When you’re in VR, it can feel a bit isolating. Particularly if you have friends over or are showing VR for the first time to family. The person in the headset can’t see anyone else in most cases and if it’s a mobile VR headset like the Samsung Gear VR, which over 5 million people own, then no one else in the room can see what the user is seeing.
Well, a new VR headset called the FaceDisplay aims to solve the second issue with a solution I am fairly confident in saying no on else has seriously thought about: they put additional screens on the outside of the unit. Watch the video below to see what I mean.
Moreover, those additional screens are actually touchscreens too, meaning that outside viewers can reach over and poke the glass on your face to interact with your virtual world. It’s an incredibly bizarre idea that I honestly thought was a joke at first.
The prototype game shown is a fruit-slicing game where the non-VR user can tap the screen to create fruit that the VR user has to reach up and slash. There is also a cooperative mode where both users try to slash fruit as it randomly appears.
Ultimately, it feels like this headset misses the point of VR. When I’m in a headset, immersed in another world, the last thing I want is someone actively poking and prodding my face. It would immediately take the VR user out of the experience and result in unpleasant jarring.
Effective social VR lets the VR user and non-VR user interact without interfering with either player’s experience. Sony’s Playroom VR on PlayStation VR (PSVR), Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, or Mass Exodus are great examples and even Facebook Spaces is creating new ways for people to interact.
What do you think of the FaceDisplay? Let us know down in the comments below!
