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The Marvel VR Headset — The Virtual Reality headset that can replace your laptop
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@adammydesign We put extra accelerometers and gyroscopes to make the experience better in our headset. And we're making 2 announcements in the next week or two which shows more benefits of the hardware 😄 If you have any more questions let me know 😄
@erikfinman @adammydesign You should make those announcements, because right now I don't see anything justifying $100 besides the app itself. The hardware seems like a glorified Google Cardboard. And you mention additional accelerators and gyroscopes.. How do these cooperate with the phone?
@erikfinman @adammydesign Agreed. I'm also looking forward to your announcements. I think you're definitely on to something--it's inevitable that VR / AR will be used in our work lives, and in other ways for productivity. I'd like to see where this project goes!
As some have pointed out, it doesn't seem to "stand out" quite enough yet, but honestly, no other company is focused on productivity in VR specifically, and maybe if you keep that focus, you'll solve very different problems.
Ping us here when you've made those announcements! :D
I don't get it. My Android phone can't replace my laptop, so why does adding a headset solve that problem? The screen isn't ever the issue with Android. I can buy an external monitor or hook my phone to my TV. It seems to be solving an issue no one is complaining about. Adding extra sensors to the device isn't going to solve the issue either.
Oh god. That product video was entirely broken. Awesome idea but wow, you should seriously fix that. Hire the guys that made the 1Password and Slack commercials. They know what's what.
@mblode I love the video on Rex haha from @lonelysandwich
I cringe thinking about people wearing VR headsets in public places (like a coffee shop) - but I know its inevitable ha!
Instead of having the 'tabs', would be awesome to have one screen - minority report style - with floating browsing windows (like Helium so you can actually do work while watching a movie, while 'on the beach' :)
@mblode Sandwich video is extremely expensive. Not only are they exclusive, they don't even accept every client.
@mblode lol, why would they spend $20k+ on an Indiegogo video? I think it worked just fine.
Hey team, congratulations on launching! Just had some quick thoughts:
- I think you should state more clearly what Marvel is. At first glance, I don't know if you're selling just a headset that needs an Android phone, or a headset that has screen incorporated and works right out of the box, or a hybrid of the two. This isn't clear from the video.
- Here's what I think it is, after looking through your comments in this page: a headset (like Samsung VR and others), but with added gyroscope/accelerometers, that connects through Bluetooth to my existing Android phone. On top of that, you offer a software layer for my Android phone that acts as a launcher/window manager, that allows me to switch between the different apps in the phone, and it allows me to customize a background for the switcher (the beach, etc.). Is that correct?
- If so, I think the value of the product could be interesting, but the video doesn't convey that very well. I think you need to explain very clearly how is this different from every other headset (including the $15 headsets in Amazon), and why having the gyroscope/accelerator in the headset is better than not having it. What does the software layer look like? You install it and that's it? How does it behave when it's not inside the headset / does it override my existing launcher (Aviate, etc.)? I would skip the shaky camera introduction and the "places" approach of having different actors wear the product in different locations, and focus entirely on what the product is and does. A simple *demo* video that goes from unboxing to using it can go a long way, and it will clearly show what this product is about (even at a prototype stage where things don't look as polished, people are pretty good at extrapolating the value of works in progress).
Antonio
So the reason coding or working in VR isn't possible yet is because VR screen resolution is too low for reading text like we do with normal computer monitors. Reading their description and watching their video didn't make it seem apparent on how they were going to solve this problem.
@kay0stheory Hello! We make the text larger so it's more readable. I have no problem reading in VR with large text when I make sure the lenses are focused correctly. And I've tested this with about a dozen people who said the same thing. If you have a Google cardboard you can open that and read text well in that app. 😄 Let me know if you have any more questions!
Hello everyone! We're excited to show everyone on Product Hunt this VR headset. It allows you to run our software on your phone and put it into our VR headset which has sensors to help track head position. This costs just $95 ONLY for Product Hunt backers. And we've got a new announcement for the IndieGoGo once a week for each week of the IndieGoGo so stay tuned.
I've been working on this for about a year. I'm hugely passionate about virtual reality, but right now it's not practical or accessible for the common person.
I'm known for making a $100,000 on a Bitcoin investment I made at 15, and previously launching educational software called Botangle, which I'm an excited to announce an exciting conclusion for that business next week. :)
Is Android the right platform for this? Even if it can handle dozens of browser windows, the IDEs and tools available for computers are just much more powerful.
@rajington We want to make it portable and accessible to everyone so you don't need an $1800 setup ($1000 computer and $800 Vive) and expensive software. And you can do a lot with Android.
@erikfinman But I'm worried the reason you need a $1000 computer is because the hardware in a cheaper computer just isn't good enough, even with the latest Android phones doing anything like gaming WHILE doing anything else is probably out of the question, and anything about SD video might be out of the question as well. That's been my experience with playing around with Android multitasking on higher end tablets (to try to predict what phones might be like when this launches). SD video and low framerate games are fine, but enough video memory to hold updating multiple windows with little lag is an issue. At the very least I would consider writing an Android app that hooks up with desktop software that simulates multiple desktops (like OS X Spaces or BetterDesktopTool/Dexpot on Windows). The server app could send low frame-rate desktop updates to the app and the goggles/app could change the active desktop with the accelerometer.
@rajington From my prototype, it works really well. You can run 3 applications at once and it doesn't stutter. That's a great idea though. I'll be looking into that. Thank you :)
I'm curious as to how this competes with a $99 GearVR. I understand you have your own set of sensors, but you're still limited by the Android OS. Part of the misconception of the GearVR is that it's nothing more than an over-glorified google cardboard, but it in fact has better resolution sensors and coupled with the Oculus SDK gets lower level access to the Android kernel. Without bypassing the awful buffering on Android your sensors are limited by the display drivers, so it's unlikely you'll hit <20ms latency. In that case why not just use a standard cardboard or similar viewer? Unless you're working with a manufacturer to develop a customer kernel driver like Oculus has with Samsung or you're asking people to root their phones how will you get around this?
In the IndieGogo video there was no hint at plugging in the phone to the headset so how does the custom sensor data get to it?
Why not just build this desktop-esque app for the GearVR which has solved the hardware issues?
@sayangel Thanks for commenting and great questions! You plug it right now and we didn't show it in the video because it doesn't look pretty in our prototype and will look much nicer in the final version. We also want to see if we can do it without the need for plugging it in. We have a basic version running where you do have to root your phone as right now it's an app but it reaches the limits of what Android can do without the need for rooting the phone, so we want to be prepared for expanding outside of an app.
In an upcoming announcement we'll explain more why we're building our own hardware. And it involves adding more hardware to the device.
Fantastic questions and it's fantastic talking to another VR expert :)
Congrats on the launch.
However I just don't see people wanting to strap something to their face to work. I can't see my mouse, keyboard, mic, cup, take a note, use my phone, etc, etc
Something like this completely isolates you from your surroundings and isn't close to practical. Augmented I could see making more sense.
For me I would download an app and playing around with it but couldn't imagine more than that.
I'm not convinced that people want to be quite this attached to their work. One of the nice things about a monitor is that I can just lean back or turn my head and not look at it for a bit. Here, I would have to remove headgear just to rest my eyes for a second or two.
@rajington Agree with you. Seems need need stable OS to handle heavy works.
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