March 29, 2024

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Nvidia’s ultra-thin VR glasses concept wants to banish bulky headsets

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One of the biggest issues facing mainstream adoption of VR headsets is their form factor. Anyone familiar with the tech will have the image in their mind: a bulky, binocular-looking blob attached to you like the facehugger from Alien.

But Nvidia wants to fix this — and has just released a research paper in collaboration with Stanford University that shows a concept for an ultra-thin pair of holographic glasses for virtual reality.

First off, let’s look at why today’s VR headsets are so bulky.

Effectively, this is down to the magnifier principle of VR display optics. As per Nvidia’s and Stanford’s paper, regular headsets work with the “lens [enlarging] the image of a small microdisplay.”

This requires a large distance between the two, increasing the size of today’s headsets to accommodate the technology.

example of why today's VR headsets are so thick