More AR Glasses USB Protocols: The Worse, the Better and the Prettier | Hacker News Reader

More AR Glasses USB Protocols: The Worse, the Better and the Prettier

voidcomputing.hu

91 pointsLwrless14 comments

As the owner of a pair of one of these glasses, I really like using them in bed at night as a monitor that isn't mega bright while my partner is asleep.

Or whilst sitting on the couch as I don't like having to look down to play games (and saves my arm from getting numb from holding up a Steam Deck).

I hope that due to reverse-engineering these protocols we'll finally get some cool (open source) features out of these! The one I have (xreal Air) is really comfortable to wear, but the 1080p resolution is more like 720p due to the fact that pixels aren't always crisp when reading text (I think it has to do with the prism), so e.g. a head tracking larger desktop would be amazing.

I think there is already some work on that (e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/Xreal/comments/16cj63g/steam_deck_h... ), but I'm waiting for it to be good enough to integrate with e.g Hyprland/wlroots so I will use it.

It'd also be cool even to have something like PaperWM track left/right head movements.

Hungary, why do you have so many AR glasses choices when Meta and Apple in North America seem unable to provide anything consumers desire?

Those glasses all look positively cool and wearable by comparison. Even the canine looks kind of classy in the Grawoow (?) glasses. I'm not sure normal humans would even notice the Rokid or XReal glasses. From another article, the Rokid type apparently sit floating off your face kind of weird. [1] They also never show anything other than image mockups, which makes me suspicious of the actual experience.

Do the images all just look horrible internally, or have projector washout? Cause otherwise these all look pretty reasonable for the morning commute and I'm not sure why there's so much of a focus on goggles.

[1] https://www.techradar.com/computing/virtual-reality-augmente...

I'm based in the US. Most of those options are available from Amazon.

I've owned both the Viture glasses and the nreal air (back when they were called nreal rather than xreal). The picture quality on them is more than enough to use as a second display, but where it shines for me is on flights. It mostly just looks like a normal pair of oversized glasses, but presents an incredible display on that is miles beyond any in flight entertainment system.

I only bought the Viture because I lost/forgot my original nreal air glasses on a flight and they were never found.

Same, I can buy these in the US either off Amazon or from the manufacturer's websites.

For my money, I'm waiting for the tech to improve a bit more before I buy the XReal Air's. A little bit smaller, a little bit better tracking and support for using phone on Desktop mode, or a PC in multi-monitor mode. I'd like something which is both great on the go, and worth using at home, when I feel like my multi-monitor setup doesn't have quite enough screen real estate for some computing task.

I have NReal/XReal Air, and I find them very uncomfortable. I wear glasses, so I have to use prescription inserts, so it adds to the weight. While they are not too heavy, they put too much weight on the bridge of my nose and tend to slide down over time. They are also very sensitive to placement, so if they slide down a little, you can't see the entire screen anymore. The FOV is pretty narrow.

The Viture One has a built-in diopter correction wheel which can correct up to 4 diopters (which might not be good enough for you; it is just barely good enough for me).

While I was being slightly sarcastic up above, thank you @hcazz, @RajT88, @Eugr, @saurik for the replies and descriptions of the viewing experience.

If they're nice enough for use in a semi-dark airplane, I may need to look into a pair. Spend enough time in restaurants and other low lighting areas, it might be worth it for mobile computing purposes.

@hcazz, question: can you use them effectively while walking around in broad daylight?

@RajT88, @Eugr, thank for the viewing descriptions. Those types of issues were a little bit of what I was worried about. Hallway feeling vision, and tiny "correct" spot for viewing. The multi-monitor setup idea is kind of neat, since then you could have floating layer screens with overlap you work on. Floating code/text highlighting for a programmer for example.

A portion of the question above, was closer to: "why is all the discussion in America completely dominated by two FAANG choices when there are apparently so many other decent/good/great alternatives?" People are apparently paying $3500 to look goofy in public and have uncomfortable viewing experiences? (the reviews I've read on the Vision Pro and Quest have not been great)

This Vox article [1] for example has almost the same statement: "Goggles. They’re goggles. Also, let’s imagine ... that maybe one day they’ll just become glasses." (while [checking...] $380 AR glasses with decent reviews are available)

The "meta verse" and Quest got almost the same response. See this Verge article [2]. "Meta’s $1,499 headset is better at showcasing VR’s weaknesses than strengths."

[1] https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/6/5/23750064/apple-visio...

[2] https://www.theverge.com/23451629/meta-quest-pro-vr-headset-...

Related question: what options are there for us wearing eyeglasses?

xreal supports custom made prescription inserts. it comes with blanks you can take to an optometrist to get them made.

rokid does too

Rokid max supports focus adjustment from 0 to -6: https://global.rokid.com/pages/product-help#display-adjustme...

I have an xreal air, for which i got lenses cut. (tbh, i took sandpaper and dremel and cut it myself, based on the templates they provided). I probably missed some thing because i have to keep adjusting the glasses so my lenses cover the display properly. Would love to try out Rokid for this very reason.

I wouldn't rely too much on the -6. very important is IPD as well. mine didn't match so the outer corners were very blurry. IPD can be changed via app, but that wasn't available to me so couldn't test it. it's not really changing the IPD but moving the active pixels instead

Thanks for this. I didn't think of this.. it could also be an IPD issue for me then. Either way, looks like I'll have to implement a picture scaling/repositioning for x-real too for comfortable viewing .

Do any of these glasses have eye tracking?

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