The technology isn't there yet. The resolution needs to be probably 6x what it currently is to be good for reading and productivity purposes. The strain on the eyes and weight on the head/neck from having VR headset on for extended periods is also significantly higher than the strain from just a viewing a monitor and that problem is not going away anytime soon.
The thing that turns me off of VR the most is rumors I've heard (sometimes here on HN) of eye health issues from excessive VR use. Is anyone working on that?
I'm incredulous that having a screen strapped half an inch from your eyes for 8+ hours is desirable. I have an Oculus Rift, my face is sweaty/red in a couple of hours and there is an indent around my eyes. I'm sure newer tech can be much better, especially with airflow and an AR set that lets in natural light. We're not there yet, though.
I think it's the same problem as 3D TV. There's a novelty, but actually using the tech is straining. With 3D TV your eyes hurt a lot. With VR... your eyes hurt a lot, and you have this cumbersome device on your head.
A problem with VR I see for myself is that it encompasses your entire focus. With traditional viewing devices I'm not locked in to one activity, I can multitask. The headsets are claustrophobic and limiting. And all that's after they fix the problem of high prescription lenses, which I think is insurmountable.
I’ll echo both the praise and the concerns here - awesome that somebody has made this, definitely has a long way to go before I would consider using it, but honestly my main question is... is all-day VR not terrible for your eyes?
I have used pretty much every VR and AR headset there is, and have many hundreds of hours in them dating back to the Oculus DK1. Even the Index and the new Quest Pro lack the resolution needed for extended work with text on virtual screens, not to mention that the weight and heat of the headset become increasingly uncomfortable after a few hours. I also suspect that extended use of a headset wasn't good for the health of my eyes. Certainly if you wear glasses it would be pretty uncomfortable, but I generally felt a lot more eyestrain in VR than I would after extended use of a monitor.
I think we are still quite a few years away from VR being a slam dunk for a virtual workstation, and it's going to require continued investments in optics, material science and display technology. There's a reason Meta is spending billions on this, it's an exceptionally difficult problem.
This feels like one of those activities that's so drastically different that there may be serious health concerns about it. Wearing a VR headset to play a few hours of games a week still lets your eyes mostly exist in a natural light setting. When you're wearing a VR display the light is right up against your eyes with no possibility for them to look away to relax. When we're normally working we can glance out at a horizon (hopefully - sometimes you don't have a window) or at least let your eyes wander off to the ceiling and defocus. It seems like giving your eyes a chance to relax (i.e. having narrow glasses where part of your view field is out of focus) can be beneficial at delaying the onset of Myopia. The idea of wearing one of these for eight hours a day feels much worse than even staring at a phone in your hand when it comes to eye health.
It's like being in front of a large television screen for many hours. Can't be good for your eyes, curious to hear how your eye test results will come out after 6 months to year of 40-50 hours/week of VR usage.
VR seems great for folks, but you're putting your eyes' ciliary muscles into a cast and then working the rest of you out. Few activities put your eyes at a fixed 1.3m focal distance for the entire time.
VR screens eliminate the eyes' ability to focus naturally.
Unless this devices solves that problem, I find it hard to believe it will be comfortable to wear for many hours per day.
And if the device is not comfortable to wear for longer durations, then it doesn't make sense that it's priced as premium work equipment.
Sorry, I stopped reading at Oculus Rift. Have you used one? They're pretty intense on the eyes. I'm not sure if this will improve or not though. Also you'd need to look away every 20 mins or whatever is recommended so you wouldn't go crazy shortsighted. Same as screens I guess.
What VR headset are you using? I've considered switching to a VR monitor setup but I feel that the quality of existing headsets is too low to compete against an actual monitor and having a screen with text that close to the eyes for several hours will accelerate the accumulation of eye damage most developers already receive.
I actually hope that VR progresses to a point where one can work in it all day. The idea of having 8 virtual high resolution monitors set in any environment sounds awesome to me (amongst other advantages of VR). Unfortunately VR is still just way too low resolution for this to work today. As well as too uncomfortable to wear for 8 hours a day.
My biggest problem with VR, and 3D goggles in general, is that eye-accomodation is not necessary in the virtual world, with current technology. This means that the eye will get lazy if goggles are used too often.
I think the biggest hurdle for VR is being able to use the device for long periods of time. We can view our phones for essentially a full day with some inconvenience, but I can barely stand VR for more than a couple hours without needing to rest my eyes.
Unless they can manage to shrink the headset to the weight of a pair of glasses, I don’t see this as competition for monitors. Just to name one out of dozens of issues: if you have your face supporting a heavy VR mask for hours a day, it’s really going to show after a few years.
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