Since debuting on Kickstarter a couple weeks ago, Wearality has garnered a lot of attention for their new, mobile based HMD – but it is the lenses that have led to VR enthusiasts around the world to salivate.
Boasting an incredible 150-degree FOV, the Wearality lenses were developed in conjunction with Lockheed Martin. The lenses have a unique double Fresnel design that allows for the incredibly wide field of view. Shortly after their announcement on Kickstarter, the VR community began to chirp about hacking these incredible lenses into some of the best VR tech out there. Well you say “hack” – I say OSVR.
Speaking with the team at Razer’s OSVR program about the new lens technology they are excited about its potential. OSVR’s mission is to help bring as many of the various peripherals, hardware and software technologies in VR together in an open source platform in an effort to further the development of the industry. In line with this mission, Kevin Scarpati of Razer’s PR team was able to confirm with me that the company is “open to working with [Wearality]” to bring the lenses to OSVR.
While this doesn’t confirm yet the lenses will be able to be fit into the OSVR system in the future, it seems a likely possibility. Having a wider field of view is incredibly important for the immersiveness factor of VR. We typically have a FOV that ranges from 110-degrees to 180-degrees (at the most extreme), meaning that for many the current average of 110-degrees amongst the leading headsets is simply not enough (you still see the frame of the screen if you have excellent peripheral vision).
