I tried both the ‘Lynx R1 Headset’ & the ‘pico neo 3’ VR. Both with Ultraleap hand tracking & both powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR 2 processor. I now think Mixed Reality is going to replace our mobile phones in 2-3 years.
At AWE in June 2022 I tried the Lynx R1 Mixed Reality headset & the “pico neo 3” Virtual Reality headsets. Both featured Ultraleap Hand Tracking. Both are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset. Using both left me with two big impressions 1. Hand tracking is ready to replace controllers & 2. Mixed Reality is going to replace our phones soon in the next few years.
Article by Micah Blumberg: for info about Micah to follow like & share vrma.io
The Lynx R1 is an upcoming next generation Mixed Reality Headset for both AR & VR Experiences. The “pico neo 3” is a VR headset with Ultraleap hand tracking. The build quality of the pico neo 3 is even better than the Meta Quest 2 (as has been noted by other journalists.). These headsets both use the Snapdragon XR2 Processor, and the user experience with UltraLeap Hand tracking is good enough that it is clear now to this journalist that Mixed Reality will replace our mobile phones in 2–3 years. Not in five years.
Wearable computer interfaces, from companies like Lynx, Magic Leap, and Meta Cambria might be the tech in your phone in 2–3 years. I can imagine putting on my Lynx R1 to do what I normally do on a phone. Once you try the Lynx R1 the idea that this is going to be the future of mobile communications globally makes a lot of sense.
My opinion is that Lynx made the right bet when they bet on hand tracking for the User Interface.
Before the Augmented Reality Expo in June 2022 I was imagining that Meta’s Project Cambria was going to position Meta to dominate the future of the Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality Metaverse. After attending the AWE2022 I realized Meta’s numerous competitors are making devices that are just as capable of being huge hits as Meta’s Cambria. The Lynx R1 is a primetime example of the fact that it’s not going to be so easy for Meta to dominate the Metaverse.
The Lynx R1 is small, it’s light weight, and the hand tracking performance with Ultraleap technology is spot on.
Micah from SVGN.IO News tries Lynx R1: My first impressions of an upcoming next generation Mixed Reality Headset
The Lynx R1 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor, with 6 GB LPDDR5, 128 GB plus a micro SD card slot, it runs Android 10 & Unity3D. It’s a mobile all in one VR & AR headset that also can be plugged into the computer.
From Inside the Lynx Mixed Reality headset it looks like this. This is close to what I saw at AWE2022 The Augmented World Expo.
Actually this video by MRTV is even closer to what I experienced.
With major companies like Meta, Google & Microsoft fully supporting OpenXR it will be easy for developers to port their VR & AR applications to the Lynx R1. With a device like this you will see applications that are only on the Hololens 2 or Magic Leap 2 for example make their way to the Lynx R1, as well as apps from Meta Quest developers. So you will get VR and AR apps ported from other hardware platforms on the Lynx R1.
At $599 this is a good enough price point for society to start thinking about this class of devices as the beginning of the next generation mobile communications device, replacing the mobile phone, but you are getting what you pay for. You should know that it’s not a $3000 display like something you would get in the Magic Leap 2, but it’s still really good. The resolution experience of the Lynx R1 is good enough to be in a mobile communications device I would use everyday to do all of my communications if I had such a device like I am imagining after having tried this. The resolution is written out as dual 1600x1600 LCD@90Hz and in my first impression I would say don’t expect this to look as good as the resolution experience of something like the Magic Leap 2.
Pico neo 3 with Ultraleap Hand tracking
I also tried the PICO VR Headset at AWE2022. The build quality on the Pico is really nice compared to the Meta Quest and it’s light weight.
With addition of UltraLeap Hand tracking the Pico Neo has the potential to be a powerful communications device for accessing the Virtual Reality Metaverse. I hope & expect that ‘pico neo 4’ will include high resolution color cameras & eye tracking for high resolution (foveated rendering) mixed reality passthrough experiences. This competition in the Mixed Reality & Virtual Reality space is good for innovation, costs, retail prices, and the consumer.
At AWE2020 I got to hold in my hands one of the early prototypes that merges OpenBCI technology with the Varjo Aero VR headset. I recently created a news story about the Varjo Reality Cloud that included a video of myself trying out the Varjo’s Mixed Reality experience, not for the first time.
I think of Meta’s Cambria (the next generation AR VR device from Meta known for the Meta Quest2 VR headset) as a device that takes an all in one VR Virtual Reality headset like the Meta Quest 2 and then adds high resolution color cameras on the outside and eye tracking cameras on the inside so that they can use the video of the real world to create a Mixed Reality experience.
My overriding conclusion after attending AWE the Augmented World Expo this year is that I think that all of these devices are going to replace our phones in the next few years. Sooner rather than later.
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