HP Reverb G2:

The Reverb G2 is a headset packed with a variety of sensors and trackers, built for businesses to better track the attentiveness and effectiveness of users in training programs using biometric data. However, this headset isn’t privately available to just businesses, it’s available for anyone to purchase, which means the Reverb G2 could open the doors to more interactive VR experiences for years to come. It also gives us an insight to what VR headsets could all be capable of and how it will affect future game design and social VR experiences.

For those familiar with the VR headset industry, you’ll notice that the Reverb G2 looks fairly similar to the Valve Index, that’s because Valve helped design this headset. Valve helped design the near field speakers, the head strap, and the lenses.

Displays and Sensors:

With a resolution of 2160×2160, the displays on this headset are some of the best qualities on the market. But with such a high resolution you are going to need a decent computer to handle this kind of pixel output, if you do then you’ll be treated to extremely clear visuals and high-quality environments. Although the field of view isn’t amazing, with a 107° diagonal it’s still better than other headsets on the market.

What sets this headset apart from the rest is the plethora of sensors that you will not find on any other VR rig. These sensors gather biometric data from eye tracking, facial tracking, and a heart rate monitor, which are all built in directly into the headset.

Business and Gaming use:

One of the biggest customers of the Reverb G2 are businesses who are looking to utilize VR within their training whilst gathering as much data as possible to get accurate responses to how the trainees actually found the experience. This can be for a range of different training sessions such as basic tasks like examining mechanical equipment to high-risk environments like a firefight or a pilot in a flight simulator. Using all the sensors the Reverb G2 will actively read the user’s heart rate to measure changes in the user from varying stressful situations, assess face tracking data to read genuine reactions, and eye tracking to detect what you are looking at and when. With all these metrics you can put a user into a stressful situation and accurately assess how they were affected by different stimuli, where they were focusing their attention (from eye tracking), and how reaction times may have changed because of it.

If you’ve ever been in a social VR application like VR Chat or Rec Room, you know how gestures can be used to control facial expressions. But with the Reverb G2 your eyes and your face are being tracked. So, with an avatar that has built-in support -yes, there are avatars available with this support- they can display your expressions in real time to all other players. From just blinking to laughing. Having a conversation with someone who has these tracking features enabled is a surreal experience.

Nvidia VRSS 2:

This is currently the only headset that supports Nvidia’s VRSS 2 foveated rendering. However, what makes eye tracked foveated rendering so special is when it’s tracking your eye movement it can render whatever you are focusing on to a higher resolution and whatever is in your peripheral vision at a lower resolution. This can hypothetically lead to significantly reduced GPU load, allowing less powerful systems to run higher quality VR games.

Stress and Concentration:

One of the applications HP is happy about with the Reverb G2 is the ability to measure cognitive loads within tasks to see how much a user is concentrating and how certain stimuli affect the user. The Reverb G2 can tell how stressed a user is and scale the difficulty to maintain as much concentration as possible. 

As a gamer this sounds exciting when considering how this could be utilized in game development. Difficulty settings could be a thing of the past, as using these sensors the game could automatically adjust to a user based on their biometric data. If you’re struggling to complete a certain level, the game could adjust the difficulty before you get frustrated and log off, increasing your engagement and overall feelings towards the game. 

It’s not a matter of ‘if’ these features become a standard, it’s a matter of ‘when’. It’s a standard of VR which will literally rewrite game design. Looking at horror games, with a heart rate monitor the game will be able to tell when you are most scared and when you are most calm, determining when the best moment for a jump scare would be. Making each playthrough different and unique for everyone. Not only that, with face tracking the game can see through small changes in expression to determine what scares someone the most. Finally, with eye tracking the game would be able to tell exactly where you are looking – or more terrifyingly – where you aren’t looking.

Privacy Concerns:

There are a few privacy concerns already with the current generation of VR headsets, as they are mounted with cameras to view and assess your play space for safety boundaries within VR. Which, understandably, people have concerns as a device always has a view of your home and personal space, which it could be watching at any given moment. 

Not only would the device have a view of your home, but it also has cameras to watch your face and eye movements when it’s in use. The main concerns are for private data. And what companies could do with the collected facial reading assessed data.