A new KickStarter project has surfaced, detailing possibly the most advance (yet still affordable) head mounted display unit (lets just call it an HMD), the Oculus Rift. Products such as the ‘Sony HMZ-T1 Personal 3D viewer‘ provide you an OMG 750″ display….from a 20 Meters distance (so basically it’s like being in the back-row of a Metallica concert). The ‘Oculus Rift’ promises to remove the issue by providing a “closer to the eye” experience, with a significantly improved Field of Vision (FOV) of 110 degrees (versus the Sony’s 45 degree).
Currently the Rift musters a resolution of 1280×800, this is actually quite good for an HMD although Oculus has promised to up the resolution on the consumer version, while retaining a reasonable price tag. Remember, currently consoles mostly run games on 720P or less, so having such a display is more than enough for a great experience.
I have seen advance HMDs in the past, that hosted similar features along with motion detection, one example is the Wrap 1200VR with it’s 599.99$ price tag. The main diffrence is it’s much lower FOV of 35 degrees.
To put things into perspective, I have made a simple compassion of a few HMD units:
| Oculus Rift (Dev Unit) | Sony HMZ-T1 | Wrap 1200VR | |
| Price Tag | 300$ | 799.99$ | 599.99$ |
| Resolution | 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 720 | 1280 x 720 |
| Diagonal FOV | 110 | 45 | 35 |
| Display Size (@3 Meters) | N/A | ~150″ | ~75″ |
| Motion technology | Yes | No | Yes |
| Sound | No (external) | Yes (+virtual surround) | Yes |
| 3D support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Video Connectivity | DVI | HDMI | VGA/DVI/Component |
| Weight | ~0.22 KG | 0.42 KG | ~0.085 KG |
| Availability | Estimate Dec-2012 | In stores | In stores |
Want your hands on a Oculus Rift? Just head over to the Oculus Rift Kickstarter page.
Image Source: Tron Evolution video game
