Oculus Connect 3

Oculus Connect 3 was an event held by Oculus in the year +2016.

Michael Abrash presented.

Michael Abrash's talk

Michael Abrash gave a presentation about the development of VR in the near future. He talked about six main points predicting improvements in VR technology.

Firstly, he predicted the field of view will improve, while still not reaching the level of a 20/20 vision. The visuals are a critical area for near-term improvement. Presently, high-end head-mounted displays (HMDs) have around 15 pixels per degree, with around 100 degrees field of view and 1080x1200 display panels. Assuming a 20/20 vision, humans are capable of seeing at least 220 degrees field of view at approximately 120 pixels per degree. In five years, he predicts that the current pixels per degree will increase to 30 and the field of view to 140 degrees, with a resolution of around 4000x4000 per eye. Also, the current depth of focus of headsets will become variable.

Secondly, he predicted there will be improvements in eye tracking technology. This is essential in order to estimate the position of the fovea (the part of the retina that is responsible for providing sharp detail in vision), and necessary for foveated rendering - a technique where only the portion of the image that lands on the fovea is rendered at full quality, with the rest of the image remaining at a lower fidelity. This massively reduces the computational rendering requirements.

Thirdly, he explored advancements in audio, with head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) providing an enhancement to the realism of positional audio. While the Oculus Rift 3D audio generates a real-time HRTF based on head tracking, it is general across users. With HRTFs varying between individuals, creating personalized HRTFs should improve the audio experience. Furthermore, he suggested that progress to the modelling of reflection, diffraction and interference patterns should improve sound propagation.

Next, he talked about how he predicts that physical controllers will continue to dominate. Hand-held motion gadgets like the Oculus Touch controllers could remain the main interaction technology in the next decades, with natural improvements in ergonomics, functionality and accuracy. Furthermore, he suggested that hand tracking (without the use of controller or gloves) will become standard. It will be accurate enough to represent precise hand movements in VR, and for simple interactions like web browsing or launching a movie. He made a comparison with smartphones, in which touchscreens are good for casual interaction but that physicals buttons are still superior for typing or intense gaming. He then spoke about his prediction that HMDs will be lighter until 2021, and that high end headsets will become wireless, untethered from PCs.

The final point he explored was augmented VR; the potential of bringing the real world into the virtual space by way of scanning in real-time the real environment and rendering it realistically in the headset. The user could also be placed in another scanned environment and interact with it. This could serve as a mixed-reality system, allowing for the users to feel like they were anywhere on the planet. In the year +2016, it was possible to create a high-resolution recreation of many environments, but not to do it in real-time in a consumer product, which Abrash believes will be solved in the next years.