Ask HN: Best AR Device?

2 points by scawf 3 years ago | 4 comments

Apple vision pro looks incredible. Someone suggested Xreal Air as an alternative already available. There is also Rokid Air.

What would you recommend ? Am I missing some other better alternatives ?

PaulHoule 3 years ago |

I bought a used Hololens 1 on Ebay for about what the Xreal Air costs. (Except that I can wear my glasses w/ the HR1) The Xreal Air doesn't seem to have a lot of intelligence onboard whereas the HL1 has a PC built inside. The dork factor is worse for the HL1 I think.

The HL1 has a SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) system that builds a 3-d model of the environment you use it in. You can place a 3-d object somewhere in your space, go to another room, then come back and the object is still there, look at it from all sides, etc. There are also applications that can do things like visualize airplanes in the space around an airport or let you throw darts and draw the trajectories they take.

It looks like the XRA is just a display on its own, if you have a really powerful Android phone it can run applications similar to the HL1, or you can use it as a display for a game console or computer. I think the XRA has more apps, particularly if you discount all the apps for the HL1 that are clients for some enterprise 3-d modelling software.

The HL1 would like to be usable without a controller, it recognizes the same pinch gesture that the Apple Vision does but the Apple Vision has a wide enough field of view that you can make that gesture with your hands at waist level whereas you have to hold your hands up to head level to make gestures for the HL1 and that is quickly tiring. You can get a "clicker" which fixes that.

I see the HL1 as a "minimum viable product" for AR and similar devices might have better specs on paper (HL2) but aren't really better in practice. One real weakness of all the holographic waveguide or birdbath devices is that they aren't bright enough to use outdoors in the day at all, I think the SLAM would not work with the HL1 outdoors at night either.

Of course the display capabilities of the Apple Vision are entirely different, the Apple Vision can subtract light, not just add it, and it should work outdoors. On the other hand, the software environment for applications should be basically the same for all those things and so far as I can tell all the major AR headsets (HL, XRA, AV, Magic Leap) support Unity for developing applications so I think porting applications from one to another should be possible.

Those who "think different" might get a jump on AV application development by starting with another headset instead of futzing with the AV emulator.

verdverm 3 years ago | |

HL2 is a huge UX upgrade, you don't have to look at something to click on it, it's all hand based. Was hoping a HL3 would have the hardware specs to make it more viable to use, really just more FOV and I'd be using it for floating screens while working. Such a shame they cancelled the team and project

PaulHoule 3 years ago | | |

Used HL2 cost about 5x HL1. If I was going to spend that much I'd probably get a high-end PCVR headset. I was spooked by Karl Guttag's through-lens pictures of the HL2

https://kguttag.com/2019/12/18/hololens-2-not-a-pretty-pictu...

Maybe some models are better but I am satisfied with HL1 image quality.

One problem I have with the HL1 is that it is awful at playing video. I can visit YouTube w/ Microsoft Edge but the UI is so laggy I haven't been able to watch a real video.

I can listen to music from my local Jellyfin with the strange thing that I don't hear it in stereo but instead it is localized as a point source that I can hear behind me if I turn my back to the Edge window.

I've tried watching video through the Jellyfin web interface, I have no trouble selecting a video to watch but once I start the video I see the spinner spin and spin and spin. I see the HL1 has a HEVC codec built in, I assume I can transcode video to something it can stand.

The missing app I see is what you'd see in any movie with tech like this: something that lets a "controller" look through your camera, talk with you, put stuff up on your screen, etc.

More generally a problem I see is that I want to share the experience I am having with other people and as finicky as it is I'm a little afraid to give it to somebody else so they can see a "hologram". Of course I got this to help with software development for my art projects so that's kinda the whole point for me.