Quick Look: The Rapidly Evolving VR/AR/XR Device Market

Andy Smith and other members of his Halldale team attended the virtual VR/AR Device Showcase, hosted by the VR/AR Association. Marty Kauchak, Group Editor, reports on the highlights.

Nowhere in the three Halldale domains of civil aviation, defense and safety critical training are technologies advancing as quickly as in the virtual-, augmented- and mixed-reality sectors.

Last week, the VR/AR Association Central Florida Chapter - Orlando virtually hosted a VR/AR Device Showcase. Representatives from HP, Lenovo, Magic Leap, Microsoft HoloLens, NuEyes, Pico and Varjo updated viewers on the quickening pace of events in their current and soon-to-be released hardware and software articles and underpinning technologies. Following are important common themes and trends that customers in this market space will observe, as conveyed through the presentations of these industry experts.

One theme is that the already fast pace of new hardware and software being introduced in the market space will quicken. Companies reported the delivery of recently released articles, including the HP Reverb G2 VR headset and Varjo XR-3 mixed reality headset, among others. As significant, these entities will be unveiling new articles well into the summer months. On the close-in horizon, while the Pico Neo 3 VR headset will initially be available in Asia “soon,” Elias Stephan, Global Head of Virtual Reality ISV Partner Program at HP, advised viewers that under his company’s rapidly evolving Omnicept solution, a new headset will be released “very soon.”

A major understatement is that technology in this sector is “advancing.” Ahem! In fact, the pace of technology is rapidly accelerating across multiple fronts, from product form factor to the integration of enabling capabilities. One representative example of innovation was offered by Trevor Backlin, Executive President at NuEyes. The industry veteran noted that the recently released NuEyes Pro 3 augmented reality smart glass solution delivers clarity with 4K displays and an ultra-wide 51-degree field of view. Additionally, moving beyond the clunky products heretofore in this space, this solution weighs only 88g (0.2 lbs) and comes in three versions.

In another part of this sector, Eric Brown, Mixed Reality Technical Specialist at Microsoft, spoke to several representative underpinnings in his company’s HoloLens2. Sensors, including two IR cameras to enhance eye tracking, and four visible light cameras to better enable head tracking, are among the many capabilities allowing the end user to complete spatial mapping and an increasing myriad of activities.

As Halldale has observed in other S&T industry segments, few, if any, companies can “go it alone” and succeed, whether providing content for end products or tethering to mobile phones and other devices. To that end, the VR/AR/XR community serves as a model of wide-spreading, more numerous, community ecosystems all too frequently discussed in aerospace and defense and other portfolios. In one case, Lenovo’s ThinkReality A3 lightweight AR smart glasses are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 Platform. The ThinkReality A3 tethers to a PC or select Motorola smartphones via a USB-C cable.

Another key takeaway from the chapter’s presentations is the broadening menu of use cases for the devices highlighted throughout the evening. To be certain, the end-users for headsets and other content extend throughout Halldale’s editorial areas of interest, and well beyond – into gaming for entertainment and other commercial purposes. In one case, earlier this month, it was announced < https://www. halldale.com/articles/18300-mst-army-microsoft-headset-jolts-to-production> the US Army and Microsoft are working together on the production phase of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, which is moving from rapid prototyping to production and rapid fielding. The IVAS headset is based on HoloLens and augmented by Microsoft Azure cloud services. In a second instance, the Magic Leap 1 headset, has been used with a Mixed Reality Viewer from Brainlab, to provide virtual models to help healthcare professionals review surgical plans.

The current and soon-to-be-released hardware and software products highlighted at the association meeting are offering important returns on investment and disrupting current training and other enterprises. The HP Reverb G2’s web page reported that for one application, training, “From high-risk safety simulations and maintenance procedures to soft skills like public speaking, VR enables 7X more retention than traditional lecture-style learning.”

Industry veteran John Burwell, Varjo’s Global Lead for Simulation and Training, put these developments into a different context when he noted that his company’s headsets, including the current XR3, have “the potential to eliminate domes from flight training.” And beyond shaking training and other enterprises to their foundations, the price points of much of the content highlighted throughout the evening continue to plunge. Whereas several years ago, the price of headsets was in the range of $10,000, the market price for Varjo’s VR-3 headset is listed on the corporate web site at $3,195 – providing another compelling investment case for these products.

Andy Smith, Halldale’s Publisher, noted that the presentations confirmed “some great things are happening in this space. A lot of education of the market is needed, though.” To that end, the Halldale team will continue to monitor and report on the rapid developments in AR, MR, VR and XR space.

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