The Oculus Go wasn’t designed for black hair

In fairness, these issues seem like they’d also affect anyone with long hair in a bun.

Car headrests are a huge issue for my (caucasian) better half, to the point where she vetos car purchases over them. There’s no way she could use one of these headsets either.

I imagine the headrests I’m referring to also a huge pain in the neck (literally —— many of them force you to slouch) for the women in this study, and for most women with long hair.

"When I’ve struggled to put on a headset over a high bun of braids, I temporarily take down the braids. I’m in no position to do or ask that of another woman even if she is a participant in my study. I personally know how time-consuming it can be to get braids or head wraps tied (and what lies beneath a headscarf may be extra personal). Further, a good number of participants didn’t just have big hair, they had hijabs as well, and these, more than any other updo, cannot be removed."

Quite frankly this seems like a non issue. I wear glasses and 3d glasses always are a pain to use but I don't insinuate discrimination. Was the Oculus Go also not designed for Sikhs? The comment about hijabs is ludicrous. The people who want to control their insular culture but also want to be victims in mass culture are infuriating.

For confused people clicking the article like myself: This is not about hair colour. Title means “hairstyle commonly worn in Black communities.”

Interesting article. The two-strap design the author created for the Oculus reminds me of the strap system used for many swimming goggles.

I suppose they have some similar problems to solve; with VR the strap is supporting a fairly heavy load hanging in front of the wearer's face, which would have a tendency to twist off if not held in place firmly. Similarly swimming goggles may twist off when diving into the water, if they aren't firmly held in place. Furthermore the 'big hair' situation seems similar in some ways to the difficulties you can have while wearing a swim cap (with lots of hair under it.)

I, like Palmer Luckey himself, find my Oculus Go subpar-to-unusable because of the fixed IPD. It's been a little better since I bought prescription lenses, but still not great. It's a device designed very much for the average human with little thought given to others.

cool project! i am slightly confused though about the geometry of the solution. i understand from the text that there are two independent straps. but it sort of (not ambiguously) looks like they are connected? perhaps to prevent slippage?

Glasses have definitely need a pain point with the Occulus.

Reminder Oculus is tightly tied to facebook, and thus should be avoided.

Compared to that, whether it works with black hair or not is basically irrelevant.