Wireless virtual reality will eventually arrive, but consumers need to be patient

The famous technology website CNET wrote an article today pointing out that virtual reality (VR) urgently needs wireless support. Although VR devices that support wireless networking have been unveiled at this year's CES and have caused a great response, ordinary consumers still need to wait patiently for a while. This article was written by Scott Stein, a senior editor of CNET. He has focused on the technology, gaming and entertainment industries for 15 years. He personally experienced a VR helmet that supports wireless networking at the CES. The original article is as follows:

I put on a Vive VR headset and a rifle appeared in my hand. I stood in an empty room, ready to fight several waves of attackers. I saw enemies coming from all directions, I lowered my head, aimed, and ran to a wall to hide. This experience was so exciting and exciting, and it might be the best time I felt during CES.

All because I was enjoying these experiences without the distraction of wires.

Wireless keys are already available on the market (if you are willing to pay for them)

TPCast has developed a wireless adapter for the Vive virtual reality headset, and it really works. The product, which will be available in the second quarter of this year, can connect a PC to the Vive headset and transmit audio and video data, thus cutting off the last link between the virtual reality headset and the real world around it.

It's the best wireless VR product I've ever seen, and it turns the Vive headset into a true holodeck experience. But you need to spend $300 to buy a Vive virtual reality headset, and you also need a separate battery pack, which is essential. You can buy two battery capacities, one for 2 hours and the other for 5 hours.

TPCast's solution is just one of several wireless VR solutions coming to market this year. KwikVR will also release a wireless adapter for Oculus/Vive headsets this year. (I didn't get a chance to try out KwikVR's wireless adapter at CES, though.) These wireless adapters build on existing hardware, but they work really well. I didn't feel any lag, and being completely free of wires completely changed the experience of VR. I still felt a bit suffocated when wearing a VR headset, but it was easier and more natural than before.

All I keep thinking is when will this be built into an actual headset? Last year's wireless PC VR solution was a backpack PC. This year's wireless VR solution is an expensive wireless adapter. There may not be a better solution anytime soon. More advanced technologies like WiGig that can handle this level of wireless video and data traffic are not yet available in this category, and it's unclear what kind of battery capacity will be required to integrate this powerful wireless technology into a headset.

Mobile Wireless: Increased Portability

In the mobile VR space, wireless solutions have been available for a long time. You plug in your phone and you're ready to go. But mobile VR solutions can't yet pinpoint the user's position, or achieve "six degrees of freedom." That means you can't lean forward or move around. With a Gear VR or Daydream device, you can only sit still and turn your head at best. But when Google 's depth-sensing Tango camera is combined with the Daydream View VR app in phones like the Asus Zenfone AR, you can walk around with your mobile VR device. Qualcomm 's new Snapdragon processor, customized for mobile VR, can also enable the mobility of mobile VR solutions.

In Qualcomm's Power Rangers demo, you can still move around. If I can walk around wearing a cheap phone VR headset, I'll be happy. The experience isn't great, but at least it works.

Wearing your entire PC on your head: Intel's Project Alloy

In more advanced PC and console VR solutions, wireless solutions are more complicated because all the data processing is done in a big box instead of on your face.

So how about packaging it all together and putting it in a VR headset?

Intel has a lot of plans for VR and AR, from making VR content like immersive 3D videos to Project Alloy, which aims to create a headset that uses built-in cameras to capture data from the real world and then mix it with virtual reality.

Project Alloy is not the same as Microsoft's HoloLens. Alloy does not have the perspective and image projection capabilities of HoloLens, which project images as if they are floating above the real world. Alloy looks like a normal virtual reality helmet, without the perspective function. And it looks bulky. But Alloy is a full Windows PC equipped with Intel's Kaby Lake chip, which is compatible with Windows Holographic. After Windows 10 is next upgraded later this year, Microsoft's cross-platform solution Windows Holographic will support a variety of VR, AR and mixed reality devices. Alloy may become a design template for mixed reality helmets based on Windows hardware.

I tried a simple shooting game at CES in Las Vegas. In the game, I was on a sci-fi planet, running around a small base, holding a small wireless remote control in my hand, aiming and shooting drones flying in the air. Project Alloy can use its built-in cameras and sensors to track the path I walked, providing a six-degree-of-freedom experience through its camera, tilt sensor, and rotation sensor.

Alloy was also able to scan my room with its cameras and then port my furniture into VR. But it didn't seem to be able to do that in real time. The room scan was done before I started the experience, and I entered a pre-prepared demo room with a table and a set of couches that Intel had set up. Even so, when the various objects in VR showed up, they were just polygonal blobs of light that didn't look like real objects at all. I didn't think it could dynamically blend the real world with VR. As a wireless demo, Project Alloy didn't seem to care about delivering nearly as smooth VR images as the Vive or Oculus Rift. That's not surprising, since Alloy's graphics processing power isn't as good as a VR-capable desktop PC.

But it gave me a whole new appreciation for the capabilities of the HoloLens, Microsoft's wireless, standalone mixed-reality headset that Microsoft made available to developers a few months ago. The headset does a great job of blending VR graphics and games with the real world, and it can track your movements in the real or virtual world.

You may not be able to experience wireless VR yet

Wireless VR is still in the exploratory stage this year, but I haven't seen any signs that it's ready to appear in official products yet. However, many companies are clearly working in this direction.

There are signs that this will change this year, and TPCast's wireless adapter could be a magical solution for many people. But you'll need to buy an expensive adapter, have a lot of patience, and be prepared to try out a new phone or device.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.