For just over two years, Varjo ("shadow" in Finnish) worked on the world's highest-resolution headset for virtual reality. Last week, they released it:
- Originally named 'Bionic Display', it now has the more utilitarian VR-1 name
- Originally priced between e5,000 and e10,000 (US$5,500-$11,000), it starts at e5,995 (and US$5,995) with a mandatory e995 service agreement for the first year (optional thereafter)
- The services include 24-hour support, a full license to use the software in professional environments, and a replacement warranty
- Runs at "human-eye resolution" or about 60 pixels per degree (versus 18 for the HTC Vive) in the center, less around the edges
Figure 1: Inside the Varjo VR-1 headset
(image source Varjo)
The company was founded by ex-Nokia employees who had found themselves part of Microsoft following the disastrous acquisition. There, they worked on HoloLens and then came back to Helsinki to design VR goggles for the high-end industrial market. The company raised $46 million from investors, including Siemens venture capital firm Next47.
Solving the Human Eye Resolution Problem
I asked Varjo chief product officer Urho Konttori what resolution "human-eye resolution" equated to. He replied, "60 pixels per degree" or "3000 pixels per inch," which he says is 20x higher than any other headset on the market, at time of writing (see figure 2).
 Figure 2: HTC Vive Pro resolution at left with screen door effect;
Varjo VR-1 at right (image source Varjo)
The headset that launched 2012's renaissance of VR, Occulus Rift, displayed 1080×1200 to each eyeball. HP earlier this month announced a new headset with 2160×2160 pixels per eye, while Pixma is taking pre-orders for their $900 3840x2160-resolution consumer-grade headset. So, what does "human-eye resolution" mean?
The problem is that computer screens use uniform pixels, but our eyes use 130 million sensors, non-linearly -- unevenly. But if we were to assign a resolution, then we would get these numbers:
- When concentrating on something, we use the fovea's 2-degree field of view, which is about two megapixels
- Our peripheral vision goes up to 7 megapixels
- Overall, the eye's resolution might be equivalent to 576 megapixels, based on our entire field of view -- 120 degrees up and down, and 122 degrees side to side; see figure 3
Figure 3: The fields of view of typical human eyes
(image source bistudio.com)
But our brain interpolates the incoming images, filtering out our nose and eyeglass frames, filling in for the blind spot (where the nerves leave the eyeball), and interpolating the jitter from our head's movement (see figure 4).
Figure 4: What the brain doesn't see:
Left to right: peripheral vision, blind spot, eyeglass frame, and nose
(image source Vsauce)
If you are deep into cameras, then you know that pixel resolution is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is distance: how small an item can we resolve at whatever distance. When we find we have a hard time resolving our sight, we get eye glasses.
Here's a clear explanation of the problem of human eye resolution: forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/10/06/what-is-the-resolution-of-the-human-eye-in-megapixels/ -- or, if you prefer to watch a video, try this one youtu.be/4I5Q3UXkGd0
Solving the Tethering Problem, Partly
One of the first VR setups I used was the Cardboard from Google, into which I stuck my Android phone, and downloaded some VR scenes. This is untethered viewing.
But my very first VR experience was back in 1989, after Autodesk bought VPL Research. We got to see some primitive shapes (3D boxes, pyramids) while wearing a heavy, low-res headset connected by a massive collection of cables to a nearby a Compaq 386 computer running two Matrox graphics boards. Autodesk hoped to sell the kit for $15,000, but after a couple of years the advances just weren't forthcoming, and so Autodesk cut Jaron Lanier and his team loose. Today Mr Lanier warns about the abuses of technology. "The solution is to double down on being human," he now says.
Thirty years later, high-end VR googles still need to be tethered. They do not work with smartphones, even if today's phones have more computing power than the mainframes that took man to the moon.
Varjo replaced the original 5m tether cable with one twice as long (30 feet) and made with optical fibre so that it is lightweight.
Solving the Data Reception Problem
High-high VR needs very high-end GPUs to deliver high-resolution images at a higher-than-normal frame rate. When the resolution is low, the image looks poor; when the frame rate is too low, we get nausea when we look around. HP's solution is the backpack, a computer that resides comfortably (they say) on your back so that you are not limited by the tether.
While you can use the VR-1 with a laptop, it needs at least a GPU like nVidia's NVA 280 ($200 or less) consumer GPU for office computers. High-end visualization software, like VRED ($2,800 a year), needs a high-end computer with nVidia's Quadro RTX 6000 ray-tracing board ($6,300 list price).
Another way to reduce the data needed to transmit to the goggles is to mimic the eye: high resolution at the center, lower resolution around the sides, and so the VR-1 headset has two monitors for each eye: a 1920x1080 low-persistence micro-OLED and 1440x1600 low-persistence AMOLED. See figure 5. Varjo says they are the only ones to fuse two displays. (Low persistence means the image does not last very long on the screens, to reduce ghosting that occurs when you move your head and the image has to change quickly.)
Figure 5: How the VR-1's two screens simulate fovea and peripheral vision
(image source UploadVR)
But the eyes are constantly moving about, as we see things that interest us elsewhere. and so a sensor inside the helmet keeps track of what we are staring at. This lets us control the scene, like we are using a mouse, but with our eyes. A red bar replaces the mouse cursor.
Eye tracking then can be used for other purposes, such as for consumer goods and AR. The consumer goods industry is obsessed with shelf space and where shoppers look as they browse stores and march down aisles. Entire industries are tasked with finding that out, so that you'll buy earth-tone Brand B one shelf down over the gaudy-red Brand A one shelf up -- or the other way around. In training, the trainer can see what the trainee is looking at, as does the computer.
AR or XR or MR (all acronyms for VR that get's mixed in with reality) lets you see computer generated images displayed over top of your surroundings. The best example we have is Pokémon, but in the CAD world AR is seen as ideal for training and maintenance.
Varjo say they want to release an add-on this year that adds AR capabilities to their headset. It will replace the front plate.
Figure 6: What the VR-1 looks like right before you put it on
(image source Varjo)Solving the Who-Buys-It? Problem
VR suffers from the same problem as 3D TV, but worse. 3D TV failed because it didn't make story lines any better, and because it meant we had to wear dorky-looking glasses that sometimes brought on nausea as the brain got confused as to what it was seeing -- or not seeing.
VR replaces the geek eyeglasses with headsets that cover half the face, fully isolating family members and friends from each other. Pokémon works precisely because it does not require a headset.
And so the key is to not sell to consumers, but high-end industries, like aircraft and automotive manufacturing, for these are the customers who can afford these kinds of high-end units -- just as in 3D printing. Varjo spent the beta period concentrating on these areas:
- Industrial designers at Audi, MBW, and VW
- Training and simulation departments at Airbus, Aaab, Bohemia, and other firms who cannot be named
- AEC design firms such as Foster + Partners, Siemens, Trimble, Mcneel & Associates, and Autodesk
Siemens invested in Varjo possibly for using the VR-1 in factory design. Automotive firms tend to use Catia and NX for designing vehicles and VRED from Autodesk for viewing them right away (instead of taking a few weeks to build a clay model), and to examine effects, such as changing the paint color and what it looks like under a variety of weather conditions. And so Varjo made sure that VR-1 works with VRED.
"If you can see things the same way as in real life, and if you can see the defects the same way, then you can use VR in design," Mr Konttori told me. "If not, then you need to validate your design the traditional way, such as through a clay model, which takes several weeks."
After the units are manufactured (in China by Flex), they are calibrated for 20 minutes to ensure the color, resolution, and other aspects are accurate. As part of the Tuesday launch, Varjo has setup up VARs in 34 countries who already sell VR already, like cockpits and content creation companies. You can also buy it direct.
You can wear the VR-1 with glasses. It weighs 905g (2 lbs). An SDK is available. I did not have the opportunity to test a unit, but reviewers who have say this unit has a smaller field of view than other VR headsets,and that you have to move your head to maintain the fovea view.
Some of the $41 million went into marketing videos whose tone isn't unfamiliar if you've ever watched a Finnish crime show, such as at https://vimeo.com/245052714 (see figure 7). As Varjo puts it, "Since we can't change reality, we change the eyes that see reality."
Figure 7: Marketing the headset
(image source Varjo)
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| Here are some of the most recent posts made to the WorldCAD Access blog:
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Turkey's Mubitek licensed C3D Toolkit from C3D Labs for its Cizen die design software. Of significance, the C3D Modeler for geometric modeling replaces Open CASCADE and the C3D Solver constraint solver replaces D-Cubed from Siemens PLM Software. c3dlabs.com/en/
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Dassault Systems is expecting revenues of €3.81 - €3.84 for this year. Translated into US$, that's roughly $4.6 billion, using Dassault's own stated exchange rate of 1.2 during Q2-Q4. The volume of cloud business is below 10% of the revenue.
Last year, it was two pillars; this year, it is three legs:
- Solidworks on the desktop
- Solidworks running native under the 3dexperience platform
- Solidworks xDesign -- CEO Bernard Charlès calls this a "new kind of entry point" but it's been re-announced now for several years.
The company's CFO Pascal Daloz confirmed financial analyst Jay Vleeschhouwer's estimate that Dassault for the first time sold more than 80,000 licenses of Solidworks in 2018 -- "about double your next closest competitor."
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CIMdata PLM published a new position paper on multiple-view bills of materials on behalf of the Aerospace & Defense PLM Action Group. Free download, after registration: cimdata.com/en/aerospace-and-defense
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Develop 3D Live this year moves to Sheffield University in England, and the conference happens a few weeks later on 17 April. Taking part in the one-day CAD event is free, but you must have tickets from develop3dlive.com/register-now-2019/
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May I ask if you have any news regarding the Hexagon-Bricsys acquisition? They are quiet.
- A. G.
The editor replies: What I am hearing is that Hexagon is working on how best to integrate Bricsys, the company and its software. I think that Hexagon will leave Bricsys largely independent, but it is looking to see what products and processes can be useful. For example, Hexagon will try to get its customers to replace their copies of AutoCAD with BricsCAD.
This will probably be quite an easy replacement, as Hexagon two years ago had worked for a year with Bricsys to make CADWorx work right with BricsCAD APIs. With the next release of CADWorx, BricsCAD will be included, although customers can keep using AutoCAD, if they prefer.
Re: What 2019's looking like for Autodesk
You wrote, "For instance, a future stadium could be moved to another location, with planners seeing in real-time the impact on cost, land, and any other data that's plugged in -- no need to estimate the impact, but actually simulate it."
My daughters will be happy to hear about this. Their favorite game years ago was Roller Coaster Tycoon. They will be glad that someone bought that software and is perpetuating it!
- Jess Davis
Davis Precision Design
The editor replies: My kids loved that game, too. I think my key point was that the software isn't actually finished yet, so who knows if it can move stadiums in real-time.
Mr Davis responds: I think that someone driven to innovation should work in an industry that demands innovation. That isn't the mechanical CAD industry.
Autodesk is taking three data points -- the drafting board, 2D CAD, and 3D CAD -- and extrapolating that line of innovation on the assumption that its slope will stay the same. They are flailing around up there on the graph where they assumed the line would be, while their customers are down here trying to explain to them that the line broke over years ago, and is running nearly flat.
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Andrew Anognost thinks he can automate CAD. There’s no way that’s possible. They can’t even get Inventor to interchange data with Shovit yet. And they’re dropping Advance Steel, which never had any data interchange with Inventor. Even worse, Inventor can’t interchange data with Tekla. What are they thinking?
- Chris Cadman
The editor replies: It took them many years to get AutoCAD and Inventor to exchange data. Other CAD vendors have integrated systems that don't suffer from data incompatibility.
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"Every technological paradigm shift never leaves us exactly as we were but always leaves us lurching a little further into the unknown."
- Richard Fernandez, "Who or what can you trust?"
https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/who-or-what-can-you-trust/ |
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