Intel announced that it would abandon the wireless VR solution and quit the wireless VR battle, which is the biggest good news for TPCAST. Now TPCAST ​​and Huawei have cooperated to create a wireless VR solution based on 5GMobile, which is equivalent to the wireless VR of the WAN. The new form of VR will gradually form in the future.
On the second day after HTC Vive released the VR all-in-one, Huawei Wireless Labs (Wireless X Labs) announced a memorandum of understanding with Beijing Transmission Technology Co., Ltd. (TPCAST). The two companies will jointly develop the cloud rendering VR solution based on 5G network by taking advantage of their respective 5G network technology, low latency codec and real-time VR data control protocol.
There are two main ways to implement VR. One is to combine the mobile phone in the user's hand with the VR headset. The so-called "mobile phone box" or "VR all-in-one" is actually in this category. The advantage is low cost, but due to the natural performance and display reasons of the mobile terminal, the visual effect is often poor; the other is the high-end head display with high-performance PC, the visual experience is better, but the wire connection is required, and the mobility is poor. Users must also purchase an expensive computer for this purpose.
Transmission Technology CTO Zhou Zhaohui told reporters that the company's 60G transmission signal-based wireless accessories for HTC Vive is still a compromise: in the final analysis, it is a wireless VR form of LAN, equivalent to PC-based, helmet and TPCAST. The kit has a 60G signal transmission network. And if you use 5G Mobile, users don't even need a PC.
"TPCAST ​​and Huawei are working together to create a wireless VR solution based on 5GMobile - this is equivalent to the wireless VR of the WAN," designed to move local complex image processing to the cloud for real-time cloud rendering of interactive VR content. In other words, users using Cloud VR will not be geographically restricted, and even computers will not be needed. Content developers can also publish content more quickly, relying on the rapid iteration of the cloud.
The technology of wireless VR is developing rapidly, from 5GWiFi, to the first generation of TPCAST's Wireless HD in 2016, to the second generation of possible WiGig. In the past, the time has passed less than three years.
"In the future, maybe all PCs will run in the cloud, so-called Cloud VR, users only need to wear a helmet, and nothing else." Zhou Zhaohui said.
01, Intel "big retreat", the wireless VR dispute has ended early?In fact, in the view of transmission technology, the battle for wireless VR should have ended prematurely before handing in with Huawei.
The war was launched from the Tmall Shopping Festival at the Double 11 last year. The "starter" is the transmission technology. At that time, Wang Congqing, the president of HTC Vive China, put the VR helmet with the TPCAST ​​wireless module developed by the transmission technology on the head of basketball star Kobe for the first time, causing a strong vibration in the VR industry. Before that, the high-end PC VR helmet was the root. The long "scorpion" connected to the computer has been regarded by many as one of the biggest bottlenecks in VR's user experience.
And with the transfer technology cutting off this "scorpion", like springing up, countless companies - from MIT's lab to Israeli startups - have launched their own wireless solution prototypes after TPCAST. According to the reporter's incomplete statistics, since November last year, there have been nearly ten companies that announced their own prototypes of wireless VR.
Among them, the most powerful is the entry of TPCAST ​​direct competitor, cable display transmission technology company DisplayLink and chip giant Intel. At the CES in January this year, Intel announced that it and HTC will work together to build a wireless VR solution. This has made many people have great expectations for it: Guo Wei, the ZVR CEO who focuses on the large space positioning solution, pointed out to reporters that as a traditional chip giant Intel joined the wireless VR battlefield, and the point is whether it can change the external module form of the TPCAST ​​solution, so that the wireless VR really enters the so-called "chip-level" form.
Zhou Zhaohui told reporters that "they felt that the Chinese had made it. They also rushed to get a set of things released." At the E3 show in June this year, the DisplayLink wireless solution was unveiled. After the trial, the famous American technology media Engaget even gave Experienced more than TPCAST ​​evaluation. This was once considered the biggest threat to TPCAST.
However, the situation changed suddenly, and the plot turned sharply in early September. Because of the support of Intel, the company suddenly announced that its own chips supporting 1G, 18260, 13100 and antenna chip M100041 will be discontinued. This is the core component of the 60G wireless solution. Less media have interpreted this as the hallmark of Intel's "no war and no fall" and abandon wireless VR solutions.
Zhou Zhaohui's view is different from the domestic media. He said that Intel will not give up wireless VR, but the chip before the production stoppage, the new chip will have to come out in the middle of next year, and then, at that time, the transmission technology must have new actions. It is. At present, they have adapted Oculus and HTC Vive in the three high-end head-ends, and the adaptation to the Microsoft-based MR is in progress.
It is said that a hardware company has been developing related programs with others. Two months ago, the company’s executives found transmission technology. The first sentence was “They are too unreliable.†Finally, they hope that the next generation of products will adopt transmission technology. new plan.
With the stagnation of the biggest rivals, other "follow the wind" products have gradually disappeared. The war has not yet started and seems to have ended.
02, the mysterious visitor of the casinoIn addition to gamblers, Las Vegas in early 2017 also welcomed a large number of technology companies. This is because this is the world's largest electronics exhibition - the host city of CES. At the booth of the transmission technology, there was a suspicious Israeli. He walked around the booth and experienced the wireless solution from time to time. From time to time, he asked some details.
Then, the man asked the technical team of the transmission technology, whether he was interested in and experienced his own wireless VR solution - then the transmission technology realized that the other party is the head of the Intel wireless team. However, the other party did not choose to "face the confrontation with TPCAST" at CES, but instead exhibited a bar near the exhibition for display.
Zhou Zhaohui heard it and came to interest. I followed him to the bar and experienced the program. "To be honest, the effect is still ok, can't be said bad." Then he added another sentence, "But compared with us, it has been half a year."
The so-called wireless VR solution on the PC side is actually a high-speed wireless image transmission method. The huge image displayed by the VR is encoded and compressed on the PC side, and transmitted to the helmet through the wireless signal, and then decoded and displayed on the helmet end. Therefore, this is the key to transmitting signals and efficient codec.
At that time, Intel had not cooperated with DisplayLink, but adopted its own decoder. However, according to Zhou Zhaohui, this decoder is relatively old, developed in 2013, the purpose is to expand the notebook display to other devices, so it is not designed for VR, which results in its lower resolution. Image compression is more serious, with only 1080p resolution, and with the visible delay of the naked eye, "at least tens of milliseconds."
It is said that Intel has been using this decoder in the wireless VR solution until it finds that it will eventually enter the mass production phase and finds that the decoder is not strong. So it has brought DisplayLink, a company famous for its wired display transmission technology. .
On this year's E3, the wireless module with Intel and DisplayLink LOGO appeared at the same time, claiming the delay of 7 milliseconds. Although there is no transmission of 2 milliseconds of technology, the actual test results are not the same as the beginning of the year, plus Many well-known foreign media and endorsements of the two major companies, this is the biggest challenge for transmission technology since November.
Previously, Intel has been pushing the 60GHz docking station on the notebook. Companies such as Lenovo, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard have introduced notebook connectivity docking stations that can be used to connect peripherals such as monitors. Qualcomm also launched a 60GHz router with TPLink and NETGEAR, but because the application scenario is not very established, and the 60GHz signal is inherently very afraid of occlusion, these products are not promoted.
Zhou Zhaohui and others realized that the DisplayLink solution is also very likely to be difficult to produce - the 11000, 18260 and other chips used in this solution are relatively old - the earliest Intel created the notebook 60G solution for the above, with a history of three or four years. . From the technical indicators, it is impossible to adapt to the HTC 2K and even the Microsoft MR helmet 3K or even the future 4K head display. However, after all, big companies are coming to the forefront. "To be honest, my heart is a little anxious and not so sure."
Finally, as Intel announced in September that the products mentioned at the beginning of this article were discontinued, the transmission technology was relieved. At this point, they and the Israeli WiGig team's "comparative efforts", the first round seems to end with victory.
03, the next generation of wireless solutions: WirelessHD or WiGig?To get the wireless VR, the biggest problem is that you can't let the wireless solution increase the delay of the VR helmet. It is well known that the VR helmet itself needs to transmit a lot of signals, including video, audio, gyroscopes and displacement. There are already some delays when transferring from the PC to the header. Once wireless, this delay is likely to increase. "The delay is less than 15 milliseconds, so it won't cause the user to feel dizzy."
In the initial wireless VR solution, the transmission technology must solve a difficult problem first - its own technology is based on WiFi 5G technology, one-way transmission of 1080p resolution HD video is no problem, but when it encounters VR video signal, it is 2K, 3K Even 4K resolution, how to solve it?
They thought of 60GHz technology. This technology "bandwidth is at least ten times more than 5G", there are two mainstream specifications: WiGig specification represented by Intel, Qualcomm, etc. (ie 802.11ad transmission signal), and WirelessHD specification represented by Samsung, LatTIce, etc.
In the first generation, they chose LatTIce's WirelessHD hardware technology. The reason was that "WirelessHD is a relatively mature, relatively small-scale protocol." However, after almost a year of use, the transmission technology is increasingly able to see the ceiling of WirelessHD.
The mainstream PC VR head-ends introduced in early 2016, such as HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, have a resolution of 2K, but with the development of hardware technology, higher resolution is an inevitable trend. Microsoft combined with Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, 3Glasses launched a new generation of VR head-mounted display, the resolution is all in 3K. In addition, 4K or even 8K heads are also being released, such as domestic companies, IDEALENS and so on.
WirelessHD's transmission speed limit per second is about 7G, but the 3K resolution image is almost 10 G, "4K resolution can even reach more than 20 G", so you must use a high compression ratio protocol. And to reduce costs, this may be WiGig. According to a new report from ABI Research, by 2022, 84% of VR devices will use the WiGig wireless connectivity solution.
Today's TPCAST ​​products include dedicated routers, batteries, signal receivers and transmitters for 60 GHz signals. The next generation of TPCAST, although still the same as the first generation, will probably no longer be an external accessory.
"We will sell modules, which can be understood as a chipset, which is directly embedded in the helmet device. The router is also gone, it is a point-to-point transmission. The USB docking station is plugged into the PC, and the receiver is just placed on our helmet."
However, 60 GHz technology still faces problems such as short launch range and inability to penetrate walls. How TPCAST ​​will solve these problems is still unclear.
Just a few days ago, foreign media commented that WiGig has never been accepted by the mainstream notebook and display market. In transmission, there is no advantage over Thunderbolt 3 or even USB 3.1 Gen2 - the latter two can achieve a transmission speed of 10-40GB per second, and the price paid is only a connection. Therefore, they speculate that Intel will fully apply the 60GHz technology to the wireless VR field.
Sure enough, a few days later, Intel sent a message saying that it would end the release of the more than one year of the Alloy VR all-in-one project and instead focus on the wireless VR solution.
The second round is about to kick off, but Zhou Zhaohui is quite confident. "TPCAST ​​has a certain first-mover advantage in wireless VR. Companies that pose a threat to us in the future are basically non-existent. Qualcomm will only do modules, not Going to the VR program in person, even if a company like DisplayLink wants to chase, it will take 1-2 years to reach our current level."
Guo Wei, who is focused on the line, is also optimistic about TPCAST's WiGig route. He told Qingting. TPCAST ​​has a brand effect in this field because of its relatively inexpensive effect. Other companies have no more meaning. . Now, they are also working with TPCAST ​​to launch a large-space multi-person positioning solution based on the HTC Vive wireless version, which can get rid of the shackles of backpack computers and cover 100 square meters.
04, Microsoft MR wireless solution is coming soon?In October 2016, Microsoft announced that it will enter the market with six major OEMs. It will launch a VR head-up display from $299. It uses an inside-out positioning solution that is different from HTC Vive and does not require an external sensor. The resolution is also 3K.
This year, these helmets have been shipped. The industry generally gives a cheap, simple, easy to install and stable evaluation. Samsung and Fujitsu have also joined the camp. Transmission technology has gradually completed the adaptation of these helmets.
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