Report: Google Will Go In Big For VR Hardware This Year

The Financial Times reports that Google isn't going to let the VR hardware wars fall to the likes of Samsung and Oculus; instead, it's working on a (cardboard-free) VR headset of its own, to be released in conjunction with Android VR software intended not only to make Android more VR friendly in general but specifically to help developers reduce nausea-inducing lag. The report doesn't quite come out of the blue, considering that Google has shipped more than 5 million of its own Cardboard viewer already, and has several projects dealing with VR infrastructure, either directly (like Jump) or indrectly (like Project Tango). Google (or Alphabet) has proven itself a hardware behemoth, not just the "search giant" it's so often called in news stories, and of late seems to be more interested in making its footprint in hardware a bit firmer.

Comments

Maybe not so much

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think of a company as being from what it derives its revenue, Google is still an advertising company.

Its a real stretch, to describe them as a hardware "behemoth". All they made is:

- Nexus 4/5/6/7
- Nexus Q (cancelled)
- Glass (arguably cancelled, but at least still in test)
- Chromecast
- Chromebook Pixel
- Pixel C
- Car (still in test, and will be for years)

Of those , Chromecast is probably the only large seller, maybe Nexus devices depending on what your threshold level is for "large" sales.

Theres other stuff like OnHub, Android TV, Chromebooks, Android etc, but Google doesn't make any of these hardware devices - they are made and branded by other companies, and Google does the heavy lifting on most of the software stack.

Cardboard is, a cardboard cut out. That doesn't make you a hardware behemoth either.

Slashdot hates technology?

[JMZero]

Right now, comments on this article are 100% Anonymous Cowards, who all agree this is dumb and won't go anwhere. And that's pretty much par for the course here - people dumping on random consumer tech, websites, every company in software, VR, robotics, AI, self-driving cars.

I think VR is going to be big. We bought an Oculus DK2 a while back, and people are blown away by it, despite it being flakey, being a generation behind in hardware, and there being essentially no professional content.

Maybe I'm wrong and VR won't go anywhere, but it's sad that Slashdot has become so blase about technology and the future. There's plenty of places VR could go and plenty of things you could do with it that are at least potentially exciting. But nobody is imagining any of that, they're thinking "meh, I'm happy playing normal FPS games on my normal monitor", "this didn't work before, so it won't work now", and "nobody wants to wear goggles on their head".

Re:Slashdot hates technology?

[brantondaveperson]

nobody wants to wear goggles on their head

This is, nobody does want to wear goggles on their head. Friend of mine has a 3D TV. We sat there and watched a 3D movie on it once. That was it. Never bothered again. Not worth the stupid headgear, and that was only the passive polarised things.

Re:Slashdot hates technology?

[rtb61]

VR is hugely problematic in terms of extended use. Sure it's a thrill for the first time and the first few hours but what happens on day three after say 12 hours of use, how long can people keep going before it becomes psychological undesirable and they just stop and put it on a shelf and loathe the idea of taking it down ie negative reinforcement due to psychological stresses.

Now from the Android perspective VR becomes IR and not infra-red but immersive reality, extended a smart phone into a massive in your face big screen, that you control by hand, whilst sitting or lying back and relaxing (well you body, not so much your mind, well, not all the time, sometimes yeah, immersion in an interactive tropical scene with the right sounds).

So comfortable head set ( a lot trickier than it sounds) no motion detection just 3D immersion, quality sound output to feed that immersion and just lying back relaxing whilst flexing you hands and fingers and then power than with an Android smart phone. For comfort, I suppose check out what they are doing with high bike helmets in terms of contact distribution, keeping in mind relaxing you head back on a pillow and what makes a comfortable hat and what are comfortable glasses. Extended contact with the scalp seems more psychologically acceptable than extended contact with the face ie googles. When it comes to appearance, well, admit it will always suck, so play it down, make fun of it, do not try to make it look cool, it never will, until lens design is completely redone and built into nothing more than something like a typical sun glass frame with ear buds.

Re:Slashdot hates technology?

[Ol Olsoc]

Right now, comments on this article are 100% Anonymous Cowards, who all agree this is dumb and won't go anwhere. And that's pretty much par for the course here - people dumping on random consumer tech, websites, every company in software, VR, robotics, AI, self-driving cars.

I think VR is going to be big.

While I sort of agree that Slashdot has a fair number of posters who simply hate everything new, let us not forget that not everything new is automatically wonderful.

But now that we are past that, I'm not seeing 3D as becoming really widely adopted until the delivery method goes past the helmet on the head paradigm. I'm seeing a direct immersion, probably using brain implants, or some way of acceptably stimulating the optic nerve (which by the way will be a boon for the blind) Sit back in the chair or couch, close your eyes (or not) and you are totally immersed in the movie or game No visual borders. I'm also envisioning a complete immersive game or first person movie where you take a concoction that allows you to feel the movement, but be in a sleeplike muscle inhibited mode especially in the movie experience where you are going along for whatever the main character's experience is.

Re:Slashdot hates technology?

[WaffleMonster]

Right now, comments on this article are 100% Anonymous Cowards, who all agree this is dumb and won't go anwhere

Looking back at least one of them wasn't.

And that's pretty much par for the course here - people dumping on random consumer tech, websites, every company in software, VR, robotics, AI, self-driving cars.

For all I know those doing the dumping have a point or maybe they don't but it doesn't matter because the assumption made is dumping must be bad or there can be nothing systemically wrong with the current market resulting in reflection of disproportionately negative opinions.

I think VR is going to be big. We bought an Oculus DK2 a while back, and people are blown away by it, despite it being flakey, being a generation behind in hardware, and there being essentially no professional content.

Having tried at a friends it IS a lot of fun. The experience was enough to preorder CV1 where I likely would not have been willing to shell out close to $700 otherwise.

I see these very same 3D/fad/worthless comments from VR skeptics everywhere including on Oculus's website. PL has acknowledged the issue himself in various interviews. They plan on pushing to make opportunities for people to try it for themselves because they fully recognize it is really the only way to get people to understand what it's about. It can't effectively be shown on a display or explained otherwise.

Maybe I'm wrong and VR won't go anywhere, but it's sad that Slashdot has become so blase about technology and the future.

I'm guilty of that. Windows 10 - no thanks, IoT pointless spyware, proliferation of mobile first / javascript heavy websites that are slow, buggy and look like crap on usable displays.. no I'll pass... continued aggregation of content and eyeball networks.. Releasing products with the primary goal of making money by collecting data and serving ads rather than providing value... no thank you. If industry didn't spend so much time playing games and doing everything short of offering actual value in exchange for revenue perhaps I would have a more positive outlook.

Re: Slashdot hates technology?

[Fireflymantis]

This. For fun I threw a VR VNC app onto my phone and put it into a cardboard to try it out. Being able to head-track a cursor felt pretty clumsy at first, but after about 5 minutes was really something that I would want to get used to, and got pretty good at swiftly.

Admittedly, having the camera poorly reproduce RL in the background was a bit nauseating, but getting a huge forward facing screen that left nothing for distraction was truly revolutionary. (If only they could fix the slow side drift...) I could seriously see general purpose computing to be improved by this, which is to say nothing of the specific use applications like the Unreal4 in-VR VR building demo posted recently.

I for one am looking forward to our wild and crazy VR future.

VR may never be big in education

[dsmatthews9379]

While nausea caused by VR has genetics as a significant factor ( a "if your vision does not match your inner ear you may have eaten something bad and should probably vomit it back up" type survival trait) it cannot be rolled out universally as a teaching aid because to do so would disadvantage the significant numbers of people who are born with a sensitivity to VR induced nausea syndrome.

Better invest in some new a better drugs guys, because the current anti nausea drugs don't work well and make you dumber.

Re:Fated to be like 3D?

[RoadDoggFL]

All of those things are guaranteed to come true by the end of 2018, so it's not like it's that too far off.