Down in Florida I had the concept for a "dumb" VR headset. It'd have as little electronics as possible and ideally just be a peace of cheap plastic.
Then an external system would handle all tracking and somehow project the image onto the headset. The simplest method would be to make both eyes have small projector screens in front of them that can be directly projected onto.
Such a system could have a few big advantages over traditional VR.
It'd be overkill for home use but in a theme park setting it could be pretty useful if the kinks were worked out. It'd be especially nice for the types of rides that currently use 3D glasses.
Then an external system would handle all tracking and somehow project the image onto the headset. The simplest method would be to make both eyes have small projector screens in front of them that can be directly projected onto.
Such a system could have a few big advantages over traditional VR.
- Extremely lightweight. From the user's perspective, it'd be just like wearing oversized glasses.
- No heat generation. The face would stay cool and there wouldn't be problems with the lenses fogging or sweat making the system uncomfortable.
- Cheap headset. If a lense gets scratched or another problem happens, the headset is cheap to replace. Also would make it feasible to have multiple headsets for additional users.
- Hardware can be large. The projectors and other tech can be as large as needed since they aren't inside the headset.
It'd be overkill for home use but in a theme park setting it could be pretty useful if the kinks were worked out. It'd be especially nice for the types of rides that currently use 3D glasses.
