We spotted an interesting article on the Road to VR blog which highlights that a development platform headset being developed by Goertek, based on Kopin’s design and microdisplays, is a very light unit and half the weight of the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift (although the current version doesn’t include audio, IPD adjustment and tracking). The display also has much more resolution, using the Kopin 1″ 2048 x 2048 display running at 120Hz. The headset uses a wired connection based on USB-C with the DisplayPort Alt mode.
Kopin has developed an OpenVR driver to allow use of the headset with SteamVR content, the blog post said.
The headset demonstrated used optics with a 70º FOV and this caused the reviewer to comment that it was less immersive than the Vive or Rift. Kopin said that 80º and 100º optics are being developed. On the other hand, the image is described as “incredibly smooth and sharp” and “stunningly sharp” with no ‘screen door’ effect and, of course, deep blacks, although brightness on the 70º version was reported to be low.
The Kopin/Goertek Elf development platform – click for higher res
Analyst Comment
The comments from the reviewers highlight the challenges in the optics. The display is said to already be not especially bright, and extending the field of view extends the area of the display, so reducing the brightness. Keeping the unit small is clever, but the relatively small size of the microdisplay makes the optical solutions harder. Why have such high resolution if the optics degrades the image? Never the less, this development is very interesting and shows a good alternative to other approaches.
For more on Kopin, see our reports from SID (IC03 Kopin Has a Real Business in AR/VR and Kopin at SID and AWE) (BR)
