The Virtual Reality Wars Are Officially Here

The Avegant Glyph was introduced to the world today, and it means that the war for virtual reality supremacy is officially here. By now most people are at least tangentially familiar with the Oculus Rift, the headset that immerses users into the gaming experience with their dual screen. But it’s not quite ready for prime-time, and now Avegant is looking to beat them to the mainstream punch with their Glyph. Part headphone, part Rift, and part Google Glass, the idea is that the visual interface resides in the top portion of a traditional headphone, and would flip down over the users’ eyes. It also features a new display system: Virtual Retinal Display, which offers an advantage over Oculus and Glass insofar as the device actually projects light into users’ eyes, effectively tricking the body into actually seeing the image as opposed to looking at a screen – this also means that there no headaches or fatigued eyes. As well, the Glyph works with existing content out of the box; there’s no need to hack around gaming parameters to make it work. How comfortable people will be using this in public, though (see the awkwardness of wearing Google Glass in public as a reference point here) will, to a large extent, determine how successful the device will be.