In the world of virtual reality, there are certain limitations engineers need to take into account. A company can make the best HMD available on the market today, yet still disregard important aspects such as blind spots. It is impossible to fix areas in which a human eye cannot see by using technology, no matter how advanced it is. In fact, improperly dealing with blind spots in VR could cause some serious issues.
Blind Spots Need To Be Addressed, Even in VR
No one will be surprised to find out the human eye can’t see everything. If all of us were born with 360-degree vision, things would look very different in our society. Unfortunately, we are limited to 180-degree vision at best, even though it is nearly impossible to achieve that as well. This is due to the so-called blind spots, areas in which the human eye cannot see. This is native to human nature, and not even VR technology can fix it.
More specifically, VR headset manufacturers need to be aware of these blind spots at all times. In a lot of cases, manufacturers will cut off HMD displays to avoid these blind spot areas altogether. Doing so has another beneficial effect, as it reduces the required amount of processing power. In fact, one could say blind spots are beneficial to VR technology is an odd way.
What is even more intriguing is how blind spots can also become visible due to the VR hardware itself.More specifically, there are always areas on a VR headset where images cannot be displayed. That may sound strange but it is native to the technology being used right now. Future generations of HMDs may not suffer from similar drawbacks, though. Then again, some lower-end VR headsets may create blind spots due to inferior engineering and technology.
To put this into perspective, a VR headset’s blind spot becomes visible when one looks past the edges of the display. Proper VR headsets will prevent users from doing so. Cheaper models, on the other hand, may not be as restrictive in this regard. There is nothing more annoying than being able to see over the top or under the bottom of a display, that much is certain.
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