While most VR headsets on the market are designed to be as immersive as possible, almost none have focused on being able to quickly switch to the real world. Simon Ljungblahd, a student from the Umeå Institute of Design, has come up with a design that seeks to counteract that.
Ljungblahd’s design consists of a visor that can be flipped up out of the way instead of an immersive display. Instead of blocking out your real-life environment, you treat the headset like you would a laptop. Except that the visor is capable of Augmented Reality (AR).
Other key features include a lightweight strap that slips on easily and a cable that connects to your computer. One particularly nifty part of the design is a screen on the front of the headset for others to look at. This screen indicates to everyone else what the user is currently doing.
Image credit — Umeå Institute of Design
A productivity-focused headset like this might be quite popular amongst office workers. But I personally can’t see a use case for this that AR glasses cannot already cover. Yeah, it’s a unique design. But glasses also keep you quite aware of your surroundings and you can remove them very easily.
The Sightful Spacetop G1 is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to make AR glasses for work. It’s basically a laptop without a screen connected to a brilliant pair of glasses. The battery life, because of being powered by the base, is leagues ahead of normal AR glasses.
So, impressive work by Ljungblahd, but I don’t see a use for this design aside from perhaps personal preference. Maybe the visor is capable of better depth than glasses? Or perhaps the distinction of AR glasses and VR headsets for its naming means Ljungblahd thinks of it as a proper VR display and not Mixed Reality (MR). If this design ever gets made into a real headset we’ll have our answer.
The Apple Vision Pro is also geared towards productivity but it’s expensive and heavy. For the foreseeable future it’s going to have to be products like the Spacetop G1 for those who want to work in AR. I’m also excited to see what Lenovo is working on after the company announced it was making an XR headset for productivity.
Create a free account and join our vibrant community
Register to enjoy the full PhoneArena experience. Here’s what you get with your PhoneArena account:
Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: