The XR Week Peek (2021.03.22): Sony reveals PSVR2 controllers, FRL shows the wristband of the future, and more!
Happy Spring everyone! The Winter is over, and the trees are blossoming again! I hope that wherever you are, even if in lockdown (like me), you can enjoy the sun, the birds, and the love that this season carries with it 🙂
Before leaving you to the news of the week, I want to remind you that on Thursday, at 17:00 CET we’ll have an amazing Awe Nite meeting about psychology in XR, with some of the best Italian minds on the matter! It will be a very interesting event and you can register at this link if you want to enjoy it (come on, it’s free!).
Top news of the week
Sony unveils the new controllers of the PSVR2
One month after the reveal of a “next-gen VR headset for the Playstation” (whose name is not known, but I guess it will be PSVR2), Sony has revealed one important detail of its new VR system: the controllers.
Finally, the PSVR 2 won’t have anymore the wands (or dildos) of the PSVR 1 but will have controllers that follow the standards of all the other headsets. That is, ergonomic controllers with 2+1 buttons on top, a thumbstick, one index trigger, and one middle-finger trigger: the same layout of controls that has become the de-facto standard of VR input. This is great for PSVR users because finally, they’ll have controllers that are suitable for VR, and also for VR developers, that so will be able to port titles from PCVR or Quest to PSVR without having to remap the controls in a weird way. The shape of the controllers is slightly different than the one of the Oculus Touch, though, and there is a ring that surrounds the wrist of the user.
The controllers are “tracked by the headset” and this means that the PSVR2 headset will have cameras through which track the controllers, and most probably also the environment around it. It will so have inside-out tracking.
Sony promises amazing haptic sensations on the controllers, that should be able to provide “impactful, textured, and nuanced” sensations. The main trigger can give adaptive force-feedback, applying a different force on the index finger depending on what is happening in the game. There is also “finger-tracking” a la Valve Index, but just for the thumb, index, and middle finger (so, it is more a la Oculus Touch).
The controllers will be given to selected developers very soon. It is amazing how Sony has decided to offer high-quality controllers to its users, and it is also great that it is following current VR standards so that to not disrupt the software that is already on the market. Now I’m very curious about the headset, where I hope they’ll disrupt something and not just offer us a Rift S…
Other relevant news
Facebook reveals its work on the UX of AR of the future
Facebook has unveiled new details on the research it is performing on the UX of the AR glasses of the future. It showed what is its vision for the long-term future: AR glasses that are intelligent enough to learn about your behavior and to examine the context you are in so that to be able to already provide you suggestions about what they can do to help you. For instance, if every day you go running at 5 am, and the glasses detect that you are going out at 5 am, they can ask you directly if you want to listen to your running playlist. As you can see the vision is to go out from the current interfaces made of menus, and entering a new realm where the machines try to understand what the user wants and provide to him/her directly the relevant options.
In this context, to interact with the XR glasses, the user will have to use his/her hands. But to make this tracking always reliable, and not dependant on the current position of the hands, the idea is not to use some cameras, but a wristband. The wrist is a good idea because it is close to the hand, the part of our body that we use to interact the most, and because it is a place where we already wear something (bracelets, watches).
Facebook has acquired Ctrl+Labs some years ago, and now it is using its expertise to create a wristband that can sense the motion information that your brain is sending to your hands. By intercepting these electrical signals through EMG sensors, the bracelet would be able to detect the pose of the fingers with sub-mm accuracy. This would make possible the development of various hands-based interfaces, like virtual keyboards, for instance, that could work everywhere. But due to the nature of our brain signals, the sensors could detect just the intention of wanting to move a finger. When you think about moving a finger, the brain already starts sending an electrical signal to it, and this means that with this wristband, you could click in XR without even moving the fingers. Ctrl+Labs already demoed it years ago: check out the link to the Dino Game that I added below this paragraph.
Using AI it is also possible that these interfaces adapt to the current user: talking about keyboards, the AI system could detect how you move the fingers, and change a bit the keyboard layout so that to minimize the errors that you do while typing, for instance. All our interfaces could become personal, and this would be a revolution for UX.
Facebook is also working with haptics, and it has presented two prototypes of the wristbands that could apply vibrations or pressure sensations on the wrist. Thanks to a phenomenon called sensory substitution, these sensations on the wrist could be identified by the brain as haptics on the whole hand: if you see your fingers touching something in VR and then you feel a vibration on the wrist, the sensation could be expanded from our brain to the finger. It seems cool, but I would like to try it to believe in it: all the times that someone promised me some kind of sensory magic, it never turned out so good as they told me (like with the phantom touch sensation that Leap Motion told me about).
The article ends with Facebook claiming that it cares about privacy, and wants to discuss the topics of privacy, security, and safety of this technology with all the community. A bit like when it has discussed with the community about the Facebook Login on the Quest. Ah no.
This is an astonishing work of research, but remember that it is currently just research. Andrew Bosworth of FRL said some weeks ago that he expects Ctrl+Labs implementation in Facebook products in 3 years, and that Facebook AR glasses are probably coming in 2–3 years as well. We have to be patient.
The wrist seems to be a very promising point for next-gen haptics and controllers. Parallel research of ETH Zurich has developed a lightweight wristband that can detect which fingers are touching a surface and when the contact is happening so that to implement virtual keyboards on all possible passive surfaces.
It comes as no surprise so the rumor of some weeks ago about Facebook developing its smartwatch… it can be a very previous device to pair to its future AR glasses.
More info (FRL Official blog post)
More info (Road To VR reporting and commenting the news)
More info (Ctrl+Labs’s Dino Game Early Demo)
More info (ETH’s experimental wristband)
Valve may be experimenting with wireless/standalone Index
A patent filed by Valve in 2020 and granted some days ago shows the work that Valve is doing towards wireless/standalone headsets. The Patent shows different headbands with large sections on the rear head strap that could contain for instance a wireless module to connect the headset to the PC.
Patents are not an indication of a future product, but for sure show what a company is experimenting upon. And these experiments about wireless headsets make us think that Valve is investigating the possibility of making the Index wireless (or even better, standalone), a feature that many users have asked for.
(Thanks Ilja Z for the tip!)
Nreal Light is on sale in Germany
In the end, the Chinese company Nreal has kept its word. As it had promised on my blog last year, its cool Nreal Light AR glasses have finally arrived in Europe. The first country where you can now find them is Germany, where thanks to a partnership with both Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom, you can buy Nreal Light glasses bundled with OPPO Find X3 Pro 5G phone.
The total price of the package is 1800€, with the phone costing 1150€, and Nreal contributing to 650€, that is not that distant from the 500€ + around 20% of VAT that Nreal promised us when launching the glasses. If you don’t own the phone, though, the package is still expensive and distant from the dream of consumer adoption.
It’s good to see this cool product finally arriving in Europe, not anymore as a devkit, but as a full-fledged product. It is one of the best AR glasses on the market (read my review here) and it could be interesting to monitor its sales, to see how the market is receptive nowadays a similar AR solution.
(Thanks Eloi Gerard for the tip)
More info (Official Nreal website with purchase link)
More info (Post on Vodafone DE blog)
News worth a mention
Xbox VR support has been leaked, or maybe not
The mystery of Virtual Reality support on Xbox continues with a new chapter of the saga. When a journalist of IGN Italy was trying to install the new Xbox Wireless Headset on the platform, he was greeted with an Italian message saying “The VR goggle must be updated”. After the news went viral, Microsoft has clarified that it was just “a translation bug” and that Xbox is not adding VR support at the moment. The weird thing about “the translation bug” is that there is no way that someone has translated the English word “Headset” in “Visore VR”, by adding the “VR” word in the translation. The mystery continues…
Volu lets you take volumetric videos with your smartphone
Volograms, a company dedicated to making volumetric videos using just 12 cameras, has just announced at SXSW its app Volu. Volu is special because it lets you shoot Volumetric videos of people by just using the camera of your phone. It should work thanks to special AI models that can infer the depth of the parts of the pictures that frame a person in front of the camera, reconstructing so a volumetric video of him/her.
If it works, this could be amazing to create affordable content for AR and VR: I don’t expect its videos to be perfect like the ones made by studios that cost $150,000/day, but even if they’re just good enough, it could be a little revolution for XR content. I guess we’ll discover soon: the app is going to enter a private beta phase, and I hope to be among the lucky guys that can try it in preview.
More info (Volu official website)
More info (The technology behind Volu)
Vive Facial Tracker works also with non-HTC headsets
Last week, HTC Vive has announced the Vive Facial Tracker, a sensor to track your facial expressions while you are in VR. The device seemed interesting, but the fact that it was compatible only with the Vive Pro made it almost useless.
The good news is that the community discovered that actually you can make it work with all the other PCVR headsets on the market (Valve Index, and even Quest+Link), as long as you find a way to attach it to your headset. HTC has said that the device has been fine-tuned for the Vive Pro and on other headsets, it may be less accurate, but honestly, who cares. As long as it works…
AAA content may come soon to Quest
Facebook’s VP of Play, Jason Rubin, and Facebook Reality Labs’ VP of Content, Mike Verdu have talked about the status of VR content at GDC Showcase. They highlighted how the Quest is selling very well and especially the content on its store is being very successful. They said that the Oculus Store is becoming a self-sustaining ecosystem for VR developers and that if things keep going this way, soon the market will be ready for the first AAA titles on the Quest. Maybe are they talking about the games by Ubisoft?
Google halves its revenues on the Play Store
Google has just decided to cut its share on the Play Store to “just” 15% of the revenues of the titles up to $1M. This is an amazing piece of news for all indies, that can so finally earn more money to sustain their businesses.
This piece of news is not directly related to VR, but it may have ripple effects on our ecosystem as well. After the trial started by Epic towards Apple and Google for their unfair -30% cut, at first Apple, and then Google has lowered it to 15% for the first $1M of revenues (with slightly different conditions). 30% was an insane amount for just a digital store and it is good news that after Epic Store, and all the noise it has made, this has been reduced.
Now that the biggest app stores have reduced their cut, what about the VR stores? Why Facebook and Valve are still getting 30%? I think it’s time to rethink this number in VR too…
Half-Life: Alyx has been the most streamed VR game on Twitch
Stream Charts has analyzed VR games streaming on Twitch and the report is worth a read. It has been a good year for VR streaming on Twitch, and the most successful games have been Half-Life: Alyx, Beat Saber, and Phasmophobia.
VR is not the most popular genre on the platform, but its overall trend is positive, and this is a very good piece of news.
We have the first reviews on the DecaMove
Sebastian Ang of MRTV has reviewed Decamove, the first gadget produced by Decagear, the startup promising a high-quality affordable VR headset. Sebastian has received it in preview (it is not a commercial product yet) and has found it pretty good.
The news is interesting because it shows that DecaGear is actually producing something. I’m still very skeptical about the final delivery of their dream headset, but I would be happy to be wrong.
Discover some nice XR storytelling content
This week I have read two interesting articles about XR storytelling experiences. One is Adventure Lab, which lets a group of people have fun in VR (and non) from home, living a funny adventure together. It is one of the most appreciated experiences in the field, and I’m curious of trying it myself as well.
The other one is The Passengers, an experience that lets you embody one of the passengers of a train, while he/she thinks about his/her life, but also about his/her relationships with the other passengers that he/she has around him/her.
More info (Adventure Lab)
More info (The Passengers)
Enjoy some cool VR discounts
If you want to play VR games and you are on a budget, you can check out these 3 offerings:
- Sony is offering 5 amazing PSVR games for free in the period from March 25th until April 23rd inside the “Play At Home” initiative. They are: Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Moss, Rez Infinite, Paper Beast, Thumper
- Museum Of Other Realities is free until March 26th, so that you can enjoy the best British XR artists
- Green Man Gaming has started “Sh*t Just Got Real” sale, that offers VR game with great discounts, even up to -80%!
More info (Play At Home)
More info (Museum Of Other Realities)
More info (Green Man Gaming)
Some news on content
- We have a new clip of the game After The Fall, and in it you can see some scary zombies that crawl on the ceiling! :O
- Cloudhead Games is preparing a new campaign for Pistol Whip, like 2089, but this time set in the past;
- Square Enix Montreal and TAITO are working on an AR version of Space Invaders;
- Beat Saber OST 4 is out with four new songs. According to Upload VR, it is not that great, but reading the comments below the article, only half of the community agrees with this opinion.
More info (After The Fall)
More info (Pistol Whip)
More info (Space Invaders AR)
More info (Beat Saber OST 4 released)
More info (Beat Saber OST 4 review)
News from partners (and friends)
The amazing Susan Oslin is going to host a series of tutorials at IEEE VR about the Open AR Cloud, a solution aimed at offering an AR Cloud that is completely open, and it is not a walled garden property of a private company like, well, you got it 🙂 If you are a developer, and you’re interested in the topic… well… subscribe!
There have been two pieces of news related to the AR influencer Alan Smithson:
- It has launched XR Collaboration, a website that collects many resources about AR and VR (like hardware comparison, dev guides, etc…)
- His company MetaVRse has just partnered with Unity, so that in one of its non-degree micro-courses, students will be taught how to use the MetaVRse engine
Learn more (XR Collaboration)
Learn more (Unity College)
Some XR fun
Oh, a new VR collaboration platform…
Funny link
Facebook says that its glasses will be good in giving contextual suggestions…
Funny link
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