A recent Wired article featuring a visit to Oculus VR HQ includes an image that might just hold clues to the secretive Oculus Rift 2.0 (or DK2) and it’s rumoured positional tracking capabilities. We take a look.
Zooming In On The Truth?
As I sat recovering from days of Christmas excess, searching the web in search on fresh VR stories (and catching up on old ones) I stumbled upon a recent article in the online edition of Wired Magazine. It featured a visit to the Oculus VR HQ in Irvine California and in an image picturing the writer wearing what seems to be a prototype Rift HMD we’ve not yet seen before – holding the caption:
Three of Oculus’ best brains (standing, from left): founder Palmer Luckey, senior vision engineer Dov Katz, and VP of product Nate Mitchell. The writer (seated) experiences some of their latest breakthroughs.
..I noticed something else in the image which interested me. First the original image (click for full resolution).
..now let’s take a look more closely:
There are a couple of things of interest here. Firstly – the HMD itself seems to be a new construction – likely a unique working prototype. Secondly, note the thin orange cable which runs from the HMD (marked ‘B’ on the image) down onto the floor and up to what appears to be a wall mounted device with cables channelled into the whiteboard next to the monitor. Could this be an imaging device with an uplink to the new HMD? If so is this the first glimpse of the next generation Oculus Rift positional tracking rumoured to make an appearance at CES in January 2014?
Unfortunately, the image resolution isn’t great enough to distinguish the cabling in any more detail – nor the exotic functioning used just after they leave the headset, but whatever that cable does it’s new and clearly integral to the functionality of the unit.
Update and further wild speculation: Also notice the masking tape used to seemingly position the chair the writer is sitting in (and the roll of it sat on top of the pillar on the far right)? Perhaps the tracker was calibrated for the seats position in order to function optimally.
This is clearly wild speculation on our part, but I’d be really interested in everyone’s thoughts on what’s on show here. Let us know in the comments below.
With any luck, we’ll find out for sure what all this means in January 2014 when Road To VR attend the International CES show and meet with Oculus to find out.
Please note: Image Source the Property of Wired.com