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Enthusiast Opts For $2200 Laser Eye Surgery To Enhance Oculus Rift Experience
An anonymous reader writes After 30 years of wearing glasses, one man says that the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has prompted him to get laser eye surgery. With farsightedness and astigmatism, he says, "Never thought much about the laser surgery until the Rift, that's for sure." He has an appointment to get the $2200 surgery on the 13th of this month. "For me it is clear, my eyeglasses are like an obstacle for optimal VR experience," he said. He hopes the surgery will remove his need for glasses, which can be uncomfortable inside of the Rift, if they fit at all, and cause several issues such as scratched lenses and lower field of view. Oculus plans to make the consumer version of the Oculus Rift (aka CV1) more friendly to glasses wearers, "...we have a lot of great ideas for supporting glasses in the consumer version [of the Rift] (especially since a huge portion of the Oculus team wears glasses everyday!)" they noted in their Kickstarter.
so... dude has lived his life with the inconvenience of glasses, and incomplete vision
for a great amount of time. thought about the cost of surgery and said meh....
then one day, not the forests, or the mountains... not the clouds in the sky.
not beautiful women at the beach and not the smile of a newborn....
but virtual reality.
better fix my eyes to get the most out of vr.
Why not contact lenses?
Isn't it completly overkill? I mean, the games can adjust their rendering so as to compensate the visual defects of the player. You just enter your needed correction in a parameter box et voilà. Thet clearly doesn't seem overly complicated to do.
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Toric contact lenses fix astigmatism...been around a while: http://www.allaboutvision.com/...
I underwent LASIK 14 years ago and I recommend it to everyone. If the OC is what convinced him to do it, great. He should have done it years ago.
would it be hard to switch the lens in the rift with custom one that correct eyes problem?
Depends on how they are mounted. Plus I can't imagine it would be cheap. You would need custom lenses cut from scratch that take both the Rx and the normal cut of the stock rift lenses into account as well as possibly adjusting the prescription for the shorter than normal (for regular glasses at least) focal distance.
Now Oculus could possibly build something into the final consumer version that allows for adding an prescription lens to the system, and setup a retail service to make the lenses with proper adjustments for this particular use. Or they could find a away to allow for better fit of the device for people wearing glasses. But until then, I'd say his options are pretty limited.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Unless the OR is pain waiting to happen for users with ordinary vision I'd imagine that the optics are designed to provide a comfortable apparent distance from the screen for viewers with ordinary eyesight. This would mean that a nearsighted user would still be attempting to focus on something that appears further away than close-in vision is suitable for.
Somebody comfortable at closer distances would likely require slightly less correction from the internal optics, since their comfortable apparent distance is shorter; but if the optics aren't designed that way that doesn't help them very much.
some will sacrifice reality for virtuality.
The focal distance of the Rift's lenses are set at infinity. In effect, when you're wearing the rift, the focal target is a great distance away.
It has fixed focal length? Did they forget to consult with optics engineers? No one in the design group owns a telescope or a pair of binoculars?
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Would it be possible to put an eye test into the helmet and have it adjust the optics to give the wearer apparently perfect vision? Or is that just too sci-fi?
man gets lasik, news at 11
One of the problems of Lasik is the size of the corrected pupil is often not as large as that of your fully dark adapted pupil, and, as an amateur astronomer, it leaves artefacts in your field of view that are objectionable.
f*cked up
Why does the connection matter? I opted for glasses when I found I could no longer hit the side of a barn with a rifle, but that was the trigger event that showed me that my eyesight was crap and not the entire reason to do something about my eyes.
I'm sure it's a similar situation in this case. Someone doing something to push the limits of their vision found that their vision was limited.
It was going for $5000 about ten years ago. I think that he would have been a happier person if he did even at that cost 10 years ago.
- Guy has bad eyesight
- Wants them fixed to standard 20/20, using laser surgery.
This is news?
This story would be more interesting if he corrected his eyes to "short sighted", this would improve the experience. He'd then be able to see alot more detail at close range, using his Oculus rift.
They are inexpensive twist to lock things. Three notches. Friction fit. Not designed for constant replacement. Would likely get sloppy.
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I've always had eyes on the border of needing glasses. I could get by without glasses pretty fine, I just sat half a foot closer to the PC and bought giant monitors / TV's - I could see fairly well, just not perfect.
I picked up a 30" 2560x1600 monitor about 3 years back and I just wasn't able to appreciate it. I could read it but only sitting pretty damn close due to the pixel size. 1920x1200 was fine but, I shouldn't need to do that./
Finally caved in and got some glasses at 34 years old - made a great difference.
(Actually once I saw the difference glasses made, I really wished we all had far far better vision, something like 20/5 would be quite nice)
I have severe myopia, so anything more than a few feet from me is a blur unless I am wearing my glasses or contacts. I'm an avid gamer (Partnered on Twitch.tv) and I used to be an active equestrian. My lifestyle lead many people to recommend LASIK or PRK surgery, but the risks turned me off from both. LASIK creates an eye flap that can be dislocated, torn, etc., which can permanently damage your eye. This flap is not created with PRK, although there are similar risks associated with that surgery. Our eyes have protective layers for a reason and permanently shaving these off with surgery creates a lifelong risk. One of my friends practices jiu jitsu and he's suffered some major injuries while sparring because of LASIK. One girl that I rode with also supposedly had "successful" surgery, but she became extremely sensitive to light and had to wear sunglasses while riding, which defeated the purpose of getting the surgery. She also had trouble seeing at night and would complain about halos or glare with light. Nearly all of the people that I know who have had either surgery have to carry eyedrops. I'd rather put on glasses or put in contacts that deal with any of the risks associated with these surgeries.
It might as well have said "People that can afford rift can also afford laser surgery."
As someone who had a $3000 laser surgery done recently. I suggest everyone that qualifies (not all conditions can be fixed) and can afford it to get it. It really is the best money I have ever spent in my life.
I am an amateur astronomer, so one could say about me: "Man buys $3000 laser surgery to enhance $2000 telescope experience." Am I a dope because I spent more on my eyes than my telescope? I get a hell of a lot more use out of my eyes than the scope. Every waking moment vs. that once a month it is actually clear and dark out.
It also enhances my exercising experience, my playing hockey experience, my driving experience, and my swimming experience. I think it helps me not get headaches when staring at a computer screen for hours at a time at work. (though that last one is highly subjective, the rest are true)
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that change the shape of your eye, that makes way more sense, and is way less risky and expensive...
to get the Zune tattoo while you're at it.
Good question...seems like in an iteration coming soon it would be a slam dunk to include adjustments for different corrective prescriptions in the rift itself...obviates surgery and the like. What about the couple of million people (US) with hemianopsia (bilateral blindness in both eyes - right or left). I hope to see the rift as a near cure for this...projecting the full image to the appropriate axon region...might even be individually customizable.
I had LASIK, two years ago, after >35 years of wearing glasses.
Yes, I needed eyedrops. And sunglasses. For several weeks afterwards.
But not now. I still have sunglasses, and wear them sometimes - but that's in no way, nohow, anything like as intrusive as having to wear glasses just to see an arm's length away. I haven't had to worry about eyedrops since a couple of months after the surgery.
If you don't want to get surgery, then don't. It's not compulsory. But don't scare yourself off with phoney stories and false comparisons.
wow great informations !
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This story is REALLY uncanny because I am about the do the same thing only in my case, it's not just for the Oculus but everything in general. For example, I like 3D movies a lot but it's a pain either choosing between blurred vision or wearing TWO sets of glasses on my face obscuring the quality of the image in the process. Also, certain headphones are a royal pain to wear as they push the arms of the glasses into my cheek which can get rather painful after a while. Just $2200 though? Mine will be more than that but I guess it depends on where this person is getting it done and how bad their eyes are.