The growth of the virtual reality (VR) industry has seen a lot of pioneering work go into solving the hurdles of the immersive technology. Issues like screendoor effect and latency have been solved to a point that allows a VR experience to be enjoyed without negative effects. But one issue that Oculus VR’s Founder Palmer Luckey sees as hampering the industry for sometime is that of cables.
Apart from mobile head-mounted displays (HMDs) like Samsung’s Gear VR or Google Cardboard, both of which use smartphones, all the full scale headsets are cabled to a PC or console. The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are both tethered to a powerful gaming PC while the PlayStation VR supports the PlayStation 4 console.
On Luckey’s Twitter account this week he said in a series of tweets: “Cables are going to be a major obstacle in the VR industry for a long time. Mobile VR will be successful long before PC VR goes wireless.”
“It is important to design both hardware and software with those limitations in mind. Real users won’t have cable servants.”
Finally adding: “And I say this as someone who has spent many hours as a cable servant, dancing cables around users to keep them immersed!”
As the main HMDs have only been on display at shows and events that are managed by teams, ensuring visitors enjoy their experience and don’t trip up, the question is how will consumers fair at home?
It’s an issue the VR companies will be looking into but don’t have a proper solution for yet. Currently experiences like Zero Latency which allow players to walk around a warehouse shooting zombies in VR, need to strap a PC and battery pack to players backs to work. This isn’t as suitable for immersive VR videogames at home, looks like it may take some time to overcome.
VRFocus will continue to report on the latest advances in VR technology as details emerge.
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