OVERVIEW
There is a new sheriff in town, folks. It’s called a mobile movie theater or a wearable movie theater, if you will. It comes in the form of two recent product introductions called the Avegant Glyph and the Royole-X.
This new breed of device introduces an upgraded experience from those of the recent and contemporary suite of “video glasses” developed by Sony with
their HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer, the Icuiti DV920 Video Glasses, the i-Glasses Pro Head-Mounted Display, the ITV Goggles Wideview XL Edition, and the oft promoted and futuristically designed Vuzix Wrap 920 Video Eyewear.
In this review of the Avegant Glyph, and a related review of the Royole-X, we’ll present the basics of what you need to know to determine if this new technology platform is a must buy decision to enhance the relaxing leisure, entertainment, and productivity aspects of your life.
Check out our Hands-On Review Playstation Virtual Reality (PSVR)
The Avegant Glyph was first started in the winter of 2014 as a Kickstarter project backed by 3,331 sponsors who kicked in USD1.5+ million to bring it to life. Originally scheduled for release in the Fall of 2015, it is now available in 2016 through multiple channels as a commercially released product including Amazon.
In a nutshell, the Avegant Glyph is a futuristic combination of audio headphones and video glasses. It’s not a virtual reality headset, but it comes about as close as any tech platform can without actually dog paddling into the shallow end of the VR pool of headset technology.
Aside from the combo audio headphone capabilities, a Wikipedia definition of its core technology describes its personal movie theater feature best: “A virtual retinal display (VRD), also known as a retinal scan display (RSD) or retinal projector (RP), is a display technology that draws a raster display (like a television) directly onto the retina of the eye. The user sees what appears to be a conventional display floating in space in front of them.” [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_retinal_display]
This is accomplished using Texas Instruments world famous DLP micromirror array technology that offers “screenless display” capabilities for all manner of consumer electronics devices. The TI DLP tech presents red, green, and blue light images that are precision controlled arrays of beam paths that project and converge onto your eyeball to give you the impression you are seeing an image floating in mid-air. The effect is a crystal clear, pixel-free image for effortless viewing, very much more like seeing than watching, one might say.
Essential Reading: Expert Review on Samsung Gear Virtual Reality Experience
Wearing and watching the Avegant Glyph’s visually stunning action on your eyeballs gives you the bonafide virtual effect of viewing a movie from the dead-center, sweet-spot seat of the movie theater, sans popcorn (unless you make the provisions yourself in situ). Generally, the Avegant Glyph user community reports that the pseudo ‘out-of-body’ visual experience is like watching a 55 to 65-inch widescreen TV in your living room. Actually, Avegant states the settings are similar to a “sweet spot” at 71 feet away from the main screen in your average 52-foot movie theater.
Essentially, the full panorama of content that you can see on your TV is available to you on the Avegant Glyph. The device also lets you watch 360-degree videos and first-person-view (FPV) drone video action in real time or in playback from an appropriate wireline streaming device.