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Ergo Josh

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“It’s so much better than what most people think,” Peddie huffed. “It’s not as dark and devious as Black Watch - https://tinyurl.com/1ekizmqw - and certainly isn’t like Bliss - https://tinyurl.com/4v79rhlv - that requires red/blue pills to hop between the worlds.” Both Peddie and Poppin said the pandemic has been good for VR producers. Peddie estimates that stand-alone VR headset sales grew about 30 percent last year and added that sales/use would have been even greater if the better-quality headsets (more expensive) hadn’t been on backorder most of the year because of chip/manufacturing challenges. Because of, or in spite of, the CES announcements and upbeat news surrounding VR; Peddie has a theory about the technology. “Remember when people used to talk about video conferencing at the turn of the century – it was always going to be a big market – someday …. and then, BAM! Here is it and free,” he reminded us. “VR could be like that,” Peddie continued. “It will actually start with AR, just normal glasses, light weight, low cost, not anything you’d be embarrassed to wear in public. While sitting at a bus stop, bored, maybe agitated because the bus is late; you tap the side of your glasses, they go dark and your own private world lights up. “It will happen, and your worlds will blur,” he said. There are always a number of heady VR announcements at CES that make you believe it’s here and you’re the only one who missed the bus. When we saw Panasonic’s, new VR glasses the first thing we thought of was Vin Diesel’s eyeglasses in Riddick. But it doesn’t take long to think they’re so much better than the boxes. According to Panasonic, this is the first VR solution that delivers UHD/HDR (ultra-high definition/high- dynamic range) viewing and includes 6DOF tracking for more freedom of natural movement. The lenses are 2.6K micro-LED with individual diopter adjustment to compensate for the differences between your eyes. We’ll be interested to see how VR purists take to the slimmed down glasses compared to conventional HMDs. If the performance and experience are even close to similar, we like idea of entering an alternate world simply by sliding on a pair of glasses rather than a claustrophobic box strapped to our face. What we enjoy about the constant over-the-top industry projections is that they focus on how good/great headset hardware is going to be rather than what’s important … content. The disappointment to us is that they have been making – and adjusting upward – these projections for years. Get serious, folks … wishing doesn’t make it happen. Ever since Facebook dropped $2B back in 2014, analysts and VR zealots have predicted millions and millions of headsets will be used by people everywhere … in a few years. VR just didn’t/hasn’t followed the new technology cycle where innovators brought along the early adopters who developed applications and entertainment that attracted the early majority followed by the late majority. The defining opportunity was always just over the hill in gaming and immersive content experience that will open the floodgate. It just never crossed Geoffrey Moore’s chasm - https://tinyurl.com/1byjsk8d.

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