Does the VIVE System use Optical Infinity?

[SecretYam]

I ask because my son is doing vision therapy and I asked if he could play a VR system. They said it would be ok for him if the system uses Optical Infinity. I believe it has to do with the headset and how the eyes adjust to the pictures.

 

Thank you in advanced!

SecretYam

[HackPerception]

,

 

This turns out to be a rather complex question - you can get into a real rabbit hole trying to research this. In a mathmatical sense, the lens focus at infinity but in real-world practice alot of people report that the focal distance is equivalent ~1.4-3m depending on the HMD and their testing methodology. We don't really publish a focal distance because it's not a super cut and dry number due to how human preception works.

 

For instance, I'm nearsighted and see distance better in the HMD than in real-life so it certainly isn't focusing at infinity. If I alter the distance the lenses are from my eyes, I start to replicate what my vision is like IRL. 

[CaTaPulT]

The best bet would be for him to try a VR headset and see how well he can see, and if he sees fine in a particular brand of headset, get THAT headset since from my experience with multiple VR headsets, each one of them has different lens qualities for MY eyes. Some I can see fine without using my eye glasses, others not so much. Good luck and hope you find what you are looking for.

Regards: Jack

[Curiosity]

@VibrantNebulado you have any links to the testing of the focal/focus distance as I'd like to research this more (and my online searches aren't really coming up with much except for some reddit discussions)? I switch between using different headsets and systems and I'm having issues with this because of my eyesight. I wear varifocal glasses and so only a sliver of my vision is in focus. I'd like to buy some fixed focal glasses that will work with most of the headsets but to do this I'd like to figure out what the focal/focus distance is for all the headsets. Will share with the forum once I have that information.

Thanks for any help you can give with this. 

[HackPerception]

@Curiosity - No, I don't have any resources of the kind available.

I don't know alot about aftermarket prescription vision inserts for HMDs but my general understanding is that you'd have to have a lens insert that's optimized for the specific HMD you're using it to, otherwise you'll get barrel distortion (straight lines will start curving). In the least, I'd suspect that you'd need HMD optimized frames to mount a common lens but I generally think that you'd probably need an optimized insert for each HMD type.

I've never purchased aftermarket inserts myself, I have some smaller circular glasses I keep around for smaller headsets. My understanding from reading community threads is that https://vroptician.com/ has the reputation for having distortion free lenses - I would recommend reaching out to them and asking them what their thoughts are on your specific use-case as they're going to be more specialized in this sort of thing.