LYNX-R1 from French startup company Lynx is the first standalone headset through 6DoF. It costs 1499 dollars and is designed for “professionals”.
End-to-end AR
Currently, there are two main types of AR headsets: clear and through. Most AR headsets like Microsoft HoloLens 2, transparent. The user views the real world through the glass directly at him superimposed with virtual objects.
Technology transparent AR-optics is still in a very early stage. The field of view is narrow, and the virtual objects may not be completely opaque.
End-to-end headsets like the LYNX-R1, use the same display system that VR headset, except that instead of rendering a fully virtual world, they reflect the real world through cameras. Although the real world will not necessarily look as good, this allows the use of AR in a much wider field of view and opaqueness of virtual objects and lower cost ( HoloLens 2 for the price of 3500 US dollars).
Some, including yourself Lynx call this product “headset mixed reality”.
Fully Autonomous
LYNX-R1 — not the first-through AR headset. Varjo XR-1 and XTAL promote similar opportunities.
But in order to function, the other 6DoF headset needs to be attached to a PC. As Oculus Quest, LYNX-R1 is a standalone and wireless — it has computing equipment, battery, and storage on Board.
Lynx uses a new chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon XR-2. It is a variant of Snapdragon 865 for XR, is approximately two times more powerful than Snapdragon 835 on the Oculus Quest. And this combined with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal memory.
Other technical specifications
The headset uses two LCD panel 1600 × 1600, running at a frequency of 90 Hz to the LCD display provides better sharpness than PenTile OLED, but with less saturated colors. The lenses are unique “4x catadioptric prisms free form,” stated a circular field of view of 90 °.
Outside the four chambers. Two black and white cameras provide positional tracking, and two color cameras are used for tasks a through passage, and computer vision such as occlusion mapping and hand tracking, including gesture recognition.
Inside the headset are camera eye tracking. The headset also has two speakers and two microphones that allows for positional audio and voice communication.
Charging is via the USB Type-C, and Lynx claims that the battery runs for two hours “of active use”.
The gap in the market?
LYNX-R1 can fill the gap in the enterprise market for wireless Autonomous AR headset, which offers a relatively wide field of view at a relatively affordable price. For consumers, the idea of end-to-end video can be unattractive, but professionals can be all the same, whether they are looking through glass or a camera.
LYNX-R1 is scheduled to release this summer. Pre-orders are now available on the website of the company.
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