 |
True Player Gear's Answer To Occulus Rift - Totem!
This past week, Oculus Rift made headlines by selling itself to Facebook, angering Kickstarter investors who wanted a product for users, rather than a quick profit for Oculus Rift.
Montreal-based True Player Gear, a five employee startup based in Montreal, Canada, has been working on Totem, its virtual reality head-mounted display, for over nine years.
(True Player Gear's Totem - the answer to Occulus Rift?)
According to its website, it offers a 90 degrees field of view, 1080p OLED screen, and will support PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. The company said it talked to Epic Games, and that it would be really easy to support Unreal Engine 4, as well as CryEngine, Havok, and Unity. In addition, True Player Gear says it’s currently working on positional tracking using onboard cameras, which in the future could also be used for augmented reality functionality.True Player Gear will launch a Kickstarter in the next few months and hopes to raise a minimum of $500,000. If it succeeds, it hopes to ship Totem by Christmas. The company says that since Totem has hardware acceleration, cameras, and more, “it will cost just a little bit more than Oculus, but nothing outrageous.” The Oculus Rift Development Kit will sell for $350.
(From True Player Gear reveals alternative to Oculus Rift)
The company has stated "We are in the last stretch of developing a final 5th gen prototype and are aiming to present a finished dev kit on Kickstarter in the next few months."
It turns out that science fiction's own Hugo Gernsback came up with the idea of television eyeglasses in 1936:
(Hugo Gernsback's television eyeglasses mock-up)
His television eyeglasses--a device for which he feels millions yearn--constitute a case in point.When the idea for this handy, pocket-size portable TV set occurred to him in 1936, he was forced to dismiss it as impractical. But a few weeks ago, feeling that the electronics industry was catching up with his New-Deal era concepts, he ordered some of his employees to build a mock-up.
"It is now perfectly possible to make thin, inch-square cathode tubes," he says, "and to run them with low-voltage current from very small batteries with no danger at all of electrocuting the wearer. Sound can be carried to the ear just as a hearing aid. Television eyeglasses should weigh only about five ounces. Since there will be a picture for each eye, the glasses will make a stereoptical view possible and since they will be masked--like goggles--they can be used in bright sunlight. The user can take them out of his pocket any where, slip them on, flip a switch and turn to his favorite station." A V-type aerial protrudes from the top of Gernsback's mock-up of the TV glasses. he likes the effect--which can only be described as neo-Martian.
(From ERBzine)
Of course, Gernsback is not quite to virtual reality devices here; the video is not coordinated to the head motions and choices of the user. But still, tiny TV screens placed close to the eyes and presenting a stereoscopic image in a single head-mounted device is pretty forward-thinking, for 1936.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/30/2014)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Display ")
A New Way To Run Into Things
'He made an adjustment, pointed the tube at the wall beside Etzwane, and projected a cone of light.' - Jack Vance, 1971.
Unfurl The Future! Huawei Mate X versus Galaxy Fold
'A paper thin polycarbon screen unfurled silently from the top of the unit and immediately grew rigid.' - William Gibson, 1986.
North Focals Smart Glasses Provide Augmented Reality In Style
'The world ... is drenched in unfamiliar information all the way to the horizon.' - Charles Stross, 2007.
Do You Still Want A Folding Screen Phone?
'A paper thin polycarbon screen unfurled...' - William Gibson, 1986.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
Trash Sorting AI Robot Presages Skynet, Thanks A Lot
Keep your head down, Kyle Reese.
Electric Unicycle Is A Tumblebug
'A tumblebug does not give a man dignity, since it is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized on a single wheel.'
Another Soil Bacterium Eats Plastic
'...the plastic was dissolved before his eyes.'
reLive Memorial Come Back As A Tree
'It was time - time to go again. She touched the leaf. She was wanted.'
Engineered Living Building Materials
'... it was the cheapest building material known.'
Draw Circuits With Conductive Ink
'It's rewiring things... squeezing silver toothpaste in a ribbon along the printed circuitry.'
Arkangel: Automatic Visual Censoring
It's whatever the Party says it is, Winston.
NASA Competition To Design A Bucket Drum For Moon Mining
'There was a heap of discarded ore where Grantline had carted and dumped it...'
Medical Assistant Robot May Roam The Halls Of Hospitals
'Take care, sir.'
No Autonomous Trucks? Wait, What?
'...it resembled conventional human-operated transportation vehicles, but with one exception -- there was no driver's cabin.'
As Big As A Biltong - World's Largest 3D Printer
'Huge and old, it squatted in the center of the settlement park... On the concrete platform... lay a heap of originals to be duplicated.'
Drones Used To Smuggle Contraband Into Prison
'And some mega chip inside so it never runs into anything and no cop ever sees it.'
Are You Ready For Commercial Space Travel?
'It wasn't a pleasant trip; it was a miserable trip on a miserable, undersized tourist rocket...'
Amplified Nerves Lead To Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Hands
'The electrical impulses generated by your brain command everything...'
FlyCroTug Micro Drones Do Heavy Lifting
'It extended three of its tiny arms sideways to lock on...'
Virtual Whitney Houston In Concert
Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang
