Starting Guide to Another Reality

1.
What is VR, AR, MR & XR?
Virtual Reality (VR) places the users in a fully artificial virtual
environment using VR devices such as HTC Vive, Oculus Quest, or
PlayStation VR.
Augmented Reality (AR) places virtual objects on the real-world
environment often by using the camera on a smartphone or
tablet.
Mixed Reality (MR) not just overlays objects but interact with
virtual objects in the real world and vice versa. The most known
headset for MR is the HoloLens from Microsoft.
eXtended Reality (XR) is a term that covers all of the various
technologies that enhance our senses including Virtual Reality
(VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR).
 2.
Some History
In 1935 Stanley G. Weinbaum wrote Pygmalion's Spectacles. A
scientist invented a pair of goggles which enabled "a movie that
gives one sight and sound [...] and touch. [...] You are in the story,
you speak to the characters and they reply, and instead of being
on a screen, the story is all about you, and you are in it."
In 1957, Morton Heilig invented a large booth-like machine called
the Sensorama, which was intended to combine multiple
technologies to give one to four people the illusion of being in a
fully 3D immersive world — complete with smell, stereo sound,
vibrations, and even atmospheric effects like wind in the hair.
The Sword of Damocles: The first actual VR head-mounted
display (HMD) was created in 1968 by computer scientist Ivan
Sutherland. It is widely considered to be the first augmented
reality head-mounted display (HMD). The virtual environment
were simple wireframe rooms.
The United Kingdom has been using VR in military training since
the 1980s. Tom Furness, was the director of an Airforce project
known as the Super Cockpit. It was a simulator designed for
training that featured CG graphics and real time interactivity for
pilots.
One of the first companies to attempt to launch a VR headset
was Sega in 1991, which planned Sega VR as an accessory for
the Genesis… Unfortunately it was never released...
Released in 1995, the Virtual Boy was a portable video game
console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. The player
uses the console like a head-mounted display, placing their head
against the eyepiece to see a red monochrome display. The
Virtual Boy was panned by critics and was a commercial failure.
In 2010, 18-year-old entrepreneur Palmer Luckey created the
first prototype of the Oculus Rift. Boasting a 90-degree field of
view that hadn’t been seen previously in a consumer device, it
raised $2.4 million on Kickstarter a couple years later, before the
company was purchased by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014.
Since then hundreds of companies worked on their own VR
headsets. These include market leaders such as HTC but also
Google, Apple, Amazon, Sony, Samsung, and others.
 3.
And what about now ?
The survey does show a continued increase in US consumers that
have tried VR, with 14% of the population having at least tried a
VR headset.
 ● Best VR headset: Valve Index ($999)
B2B
● Best standalone VR headset: Oculus Quest ($399)
● Best console VR headset: PSVR ($299)
B2C
● PC runner up: Oculus Rift S ($399)
● Best mobile VR headset: Samsung Gear VR ($129)
Studies have shown that in practice, any VR setup that generates
frame rates below 90 frames per second (FPS) is likely to induce
disorientation, nausea, and other negative user effects. The lower
the frame rate, the worse the effects.
B2B = Healthcare / Engineering
B2C = Video Games
 4.
Room Scale vs Standing
= Rotation = Rotation
& Position Only
Standing =
Rotation Only Gyroscope : It uses the earth’s gravity to help
determine orientation. It measures the rate of
rotation around the device’s x, y and z axes.

Room-Scale =
Rotation Gyroscope + Accelerometer: An accelerometer
& Position measures the external specific force acting on
the sensor. The double integration of
acceleration gives the position of an object.
+ “Correction” System (seen after)
 Room-Scale <=> user has to define a Virtual Boundary

Before to use any VR solution, the user has to define a Virtual

Boundary (Oculus called it Guardian, Valve called it Chaperone).

The idea is to display in-application wall and floor markers when

users get near play-area borders they defined.
 5.
correction systems (Position Tracking)
Outside-In Tracking:
External sensors determine the user's position and orientation.
PlayStation VR:
The headset itself is covered in bright blue lights on all sides, even the back.
The PlayStation 4 camera bar contains two spaced out cameras.
This camera is connected to the PlayStation and can track those blue lights.

+ Low cost to integrate

- Low quality tracking
- Space limitation for RoomScale (due to single-camera)
Constellation (Oculus DK1/2, Rift):
Each tracked device has a pre-defined “constellation” of infrared LEDs hidden under the external plastic, IR light
is invisible to the human eye.
Sensors, which are basically cameras with filters to see only IR light, send frames to the user’s PC over a USB
cable.
The PC processes each frame, identifying the position of each IR LED, and thus the relative position of each
object.

+ High quality tracking

+ Low cost to integrate
- Each sensor has wired connection to PC
Vive Lighthouse V1 (HTC Vive, Valve Index) Lighthouse V2
Base stations (“Lighthouses”) are placed at opposite top corners of the room. ● Enhanced horizontal FOV (increase from 110 to 150°) .
They do not communicate with the PC and they are not sensors. ●
●
Up to 16 base stations (instead of 2).
Up to 10x10m play-space (instead of 4x4m).
They emit wide angle two dimensional IR laser beams across the entire room. ● 2.0 base stations do not have optical sync but rather
This is done 1 axis at a time, so left-right then top-bottom, repeatedly. integrate the sync into the laser sweep.
● You cannot use 1.0 and 2.0 base stations at the same
Before each sweep they emit a powerful IR flash of light. time - they conflict.

Each tracked device contains an array of IR photodiodes connected to a chip.

This chip measures the time between the IR flash and being hit by the laser sweep for each axis.
From this it can determine its position in the room.

+ High quality tracking

+ No PC connection to base stations
- Relatively expensive
Inside-Out Tracking:
Use sensors & camera on the HMD (Visual Inertial Odometry) to
determine the position and orientation.
Simultaneous Location And Mapping - SLAM (Oculus Quest, Rift S):
It uses cameras built into the HMD which perform “inside-out” tracking using computer vision algorithms.
SLAM algorithms work by noticing unique static features in the room.
By comparing the rotation and acceleration from the accelerometer &
gyroscope to how these features appear to move, the position of the headset can be determined.

+ No external hardware required

+ Very low cost
- Doesn’t work in the dark
- Can’t track controller movement behind head
- Can’t track controller movement when arm is between headset and controller