed out that “one of the concerns that we do generally have around consoles is that their life cycles are getting longer all the time.” While the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are considered powerful today, they could be seriously out-performed when it comes to VR in the next few years, Iribe argues.

“I think that you will see VR move fast – AR also, but especially VR” the chief exec suggested. “You’re going to see rapid innovation, and one of the concerns that we do generally have around consoles is that their life cycles are getting longer all the time – it’s a seven to eight year lifecycle, and in eight years, VR is going to be insane. Incredible.”

Instead, the headset – which uses a pair of head-mounted LCD displays to create a virtual gaming environment – will work initially with PCs and Android devices, as that “made more sense” according to Iribe. The fact that both platforms are liberal with hardware and software is key to that decision, the CEO explained.

Even Microsoft’s decision to harness the power of the cloud to bolster the Xbox One won’t be of much use to virtual reality, he says. Microsoft has said that each Xbox One will also have access to cloud-based processing equivalent to roughly three more consoles, which could be used for processing richer backgrounds in games, more realistic reflections and textures, and other detail.

The system has met with keen interest from game developers, but is unlikely to be of use to virtual reality systems like Oculus Rift, Iribe points out, because of the latency involved.

Virtual reality “wants a maximum latency of 20-30 milliseconds from your head moving to the headset updating your eye on screen – what we call motion-to-photon” he explains. “Right now it’s at 30-50 milliseconds in the current versions, but we do expect that to come down and reach that 15-20 millisecond ‘Holy Grail’ timing.”

However, while attention on Oculus Rift has been high since the start-up’s Kickstarter back in August 2012, the company doesn’t want to keep VR all to itself. In fact, Iribe is hopeful that Microsoft or Sony – preferably both – wade in themselves, seeing it as a net-benefit to Oculus Rift’s business overall.

“The more that they push into this space, even if it’s a different device, or their own device, a different experience, the more that they’re throwing into AR and VR, the better it is for everybody” he said.

VIA Trusted Reviews

Oculus Rift unconvinced by Xbox One and PS4 VR potential is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that several game developers have used to help enhance their games. A popular use of the headset has been to incorporate it in FPS games such as Valve’s Half-Life 2, and more […]

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The dream of wearing a lightweight headset, like the Oculus Rift, in order to simulate physical presence isn’t limited to the imaginary worlds of video games. One man’s vision is that of immersive TV shows, movies and live sports. In fact, David Cole, co-founder of Next3D and an industry veteran who helps content creators and providers produce and deliver 3D, has been using his Rift dev kit to bring TV and film to life since the kits started shipping in March. The company is combining its video processing and compression technology with its experience in content production and stereoscopic delivery to offer what it’s called Full-Court.

Next3D hopes to leverage its existing relationships with creators and providers to assist them in jumping into the world of live-action VR content. This includes both pre-recorded and live broadcasts. We wanted to see this firsthand, so we jumped at the opportunity to witness the creation of content and experience the results. This trial run of Next3D’s stereoscopic, 180-degree field-of-view camera rig, and the post-processing to adapt it to VR, was part of the production of the paranormal investigation show, Anomaly, at Castle Warden in St. Augustine, Fla. Being nearby, we braved the perils of the haunted surroundings to tell you about what we hope is only the beginning of virtual reality content.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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