People Really Want That Other Scary-Cool Virtual Reality Headset, Huh?

Small screens inches away from your eyes. Light beamed
directly at your retinas. At this rate, the next war for cutting-edge display
supremacy will be happening on your face. Sometime in the near future, the
headgear showdown is going to be the Oculus Rift vs. the just-funded-twice-over
Avengant Glyph. Ophthalmologists of the world, prepare!

We last saw this tech back in October, when it was dubbed as
the
Virtual Retinal Display. A new, sleeker prototype was shown off when a
Kickstarter campaign launched two days ago and, faster than you can Double Fine Adventure, the hybrid headphone/display
device blew past its funding goal. They asked for $250,000 and are currently at $552,207.

https://lastchance.cc/the-slightly-terrifying-alternative-to-oculus-rift-1444669803%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

Avegant’s promising that the Glyph will have built-in head
tracking, which atches a feature added to the newest Crystal Cove iteration of the Oculus
Rift that Valve’s getting behind in a
big way. The built-in audio solution, though, makes the Glyph more of an
all-in-one device than the Rift.

Of course, consumer versions of both of these devices are
still a ways off and who knows if they’ll deliver on all of their promises.
Still, it’s my prediction that the coming Glyph vs. Rift Wars—which sounds like
something Kilgore Trout would write—will leave a small but fervent subset of early
adopters with bruised wallets and dangerously exhausted eyeballs. Then, decades
later, people will stop talking to each other entirely.

Where do I sign up?