Move over, Oculus Rift, there's a new Virtual Reality headset in town and it will project images directly on your retina. Relatively unknown company Avegant has developed a prototype model of its Virtual Retinal Display that reflects light into your eye for an incredibly realistic experience. In an interview with CNET, Avegant CEO Ed Tang demonstrated how the goggles work and said a consumer prototype may be ready in time for CES 2014.
The Avegant Virtual Retinal Display boasts a completely different level of realism, since it projects light directly into your eye to mimic natural vision. Other headsets on the market like the Oculus Rift use LCDs that emit light to display images don't look as real as reflected light, which Tang explained is how objects in real life are seen by our eyes.
The inherent resolution of images projected by the Virtual Retinal Display is 1280 x 800, but due to the way images are transmitted to the eye, the perceived resolution and frame rate delivered is "incredibly high". Tang also said you can stare at the images projected for hours since there is no eye strain from using the device. Instead of lasers, the headset uses a low-power light source that should not hurt your eyes.
Avegant aims to attract the consumer that is in the market for a different experience for gaming and multimedia entertainment, but has not disclosed information on pricing and availability.
via CNET (Picture: Sarah Tew/CNET)
