Edit: Any discussion of the HMD software jump to page 3.
"Portal Dual VR Visualizer" source code can be found at Github:

Link: https://github.com/PortalVR/portal-software-vr



Hello everyone, and let me start by saying that this site is a plethora of informative data! There is great sense of community in here, and without all the help and support of some its members this work would have been a lot more difficult. Many thanks to Foisy, 3dpmaster, LostBrain and Geekmaster among the many for been very helpful with many of their threads.

VR was an aspect of my interest during the late 80's and 90's era. Clearly the technology was not ready for prime time at that time. The Rift is a definite breakthrough in that it brought VR back into the public consciousness. So let us see how it all pans out in the near future.

I have made some single display prototypes, one been a 7 inch and the second 9.6 Ipad 3 display.
The Ipad 3 version was interesting because the visual fidelity was great. However, the draw back (at least for me) was the size and then trying to fit the right optics for it. At the end it all came down to the size which didn't make it practical for me. The 7 Inch was OK, but the resolution clearly isn't as nice as the Ipad variant.

Foisy's InfiniteEye v.1 was a great concept to use as reference since it can split the image on different LCD's. Lost Brains approach is interesting but beyond my tinkering abilities!
So my Portal Dual Hmd derives some aspects closer to the Infinite Eye v.1. I will like to test some optic ideas that derives from Geekmaster suggestion on different threads with some of my own implementations. I wouldn't say there is anything new here, it may be more of an amalgamation.

So the first unit will be a dual 7 inch 1280 x 800 since the components are low price due to the phone market. However, with the Nexus 7 2 @ 1920 x 1200 around the corner, this will likely be the final LCD's on this unit, after the replacement parts are available.


The second unit will probably incorporate a design change from the first including better ergonomics, hopefully. I will update on that after the first prototype is in good working order.

I will include some pictures here of the first prototype.

I will update as I put it together later this week.

Tracker:

Currently I'm testing the Yei 3Space sensor but it isn't working to my linking...at the moment ( Baggyg and Foisy have been of great help with that). More playing around with the calibration, definitely needs it. I do not think I would want to have a large FOV image recklessly jittering all over my face in which can only lead to one thing, and that can not be of any good

Edit: I am including Jake Portal Kid character I drew for fun!

PS. Here is a Youtube video of some early test of the version 2 of Portal Dual
Youtube: [youtube-hd]watch?v=x_X4-xC3y7g[/youtube-hd]

Printing File for the Portal Dual: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:287148/#files

Update:

I have finally taken the time to upload the software and hardware files for the Portal Dual. The software was intended to fit the needs of Ultra Wide FOV HMD's. The Portal engine is an incomplete demo where you can import files and walk around a simple environment. It has the data to synchronize dual display with no noticeable performance issue.

The software is functional but it is not where it should be. The best case scenario is to perfect the visor side of the engine and make into a driver that can be then incorporated to other SDK's such Unity and UDK or any other SDK for that matter.
If not anyone can just take the current form of the engine and continue make it more robust, flexible and easy to use.

I cannot further development but I hope this can be useful to others that have the passion and ambition to help build from it.
The software can be adjusted to work on dual display or single ones, but imputing the proper resolution. I have a dedicated page where you can find the download files.

For the software side there are two things.

1. The Portal Engine= is the engine.

2. The Portal Visualizer= this is the source code.

Link: http://hannibalj2.jimdo.com/

If anybody wants, they can upload it in “Github” for everyone to keep track of the evolution of it.

Please let me know if anyone has any questions.
One thing to keep in mind is that I am not a software engineer, so I will answer the best to my knowledge

Cheers All!

Hello everyone, so here an update from the previous uploaded design. This update is for the 7 incher prototype. This includes some ventilation entries on the front panel, just in case there is any heating. I can not confirm heating will ever be a factor however, light filtering in shouldn't be a problem therefore why not have them, hehe!

I have levers on the side although a little bigger from the previous design for easier finger hold. This should help adjust the distance of the Lcd's in case different users require so. I am not sure entirely of the weigh of the unit... yet, so I will have to comment when the unit is completed.

Below is a render image from the front!

Cheers

Looks fantastic, kudos. I'd love to see it in action.
I'm curious to see how the weight/driver issues would flesh out, but I expect the result will be worthwhile.

How are you going to prototype the body? 3D print?

Thanks Sid!

I will try have some update pics later this week or the next. I have a board version and is good and not heavy, but the internals on the 3D printed one are little different. So I am not so sure what the weigh will be. It is ABS material.

I friend will be printing it for me since my personal 3D printing attempt was not that good

I will post the weigh when I measure it. The key will be to not having the controller boards on the unit.

There may be some interest on using some of this units on a computer department, so I could make a couple of prints of this design. Probably a few guys doing some small research project with computer graphics, will see.

Update: Alesh shared some settings for the YEI Sensor...Thanks Man!!!!!
However, my sensor became unresponsive on two of my workstations. The Yei Suite recognizes the sensor but it fails to move the 3d object on the display. Resetting to factory settings did not help either.

I did noticed yesterday that the sensor was becoming increasingly harder to calibrate (a lot of jitter) on settings that previously worked. Today there is no response at all so I will send the sensor to the shop and see if they can exchange it. To bad i sold my Hillcrest, I could have used that for placeholder for this unit.

I will still update on the unit, but testing with the head tracker will have to wait until i get the tracker fixed.

Cheers!

Just ran across this. Cool project. Interested to see how it turns out. One idea - albeit maybe a little bit hard to swallow would be to pull the tracker out of the Rift. It's one of the best devices available and there is already great software for it. If you are careful you could do this non-destructively but you may not want to risk it.

Haha, I actually though of that!!!....but, I love my RIFT , and it will have it's use for dedicated Rift development. It took 3 plus months to be delivered

I think I rather stick to my own development with non proprietary sensors for diy's. This way anyone can just benefit from what we all create, especially software wise. I think diy hardware is becoming increasingly easier as everyone share their knowledge and there is increasing interest.

If my attempts are not good with the other sensors, I will think of vampiring my lovely, beautiful unit

However, I am sentimental with my toys, hehe

**BTW, I have been inquiring on the NEW Hillscrest FSM-9 sensor that was suppose to be release this month. This is the reply I got from the sales dept. a few hours ago:


We have had some delays getting the FSM-9 into production status; primarily due to manpower resourcing. I understand things are moving again so I would recommend you check back with me in the next few weeks. Everything is done – it just needs to finish QA.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I was thinking on this tracker because it may have greater compatibility with software than the Yei 3Space.

Cheers

So here is another update. I got some of the parts already printed. Unfortunately, my unit is not a priority since is a favor. Therefore it can only be printed after work hours. But my friend sent me some pictures of the components printed.

Here I am including pics of the controller board box cover. I chose to be a dark blue color, but kind of Gray at the same time, if that makes any kind of sense

The other part is made of rubber, and is where the side head straps will be attached to. But looking at it further, they look a little weak. I will have to see if they will stand the weigh of the unit if not I will need to re-design it or change the material.

Well that is it for this update. Look below for two images.

Cheers

Wow, pretty amazing design! Will you post the schematics and parts info after you're done? I'm looking forward to that 7" Nexus 7 2 as well to build my second HMD. I already built a 5.6" version but I'm not too happy with the horizontal FOV, so I feel 7" would be better.

I sure hope you get that YEI sensor working. It's a great tracker, very responsive.

Cheers,

Alesh

Hey Alesh, and thanks for the tracker advice. The shop will send me new one tomorrow so I will need to send the older one as soon as I get it shipped.

I'm still fixing the prototype to get it on a good and comfortable ergonomically.

I will eventually put up the schematics

I hope to shoot a video when I get the components together.

Here is another update!!

So I got more pictures of the controller board box and the rubber head strap.
The remaining body of the unit will be finished by tomorrow. So possibly I will be updating pictures of it then. If not the following day

Well, here are more pictures of the individual components.

Cheers

Here are more pictures of the Controller Board and the rubber piece.

Feel free to comment!

Enjoy!

Very fast progress,

I'm sure two nexus tablets could resolve the screen door effect problem. The resolution is very high, 1920x1200! it is more than a 5inch FHD screen in the oculus HD.
I saw in the pictures that the displays seems to be enclined to a specific angle. If it does, the camera's also have to be aligned at the same angle.
Try to use normal lenses, a freshnel lens is sharp in the middle but the edges are a bit blurrier than in a normal lens.
slide viewer lenses are pretty interesting (monoscopic with plano convex lens, turn the flat side to the eye).

Hey 3dpmaster, welcome to the thread!

At the moment I am sticking with the current LCD's until i can sort out the whole mipi, lvds ordeal. Meaning that many of the newer display are or becoming mipi and not lvds. This is bringing a bit a headache because there is no clear converter solution. There is a thread where they are trying to get this all sort it out for upgrading the Rift display.

I am looking at whether the new Nexus 7 2 display is mipi or lvds.

As far lenses goes, I have a design prototype with the regular optics. I may make a casing that could support both types. It wouldn't be hot swap-able, but it could be designed that the new lenses visor can be screwed in snugly. This prototype doesn't support such capability, although I could tweak the design to do so. This would mean i need to re-print one component

Any suggestion of lenses that you recommend, for the sake of testing?

Hello Everyone,

Here is another update of my HFOV headset. I got more pics from the body of the unit.
The image I am posting shows only the yet to be colored unit. The prototype will share the same color as the control box that you have seen already.

I will take nicer pictures later and post them.
I think I may do a revision to to the visor section. I could elongate the visor glass further back and could provide potentially a larger FOV. I will test this one first. Then I will adjust it if needed. However, I dont want to abuse favors

If the unit fits well however, then I'll keep as it is. Then I'll extend the visor on my next version.

I hope you like it!

Here is another picture update of my HMD.

I got the printed unit and looks nice. I did notice some areas that I can improve on though. I did a quick test and I can roughly tell that the FOV must be around 165-175 degrees. I could probably get 180-200 FOV but I would need to rework the visor and extend to eye periphery level. This could make the design be bulkier so not sure yet If I will do that change.

I have to fix some cables first before I get everything ready and running smoothly.

I will have a re-print of the LCD panel holder. There seem to be some unevenness on the 3d printing that make some alignments troublesome.

Anyway enough talk, here are some update pictures

Enjoy

Looking good man!!

Cool to see how quickly your enclosure is coming together! Keep it up!

@PatimPatam:

Gracias, eres muy amable!

@FlingerFinger:

I most certainly will!

I was doing some test over the weekend with the printed version HMD. I previously did a cardboard version of this design with longer lens visor. The FOV on the cardboard one had a wider FOV, but I felt it was a bit too wide for me ergonomically. Hence that is why I chosed to make them smaller on the printed version. The FOV is not 180 but more like 165-170 horizontal. I have to later calculate all this stuff. I will re-work the visor later for full 180 degrees tentatively.

The view is very wide at the moment and the resolution is great! . I can just imagine the fidelity increase with two 1920x1200 panels. The resolution is the same at the Infinite Eye since it has the the same 2x 1280 x 800. As Foisy mentioned on his thread for his unit, the resolution is considerably better since is 2560 x 800 compared to the Rifts single and split 1280x800.

I did some quick tests. I borrowed one image that Foisy used on his first Infinite Eye ( Foisy I hope you don't mind I used one of you posted images for test ) to quick view on this visor design.

I have been testing with several variation of Focal augmentation, from 60mm to 180mm. The series of picture I will post now have on each eye a slight variation of augmentation
I did screwed up on the right eye, with the center focus of the lenses. I will need to cut new ones and re-test.

I took some picture beside the straight shots like angled toward the floor and up to the ceiling. This is to show that there is no borders while you are immerse with the visor. Not all is perfect , so there is more tinkering around, so come back for update .

**Note: For those who wander the pixel density, some of this images should give you a good indication if zooming in closely.
I used the office EOS 5D Mark 3 for this pictures (although I'm a lousy photographer )***

Anyway here are some pictures.

Enjoy!

This is looking really good. Its really awesome to see people working on higher and higher FOV HMD's. The Rift is a great next step, but a 160+ degree FOV would be way less claustrophobic.

Thanks for the compliment

I would certainly love to have 180+ degrees of vision, and with some tinkering around is doable. Now, another question started to crawl in my brain regarding form factor. I could make some changes to widen the FOV, but the unit would become potentially bigger. I think 160+ is pretty good already honestly speaking.

I may take a knack at even wider FOV later, who knows!

Do you have a picture of the optics you are using?

I am using Fresnel lenses. I have tried aspheric ones, but I didn't get the wide FOV I wanted. Fresnel worked pretty well and painlessly. I don't have them stacked matching with equal magnification at the moment. Having mismatching magnification stacks can give slight different effects. This however will depend from person to person, so they must experiment by matching to their liking.

I have included a cut version of my HMD of 180mm and one 90mm uncut.

What is the eye relief on the faceplate with the lenses installed? Good work, by the way!

Eye relief meaning how comfortable looking through the visor without eyestrain? If that is the case, there are a few factors that will attribute to reduce eyestrain. Currently, my results tell me that is a mixed of physical adjustment and software adjustment.

Physical, because you need to get the lens focal center with the proper IPD to keep the convergence image comfortable. The software, to correct any potential distortion. A proper plug-in/software written pre-wrap would help contribute to solve those and give an overall more comfortable viewing experience in tandem with the physical tweaking of the optics.

Geeksmaster can probably share a much conclusive analytical information on this regard since i followed his thread for reference .

BTW, I am following your thread on Positional tracking and it looks very promising indeed!!!

Wow! Looking really good Hannibalj2. Very interesting design.

Hey Thanks Bishop51!!! Hope you can give it a spin some day once all is finished and in good working order!
I'm re-designing the visor, this should increase the FOV to 180+ degrees...I hope!

Cheers

Hello everyone, so here is another update. I am re-designing the unit which is now prototype version 2. Version one is good and it will have its uses. I am moving into a re-vision to address some issues that can be improved from version 1 design.

One of main changes will be lowering the weigh, since version one came to about 436 grams. That is excluding the 2 LCD's, tracker, cables etc.... I am aiming at keeping the new unit at low 300's grams without LCD's.

I did noticed that oleds displays are much lighter...but, they are all mipi. I have not been successful finding converters from mipi 4 lane to hdmi.

I will make a few adjustments to the visor as well, like extending the optics to be wider. Also i will eliminate the eye dividers from version one. There will be a thin divider within the body of the unit but not on the visor. The reason is because although the view is nice and wide, there is a slight blur between the two eyes because of it. The best example of this is to place a finger between both eyes.


Anyway, I am posting an outdated re-design to share. I'm still working on it and will update further later on.

Cheers

Another update, I got my supposedly fixed Yei 3Space sensor this past Friday...but is it was not fixed
I am not sure if the people at the distributing shop have the ability check problems and fix this chips.

The sensor does not seem to apply settings after saving them. In any case I sent it back...again

Well I little more waiting I suppose.

Here is another update to the HMD

The following design is the version 2 which attempts to have even higher FOV of version one 160 degrees.
I am not sure until i get all the components and do some test of course.

In any case I will write more of the details as I get the new components.

It is clear that some parts of the design have been moderately streamlined. The finger holders where slightly extended outward so not to rub the plastic.
I cut the length of the body in order to be closer to the face, this should give a better center of gravity as well (Will see later on this)
The holders where also lowered to the middle of the unit so the push and pulling is equal.
The sides of the visor were extended from 30mm to 50mm from the glass so it conceals more of the outside light.
The paint will be different this time around as well.

Below are the newest refined design images of the Portal Dual HMD. **Not the final name though hehe, just a place holder for now **

I hope you guys like it.

Cheers

Looks sick, keep up the good work!
The pixel size must be enormous with that FOV?

Hey Cyber!!

Actually now the resolution is considerably better than the Rift. This is because it is using dual display set up for a total of 2560 pixels horizontal compared to the Rift's 640.

However, because the images are partially overlapped the total amount isn't really 2560 pixels (this will depend of how much overlap of the image is set up on software). But the pixel density is better than the Rift currently.

I'm sure the HD Rift will be awesome though, can't wait!!!

Actually, the Rift has 1280 pixels horizontally.

Hello Palmer! I stand corrected then!

hellow Hannibalj2,

I 've revaluated the essential use of a fresnel.

In between my complex curved mirror research, studying the purpose of a curved spherical fresnel looks very promissing (inspiration from Geekmaster: viewtopic.php?f=138&t=16373#p99408). Although, there is no factory that could built those, but it has a huge potential: it is compact, lightweight, has a short focal length and a great eye relief.
In some way, a credit card fresnel is flexible enough to bend over 60 degrees or more to cover the entire fov per eye. However, I saw the focal plane is not flat anymore
I still hope to find a curved fresnel lens somewhere.
If it does, two fresnel lenses per eye could do the job. (hopefully )

It will be interesting when the new flexible lcd's become available. This can open a new can of worms of possibilities. Curved Fresnels are possible, it just the incentive isn't there...yet. The next few years could be a new renaissance for VR

Hello everyone, I just got the print of the version two prototype. The unit is lighter at 330 grams and ergonomically more comfortable.

I did a quick test placing the tip of my finger at the glass border. If looking straight forward, the finger's tip can not be seen even when waggling them up and down. So I will say that the FOV is about 180-190 degrees FOV estimate. This was a ghetto test though just to get the sense of the newer wider visor. However, if the eyes are turned toward the sides, then you will be able to see about 1 cm of border. I have an idea of how to solve this but I can not confirm it will work though.

I will say that at least successfully it will deliver 180+ degrees of vision. A later more proper measurement will need to be made. Software will be needed to correct the edge distortion, without this the test results will not be optimal. But I should get a good indication of what it will look at the end.

I have not put the unit together yet, so everything is subject to speculation. I did take pictures of the new refined casing and I will include pictures here.

Until the next update.

Another great high FOV HMD project! However, while I think that using two large display panels at an angle to achieve higher FOV is a good idea, it is both more expensive and heavier than a single display panel, so wonder if I could make a couple of design-change suggestion, one small design-change suggestion, and one design-change suggestion;

What about instead use FLEXIBLE display panel(s) as bendable to make a smoothly curvature to wraparound your head?

I have previously posted suggestions around this in Oculus Rift development forum with more ideas and links, see: https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/v ... =26&t=1197

The ideas posted I posted in Oculus Rift development forum was to use only one display panel similar current Oculus Rift DevKit, but instead, the flexible display panel would bend in a half-circle curved partially around you head.

That way the HMD headset shell as a whole could achieve a much more sleek profile, the outside of the HMD could then look more like the very first Oculus Rift shell design concept.


Though to build much further on that simple idea on just using flexible display panels istead of standard flat display panels, the extended idea suggestion that I have with using such flexible display panel is that you could choose to use a single larger panel (maybe 7"/8"-inch) with 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio, or two of them side-by-side fr higher FOV, or my most interesting idea I have here is that you could get a custom size panel manufactured that have a much wider 2.39:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratio instead, so that it will be easier to use only a single flexible display panel that still have a very large horizontal FOV, and it would be easier to bend with a smooth curvature as it wraps around your head in the HMD shell.

Using a such single wider flexible display panel with 2.39:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratio (and wide-lenses to match) instead of a single 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio panel like the current Oculus Rift DevKit would yeald a much larger horizontal FOV, much like your current Portal Dual HMD prototype that uses two standard 1080p 5"/6"-inch 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio panels next to each other side-by-side on the width to double horizontal FOV.

However by only a single wider flexible display panel 2.39:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratio instead (and wide-lenses to match) to achieve a larger horizontal FOV would be a much simpler design, and possibly therefor much cheaper to manufacture too.


Coincidentally, Samsung have just now announced a contest specifically for flexible display ideas and future business plans!
http://samsungflexiblefuture.prizelogic.com/

Samsung's content could be a great opportunity for Portal Dual to get Samsung to make a custom (Youm series) flexible display panel for Portal Dual HMD! Samsung just does not know what business markets to aim their flexible display panels at, so they are there for holding a contest for ideas! Winning this contest (with a new Portal Dual HMD prototype?) for flexible display in a HMD would be great press for Portal Dual.


Some more information about Samsung's content is posted here on these news sites:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/14/sams ... y-contest/
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung- ... ay_id46381

Even if you never manage to get a display manufacturer like Samsung to make a custom wider flexible display panel with 2.39:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratio made up so that you could only use a single panel instead of two panels side-by-side, you could still enter Samsung's competition with your idea with the current Portal Dual HMD prototype of two panels side-by-side but instead extend the idea of using two flexible display panels side-by-side to make a smoothly curvature to wraparound your head in an HMD, instead of standard flat display panels side-by-side at an angle in a HMD. As personally I am still convinced that in the long run if you want to make it less expensive for mass-market appeal then using only a single display panel display (like the Oculus Rift DevKit) is currently the best way forward for keeping the manufacturing price per headset down as much as possible.

I think of it like this regarding getting a custom size wider flexible display panel with 2.39:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratio made up; with the Oculus VR existing early success today with their Oculus Rift DevKit almost single-handily resurrecting the Virtual Reality HMD market as cheap commercial gaming peripheral products for personal use at home, and more upcoming competing products like InfinitEye (and maybe Portal Dual HMD too) are sure to arrive soon, this will create a new market for display panel manufacturers like Samsung, a new market should want them want to get in on that market early in order to sell display panels to those companies that will create and mass-produce thse future VR HMD. So I bet that if Oculus VR, as a now small but famous start-up company they are today, came to Samsung now and ask them to over the next one-years period manufacture for example one million of such wider flexible display panels with 2.39:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratio, then they would be offered a fair purchase price for those.


More on Samsung "YOUM" series of flexible OLED / AMOLED displays here:
http://www.oled-info.com/samsung-youm


In addition take note and remember that these types of bendable displays are initially designed to be bended and wrap around a mobile device, like wraparound a curved smart-phone, a smart-watch or smart-bracelet, or other devices, and there are nothing to say that that these devices would not be VR HMD. And at least LG and Samsung have announced that devices will be already released this year with their own flexible OLED / AMOLED display panels to the technology should be ready now.


Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and LG are all said to be working on flexible OLED / LCD display panels for mobile devices.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/05/20/ ... d-screens/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/lg-5 ... -hands-on/
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/19/lg-5 ... ible-oled/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiwelxWG67E

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/sams ... prototype/
http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/sams ... prototype/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pcJh3yi7ZU

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/01/shar ... -sid-2012/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hon10ZAteF8

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/26/sony ... our-heart/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OvTLg4i2_U

Would it be possible to get the files you used to print these? Really interested in printing one myself