Something they definitely need a solution for is sanitation, since there will be a lot of reuse of the same headset. I've heard this is a big issue that people over overlook at conventions, and there has been cases of eye herpes going around.
I have some of their newer 6mm ("wide-FOV") replacement pads for the Vive and while I found the "cover" style to be fidgety to get and keep in place the replacement pads are a huge improvement. Literally just remove the old foam and slap the new vinyl pad on (attaches via velcro like the OEM pads).
https://vrcover.com/product/htc-vive-foam-replacement-6mm/
A++ would buy again. Major quality of life improvement over the standard pads.
With vinyl covers I don't see what would stop you from just spraying down the whole surface that comes into contact with your face - assuming whatever you use isn't nasty enough to fog the plastic. I don't do it because it's not really a concern apart from face grease if you bump the lenses, which I clean with a microfiber cloth.
Disposable pads would probably be nice in a commercial setting like a theater, but you would also really need to spray down the body and lenses of the headset with a sanitizer because some contact with the lenses is nearly inevitable. AFAIK this is similar to how 3D glasses are processed for reuse.
I would just like to note that it is an extremely difficult optical problem to get what amounts to a smartphone a half inch from your face with no screen curvature to present an image that covers your field of view adequately, focused at optical infinity, at a relatively constant magnification factor (pixels are the same size), and without such excessive levels of distortion that the rendering cannot be corrected in software. The closest analogy is really the old superwide Nikon lenses that needed to have the mirror flipped up so they could go deep into the camera and perform corrections right up to the film plane.
Really it's a testament to modern manufacturing and lens design that this is possible at any sort of a price that would be reasonable for consumers to own. Molded plastic lenses with aspheric surfaces are amazing compared to what you could do with regular spherical glass surfaces.
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkore...
Where the heck did this come from? Relevance to article?