Virtual Screens

[Tagbert]

In reading rumors about an Apple headset, I am particularly interested in its use as a virtual screen. The idea of a large screen area that dynamically pans with your head movement and eye tracking with foveated rendering to keep the high resolution part of the images where you are looking sounds fantastic.

I recently ran across this product. The Spacetop screenless laptop.

Spacetop AR laptop puts the screen on your face

When laptop computers first began to proliferate in the early 1990's, workers were suddenly freed from the confines of their desks and could take their tasks to coffee shops, hotel rooms and other remote work spaces. Since the time of those early brick-like portable computers, laptops have of…

newatlas.com

It’s a headless laptop with glasses that you wear that projects a virtual screen in front of your eyes. I am curious. They show the windows in the image as though they are opaque. If this is a projected image, would background images show through? The glasses don’t look opaque themselves.

I’m not sure how well it will work, but it is definitely in a direction that I find interesting. The resolution is only 1080p per eye and I guess the processor is a Snapdragon so I guess it is running a version of Android. The price is $2000 so not cheap, either. It is still an interesting preview of what could come.

 

[paulmeyers42]

I believe the glasses are made by NReal, they also make the NReal Air which you can get right now for your Mac, iPad or iPhone. I have a pair and they’re great. With the Mac version (only for now), you can get up to three virtual monitors that stay fixed in place like with this product. Even though they’re darkened sunglasses, some light does shine through the virtual monitors. It includes light blockers if that’s a problem.

This is an interesting product because you can get floating virtual “apps” rather than just virtual monitors. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

 

[Tagbert]

I believe the glasses are made by NReal, they also make the NReal Air which you can get right now for your Mac, iPad or iPhone. I have a pair and they’re great. With the Mac version (only for now), you can get up to three virtual monitors that stay fixed in place like with this product. Even though they’re darkened sunglasses, some light does shine through the virtual monitors. It includes light blockers if that’s a problem.

This is an interesting product because you can get floating virtual “apps” rather than just virtual monitors. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

Ah, the NReal looks interesting, too. I don't think I would go for that until it is better integrated as a Mac screen but I like the direction this is going.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

In reading rumors about an Apple headset, I am particularly interested in its use as a virtual screen. The idea of a large screen area that dynamically pans with your head movement and eye tracking with foveated rendering to keep the high resolution part of the images where you are looking sounds fantastic.

I recently ran across this product. The Spacetop screenless laptop.

Spacetop AR laptop puts the screen on your face

When laptop computers first began to proliferate in the early 1990's, workers were suddenly freed from the confines of their desks and could take their tasks to coffee shops, hotel rooms and other remote work spaces. Since the time of those early brick-like portable computers, laptops have of…

newatlas.com

It’s a headless laptop with glasses that you wear that projects a virtual screen in front of your eyes. I am curious. They show the windows in the image as though they are opaque. If this is a projected image, would background images show through? The glasses don’t look opaque themselves.

I’m not sure how well it will work, but it is definitely in a direction that I find interesting. The resolution is only 1080p per eye and I guess the processor is a Snapdragon so I guess it is running a version of Android. The price is $2000 so not cheap, either. It is still an interesting preview of what could come.

Guy Godin's Virtual Desktop is a good example of the development of desktop computing in XR environments.

As you can see in the screenshot, the Windows 10 desktop environment is presented in your virtual space without a wallpaper, with each window manipulatable. For AR the Quest Pro has the ability to display virtual external displays of a Mac or PC

The endgoal of HMDs is eventually being able to replace traditional monitors, as traditional monitors have physical limitations of where they can be placed, while virtual monitors don't have any physical limitations, and you can move them and resize them anywhere. Not to mention you can't get tailgated from a virtual monitor since only you can see it

 

[EnderTW]

My only concern would be text rendering, a lot of these VR implementations cannot recreate the fidelity that monitors can today. Color accuracy is bad, text is bad, having been spoiled by retina mini-led displays in the pro models, i don't think I could code on a pixelated text screen.

We'll see, i'm sure apple thought of this and will probably blow us away.

 

[Tagbert]

My only concern would be text rendering, a lot of these VR implementations cannot recreate the fidelity that monitors can today. Color accuracy is bad, text is bad, having been spoiled by retina mini-led displays in the pro models, i don't think I could code on a pixelated text screen.

We'll see, i'm sure apple thought of this and will probably blow us away.

Supposedly, Apple is using dual 4K displays in their headset so we should have some crisp images.

 

[Jensend]

Supposedly, Apple is using dual 4K displays in their headset so we should have some crisp images.

Even with 4K displays it will look like a non-Retina display at typical viewing distance, at best.