Why do VR and AR headsets hate prescription glasses?

Here’s what our colleague at CNET.com thought after testing HTC’s new Vive XR Elite headset.

I attended the launch of HTC’s new Vive XR Elite headset at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas, ready to experience the VR glasses. the smallest and the most consistent with mixed reality I’ve ever seen. Well, I tried. I was asked to remove my glasses because – don’t worry, I was told – these devices have their own own adjustment buttons recipe inside. I knew what was going to happen next because I had seen this story happen over and over again.

XR Elite stands -6. – I’m at 8.25. In medical terms, this means that my extreme myopia is not supported.

So I played fuzzy VR until I tried to fit my big glasses in with some success… which only hurt my face.

Everyone wants big, bulky, weird VR and AR hardware to shrink. ordinary glasses. It has a capacity. If you do, then they now become your glasses. If they are your glasses, they must fit your prescription.

Ever since the arrival of Google Glass, I’ve been trying to open the puzzle box of wearable eye gear. I have very bad myopia. I like wearing glasses. In 2013, I had to wear a lens to test Google Glass.

Inside the Vive XR Elite: Prescription adjustments allow for a wide range of vision to fit…but not wide enough for me.

My eyes are not designed for VR and AR

I’ve written about this before, several times actually. However, I was given a reprieve during the virtual reality era of 2016-22. Learned VR equipment step over my glasses, which allowed me to try out all kinds of technologies (even HoloLens 2 and Meta Quest Pro) and experience them very accurately. Some headsets still support the glasses well: the Lynx-R1, a mixed reality headset I just tested, single opening cover it was perfect for me and my big glasses. The PlayStation VR 2 is also perfectly designed to meet my visual needs large rubberized area where can i put my glasses

But, at least for me, I feel a challenge coming. At CES 2023, I brought smaller glasses that better fit the VR headset, but no contact lenses. I didn’t want to stick my fingers in my eye at a super show spreading the flu and COVID. Would you do it? I knew things could get weird. And yes, it turns out there are plenty of goggles and helmets on the way prescription supplements Now. And most of them lid -8below what I need.

This happened with Magic Leap 2. It happened with Vuzix. This happened with TCL with a VR headset. Should I become a contact lens specialist now?

No doubt my problem is with my very poor eyesight and it happens at shows where the correct prescription is not guaranteed to fit. The future of helmet prescription services is rapidly shaping up. Getting the right lenses can be easy. But that still means I have to buy new lenses for every helmet I wear (universal fit seems unlikely). It also means I won’t be able to test the gear unless it magically has what I need.

I tested TCL’s new AR glasses in Vegas. They have prescription lenses, but at least in the demo area they didn’t quite fit my needs. I’m always a little off.

You may have the same problem

This is perhaps a bigger issue than my tech reporter complaints about the demo. The Vive XR Elite was a deliberate step down the path of downsizing, and I’m told that the concern over the higher prescription level actually was isolated problem. Perhaps companies are trying to make their hardware smaller at all costs, hoping that the lens problem will be solved when it finally hits the mass market in a few years. Meanwhile, I see a future where there will be hardware more expensive and less accessible. This is not a good combination for an industry that tries not to scare people.

If reports are to be believed that its VR and AR headsets will also be prescription add-ons, Apple may face the same problem. Apple is interested in finding a solution. It would make sense for the company to be like Warby Parker and literally turn Apple Stores into optical stores like North did with Focals glasses before it was acquired by Google.

Conventional optical shops are not the solution. Even if Meta’s Ray Ban Stories are sold at LensCrafters, they cannot be repaired to replace lenses. I do know this: I tested it with the prescription lenses that Meta sent me to try. I was rejected.

I just hope things get better because I’m worried about how I’ll experience the next wave of VR/AR devices if I can’t wear them. Although I am an isolated case, I know I will not be alone.

CNET.com article translated by CNET France