Sol Reader Is a VR Headset Exclusively For Reading Books (techcrunch.com) 92
A company called Sol Reader is working on a headset designed exclusively for reading books. "The device is simple: It slips over your eyes like a pair of glasses and blocks all distractions while reading," reports TechCrunch. From the article: The $350 device is currently on pre-order, comes in a handful of colors, and contains a pair of side-lit, e-ink displays, much like the Kindle does. The glasses come with a remote (I wish my Kindle had a remote!) and a charger. A full battery gets you around 25 hours of reading. That may not sound like a lot, but if you have an average adult reading speed of around 200 words per minute, you can finish the 577,608-word tome Infinite Jest in about 48 hours. That means you need at least one charging break, but then, if you are trying to read Infinite Jest in a single sitting, you're a bigger book nerd than most.
The product has a diopter adjustment built in, so glasses- and contacts-wearers can use the glasses without wearing additional vision correction (up to a point -- the company doesn't specify the exact adjustment range). The displays are 1.3-inch, e-ink displays with 256x256 per-eye resolution. The glasses have 64MB of storage, which should hold plenty of books for even the longest of escapist holidays.
The company's $5 million funding round was led by Garry Tan (Initialized, Y Combinator) and closed about a year ago. Today, the company is shipping the 'advanced copy' (read: private beta) of the glasses to a small number of early access testers. The company is tight-lipped on when its full production batches will start shipping, and customers are currently advised to join the waiting list if they want to get their mittens on a pair of Sols.
The product has a diopter adjustment built in, so glasses- and contacts-wearers can use the glasses without wearing additional vision correction (up to a point -- the company doesn't specify the exact adjustment range). The displays are 1.3-inch, e-ink displays with 256x256 per-eye resolution. The glasses have 64MB of storage, which should hold plenty of books for even the longest of escapist holidays.
The company's $5 million funding round was led by Garry Tan (Initialized, Y Combinator) and closed about a year ago. Today, the company is shipping the 'advanced copy' (read: private beta) of the glasses to a small number of early access testers. The company is tight-lipped on when its full production batches will start shipping, and customers are currently advised to join the waiting list if they want to get their mittens on a pair of Sols.
$350 is way too much... (Score:2)
Re:$350 is way too much... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think you could pay me enough to put on a headset with only 256x256 resolution in each eye. And 64 MB of storage? 2003 called and wants its flash memory back! A current-gen Kindle has vastly higher resolution, 250 times the storage, and costs less than a third what this headset does. The "VR" buzzword doesn't make the value proposition.
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Re:$350 is way too much... (Score:4, Informative)
If I'm doing my math correctly 256x256 pixels on a 1.3" (0.92"x0.92") screen works out to ~278ppi, just a shade lower than the 300ppi common to most current gen ereaders like the latest Kindle Paperwhite. If fact I am unaware of any e-ink device offering more than 300ppi. That said you're generally not holding up a Kindle anywhere near as close to your eyes as these glasses will be so every pixel will matter, these just won't have anywhere near the pixel density you'd need for something getting that close to your eyes to have the same subjective density as something held at a more typical book-reading distance.
Re:$350 is way too much... (Score:5, Informative)
You're not looking directly at a 1" display, you're looking at a magnified version of it - the equivalent of an 8" or 10" display, which knocks it down to "1970s Apple II with a 40 column CRT" territory.
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Your math is right, but it's still only a 256x256 display. To put it in comparison, the current Paperwhite has a 1236x1648 at 6.8"—roughly 3,000% more pixels. And eInk has a "refresh rate" in the single digits per second, not the 90+ you'd want from a VR setup, meaning you can't just get away with relying on the user turning their head to see more text.
I suspect something in this article is in error, but the official website is down as I type this. Either it's not eInk (and thus has a better refresh r
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Well, after managing to see some videos/screenshots ... boy was I wrong in the worst possible way. This looks like a 1990s tech demo.
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Holy shit, you're not kidding. I mean, if your vaporware website can't make it look good you are doomed. I guess if you really liked that feeling of reading stuff on your NES, you'll love this (but closer!)
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As others pointed out, the relevant measure is not pixels per inch but pixels per degree. A "retina" display, which has pixels small enough that standard eyesight can barely distinguish them, should have about 60 pixels per degree -- and this 256x256 display will span a lot more than 4 degrees of view.
Another way to think about it: The resolution of 300 ppi is similar to an old or low-end laser printer. Would you want to read a book printed on 0.9"-by-0.9" pages, even if you had a good magnifying glass or
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It just doesn't make any sense. Storage is so cheap at this point at $350 you'd expect substantially more, or they should have added $20 and tossed another gig in there. First even at 1mb a pop this definitely wouldn't hold my kindle library and second you are forgetting audio books.
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That could be, also there might be an expansion port. If you can slap in a microsd the storage concern is moot.
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https://www.lemon64.com/assets... [lemon64.com]
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64 MB does not seem so reasonable to me. My Kindle shows 396 MB used by 95 "items". $2 will buy somewhere between 1 GB and 16 GB of flash, depending on packaging (flash drive on Amazon to spot price for bare flash module), so how does a $350 headset justify not spending a buck or two for a huge increase in storage capacity?
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relative to some other ebook readers, it's not a terrible pricing. I just think it's going to be too limiting to want to use. From what I can see it's still using lenses which would make use outside limited. That and what is the benifit of it over say a kindle, kobo, or other e-ink reader? Privacy? I typically don't have that issue currently with an e-reader. It's an odd niche device. i wish them luck but I don't get it.
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relative to some other ebook readers, it's not a terrible pricing. I just think it's going to be too limiting to want to use. From what I can see it's still using lenses which would make use outside limited. That and what is the benifit of it over say a kindle, kobo, or other e-ink reader? Privacy? I typically don't have that issue currently with an e-reader. It's an odd niche device. i wish them luck but I don't get it.
The benefit of a wearable over a handheld is this: One is wearable and the other is handheld.
Holding something in your hand requires the use of your hand, which dictates the entire posture of your shoulders, neck, and spinal column, for hours at a time.
Why would people want to wear corrective contact lenses or glasses instead of just carrying around a handheld magnifying glass they can hold up to anything they wish to see in detail? Contacts/glasses seem like an odd niche device, yes?
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But I can definitely see the appeal of laying in bed comfortably and reading while your partner is asleep. I'd consider it for $100.
Seems like a rather niche application. It's not as if a reading light (or a Kindle's reading light) is going to keep most partners' awake... I know both my wife and I sometimes are reading while the other of us sleeps without issue.
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Seems like a rather niche application.
But there are markets for niche applications. For example, I have a reMarkable, which is essentially a Kindle that you can write on with a Wacom pen. It's not illuminated, which is a bummer, and the software is still maturing. But it's pretty cool, nonetheless. There are a few competitors these days (I think Amazon finally put one out), but still ... I think it's one of the things where if you want one, you know it, and if you don't, you know that, too.
256x256 resolution isn't great (Score:3)
Even with a crappy 8x8 font, you'd only get 32 characters per line. About 5 words.
I like the idea - it would be nice (combined with headphones) when flying. But the resolution needs to increase at least 3x.
Re:256x256 resolution isn't great (Score:5, Informative)
If you go to their website (solreader.com), in the middle of the page there is a picture of glasses and if you click on Navigate, you get a closeup. You weren't much off - font seems to be 8px tall, but it is variable width, so a is around 5 pixels wide, which allows slightly more words in one line.
It is still pretty horrible quality-wise. Plus, their claim that they cost only 10% of apple headset, instead of saying 'we cost the same as Oculus Quest 2, at 10% of capabilities'...
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When I go to their website all it says is
Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).
If they can't even make a web page that works I don't have much confidence in their hardware.
I find your lack of faith disturbing. (Score:2)
And so does the CEO behind this piece of shit. [youtube.com]
Jesus was all about that investing, as we know. [youtube.com]
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I get the same error. Maybe they misconfigured their server not expecting/testing connections from outside US.
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Re: 256x256 resolution isn't great (Score:2)
A shame for the company that wanted my interest.
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I think I'll keep my ad blocker enabled when visiting random sites, thanks.
If your site can't function without ads then I'll give it a miss.
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Not only that, but imagine this "glass" in that example not on your computer screen at about a foot away taking up about 5 degrees of your visual field but an inch away taking up about 90 degrees. To read a line of these insanely HUGE letters, you'd have to move your eyeballs almost completely from left to right.
If you want to have the "realistic experience" of what it's like, put your face right onto your screen and try again. This is a horrible experience.
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we cost the same as Oculus Quest 2, at 10% of capabilities'...
Your argument is like saying the "Kindle Paperwhite" is not worth because it's the same price as a "Samsung Galaxy Tab A8" and has more limited capabilities. Their device version 1 is underwhelming, but their idea is clearly different than Oculus which is marketed for games (from what I get on their website).
The $350 device vs. cheap reading glasses (Score:3)
Kindle remote (Score:3)
(I wish my Kindle had a remote!)
What is this? Why? What function could a Kindle remote have? I know this comment isn't the point of the article, but this stuck out at me.
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Does your Kindle at least have a pair of displays ?
Seriously, who writes this shit?
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I've run into a few situations where a kindle remote could be useful. For example, changing pages on a treadmill could be easier with a remote.
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Voice control would be better.
My wife has some sort of knitting program on her iPad. She'll be sitting there, knitting, and then every so often you'll hear her say "Next!".
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Apparently, it's there so you could keep losing it and reordering a replacement at $49 a pop. [solreader.com]
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"You could make some contraption to hold a kindle above your eyes to achieve that"
They exist, we call them hands.
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"You could make some contraption to hold a kindle above your eyes to achieve that"
They exist, we call them hands.
Thanks for your insight, I wonder why I didn't think about those! And here I've been pushing my e-reader around with my nose all this time.
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Yup, anytime, I'm a helper.
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(I wish my Kindle had a remote!)
What is this? Why? What function could a Kindle remote have? I know this comment isn't the point of the article, but this stuck out at me.
Obviously you want the Kindle pre-warmed so you can start reading the moment you sit down! There's nothing worse than sitting there, waiting for your Kindle's engine to warm up...
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(I wish my Kindle had a remote!)
What is this? Why? What function could a Kindle remote have? I know this comment isn't the point of the article, but this stuck out at me.
I read in bed with the Kobo propped up against the wall, it helps me fall asleep. Would have been nice to have a remote for page forward in order to not have to move my whole arm every 30 seconds or so.
Others have suspended their readers above them, enabling them to read lying on their back, then it'd be even more useful.
1/5 people are likely to be unable to use this ... (Score:2)
... This is the percentage who can't use VR at all, or can't use it for any extended time without headaches ...
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In my very limited experience with VR, the sickness only occurs (for me at least) when locomotion is being simulated. I made the mistake of turning on smooth motion at one point and I nearly lost my lunch. Not only that but I experienced something like a hangover for several hours afterward. Using a teleport method of locomotion solved the problem for me.
Since there is no motion or screen refresh rate with e-ink, I imagine this would be fine for most people. I assume that this would be similar to holding a
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In fairness, this uses an e-ink display, so should have no screen refresh issues. Assuming their backlight has a sufficiently fast 'dimmer' frequency, then it's unlikely flicker of any sort would be an issue for anyone.
How this works as a "close up device" I'm not sure. I'd like to see optics that move the words to infinite distance, but I'm not sure that's happening here. I'm not sure if you need to "cross" your eyes to be able to read, and what focal distance you're at - those are pretty critical for old
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Not to mention those whose vision is outside what these glasses are able to correct, which almost certainly includes anyone with non-trivial astigmatism.
Next (Score:2)
In todays fast paced and distracted world, we introduce a VR goggle that you can put on while in the VR.
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Yo, dawg, I heard you liked VR so...
Escapist holidays != VR goggles (Score:2)
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I can see the usefulness of a device like this. For example, laying in bed. I don't know about you, but holding a book or e-ink reader can stress my arms after a while, even if I am resting the book on my chest. Added bonus that this would disturb a partner even less than a backlit e-reader would since the displays are so small.
Another example might be for treadmill use, though the lack of environmental awareness could be a safety concern. The remote control could be very handy though in this instance. Also
Re: Escapist holidays != VR goggles (Score:2)
You can also get prism glasses and keep the book upright on one's chest, so the load on hands is low.
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A good book is escapist in itself...
Start reading "just a chapter or so" before bed, next thing you know it is 3am and you've finished the book and are searching your shelves for the sequel...
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For that example, people read things at nice surroundings,
YMMV. I always though people going to the park for reading were posers. "Nice surroundings" are usually uncomfortable for reading (wind, wet grass, excess sun, foldable chairs or wooden bench) plus the possibility of noisy kids. I focus on my reading by sitting in my most comfortable sofa, in my quietest room, with dimmed light. I guess we're all different.
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It's good to get that vitamin D while reading. Two birds and all that...
already have 3D reading iface, they call it a book (Score:5, Insightful)
All other reading interfaces are crap.
I have had limited success with the kindle because of its low energy e-ink screen... but only if the book is pure text. As soon as you have reference books like it books where you often have to go back and forth, make notes, illustrations, a book is still your best bet (at least mine), by far
no battery needed ...
can be marked as needed
can be transfered from on person to another easily
at this resolution, this 3d thing s really limited... might as well just use your phone and the kindle app
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You forget no-latency in going back and forth.
Kindles and the like are great for linear text reading - the second or two it takes to change the screen isn't a big deal.
But if you're going back and forth in a work, that wait gets annoying quick. Plus being able to bookmark and go between the bookmarks really qui
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All other reading interfaces are crap.
... In your opinion.
I practically grew up in a library full of paper books (my mother was a librarian), and I still read a lot. Here are my my preferences: for novels and other lightly formatted works I use e-ink only. For books where you have to go back and forth, visit footnotes (following a link is WAY better than hunting them down in paper books), look at very detailed illustrations and so on, a computer or a tablet is better suited.
Studying is about the only use case I personally can think of for paper
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>my mother was a librarian
your point is? so did mine. Sure, I agreee, don't mark up library books, I do with mine whatever I want. You can mark it up with a pencil
>for novels and other lightly formatted works I use e-ink only.
what I said
>Studying is about the only use case I personally can think of for paper books
what I said
When it comes to reference books, putting fingers in multiple pages while doing for moving back and forth, color coded post it notes, folding slightly multiple pages si
SNL 1995 (Score:2)
https://www.reddit.com/r/skyri... [reddit.com]
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First thing I thought of was that skit.
Who's the audience? (Score:1)
Bad FAQ Answer... (Score:4, Insightful)
One obvious FAQ question, Can I transfer e-books I own (Kindle, Kobo, etc) to the Sol Reader? has a completely useless response:
If you have a DRM-free (.epub) library, you can simply load the books up in the Sol Reader using the Sol mobile app.
Most of the people checking this out are not going to be e-book geeks and know whether the items on their kindle shelf are epubs or not. They'll have no idea if the books are even DRM-free or not.
If they leave these kinds of ambiguous responses in there, they'll get a lot of sales followed by a lot of returns.
Because all of those kindle book buyers will realize that they can't just move books from their shelves onto this thing for reading without a bit of conversion, but it's not going to be a simple drag and drop kind of operation...
Mental retardation of tech at its finest... (Score:4, Insightful)
You have to ask yourself - have these people ever actually read a book?
Or, you know, associated with people who do?
For fun. As this is clearly useless for anything where you have to study the material, keep notes, copy text etc.
At that price range, they are clearly aiming this at the 30+ crowd with hefty disposable incomes which allow for ANOTHER gadget strictly for reading books, at nearly three times the price of a Kindle Paperwhite, without ads. [amazon.com]
Meanwhile "diopter adjustment built in" is described by TFA as "up to a point - the company doesn't specify the exact adjustment range"... which isn't actually true - TFA is crap.
Site claims the optics to be "0 to -5.75 diopter adjustable" - i.e. if you need reading glasses [wikipedia.org] or if you need glasses for walking [wikipedia.org] - you'll probably have to wear contacts to use this.
Should you be one of the lucky ones and not need eyesight correction, this does not allow for eye rest during reading - without taking the whole damn blindfold off.
There's nothing to refocus your eyes to.
I.e. Say hello to eye strain, maybe migraine, maybe neck pain, itchy eyes... Sing it with me!
Also, that font... [ibb.co] and layout [twitter.com]...
Jesus fucking eye-gouging Christ... [sanity.io]
Are these people [twitter.com] secretly time-travelers from 1890s, trying to amaze us with their idea of illuminated print goggles?
On top of that, that thing is so THICK, presumably most of it going towards battery space to power THE GOD DAMN E-INK DISPLAY WHICH DOESN'T REQUIRE POWER TO STAY ON!
Meanwhile, that's still just two built-in 235mAh - 470mAh rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, probably something like this. [aliexpress.com]
I.e. Up to 940 mAh, for ~25 working hours - compared to Kindle's 890 mAh [newpower99.com] 15 to 20 DAYS of actual use or 2 to 3 days with Wi-Fi on.
While the remote still requires a goddamn CR2450 and is designed to be lost as a fucking strap would ruin "the design experience". But don't worry, a replacement will set you back only $45+shipping.
BUT... the thing has side lighting so you can have LED lights burn your retinas - ergo only 20-something hours of battery life compared to Kindle's weeks. [thebookbuff.com]
The reasoning clearly being that some fucking psychopath with various untreated mental issues but still in charge of directing the design believes that blinkering of the reader (the human, not the device) is necessary in order to prevent distraction while reading.
Which brings us back to the question - do these people read books or know anyone who does? You know... for fun.
Simply making this thing translucent to ambient light, or if that's too difficult to design then adding slits with prisms for directing light for that "side lighting" effect, which would make this thing easier on the eyes, longer lasting when used and cheaper to produce.
Instead, it has sensors to adjust the LED light to ambient light... but it will still be only that ugly 3000K yellow LED light.
Mental retardation of tech at its finest.
Then again, these people [twitter.com] are [wikipedia.org] Palantir [wikipedia.org] rejects [faithdriveninvestor.org] and
$49+shipping... for the replacement remote. (Score:2)
Not $45.
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I'm not going to buy this item (I read paper), but I can find a reasons to buy it. 1) Never ever buy a Kindle from Amazon for the purpose of reading literature (or cloud based book storage solutions as a whole). Amazon demonstrated their willingness to remotely delete purchased copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org] Amazon has other editorial policies that one might not agree with, like like hiding books from search that they find offensive https://news.slashdot.org [slashdot.org]
More concerned if they could than if they should (Score:2)
eInk held so many promises, and yet we're stuck with massively overpriced and underperforming screens compared to other technologies. This should easily land in a "Bottom 10 product ideas" for the year and summaries to come.
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eInk held so many promises, and yet we're stuck with massively overpriced and underperforming screens compared to other technologies.
For my use case (reading novels) they are perfect, to the extent that I have used three $100 USD devices with the same basic specs over the last thirteen years. That's a cost of less than $25 a year for a device that I use for hours each and every day.
As soon as internal lighting came along, there was simply not much room for improvement for the use case of reading novels, and nothing to upgrade to. Since the battery sees so few cycles it easily outlasts the device's already long lifetime, and with a proper
Those specs... (Score:2)
It should have "Tiger Electronics" stamped on the side and come in a blister pack. And drop a zero from the price. Like CD players did back in 1999.
It's magic once you try it (Score:2)
The concern about pixel density is real, but remember that you're reading and basically inside the book. Once you start reading, you're absorbing text and don't feel a need for a higher density display. And honestly, I wish we used real photographs of the display, because it's e-ink and the slight bleed enhances the experience and makes it feel more like paper. Because the screen is stationary, there's no nausea. Try
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I've a feeling that it would be like reading through a tiny window. The page changes would come so quickly that it would throw me out of the immersion.
Reading on a phone provides a much shorter page than with either a paper book or my current e-book readers. It's one of the reasons I don't care for using my phone to read long-form text. This would be even worse in that respect.
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I'm fairly certain that at my reading speed I'd get RSI from clicking "next paragraph" so often. I dislike the kindle already for forcing me to "next page" so much because the displayed page size is so small and this looks to be a 1/4 of that at best.
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I am happy with my Kobo and don't really have a use case (that I know) for this device, but I am happy that people are innovating.
A couple of questions:
Are these sturdy enought to be expected to survive if you fall asleep with them still on? That would definitely be a use case for me :)
What are the choices of fonts, line heights, margins and other layout parameters? It seems that you must be using a font suited for 8 pixels or less, and those really affect the readability.
As far as I know there's absolutely
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Oh, and another question: is it possible to sideload books by a common mechanism such as usb storage connection? It would suck to be dependent on some app being updated years into the future. Loading books through a spesific app only would actually be a showstopper for me.
Did anyone try it? (Score:3)
256x256 resolution sound so much like a joke I had to double check. Cheap e-readers are at 800x600 resolution and it is usable but not great. 256x256, that's comparable to a C64, which wasn't really designed for text, even back in the days. There is no mention of the FoV, but either it as tiny as a post-it note, or you are going to get massive pixels.
I also see they are using e-ink displays. The great thing about these display is they look great with an external light source, but in a VR headset, you can't take advantage of this property, so is it worth it? Especially if it is the reason for that puny resolution.
But who knows, maybe it is not that bad. It is a first, you don't know until you try. I am particularly interested in the optics. Traditional VR headsets focus so that you are comfortable looking at infinity, but that makes them terrible at a typical reading distance, this headset will presumably have optics optimized for reading.
What we really need (Score:2)
Skill to reading (Score:2)
Not a lot of storage (Score:2)
glasses have 64MB of storage
That isn't very much. That is maybe 1-3 books.
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You must be thinking of pdf files, which this is not for.
epub books tend to run from about 100k for a "novella" up to maybe 1mb for a really long book. In many cases the size of the cover graphic is bigger than the html files that make up the actual book text and you can reduce that easily since an epub file is really a zip file.
So 64mb of storage will get you at least a few hundred books depending on text length and cover sizes.
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23.2MB
21.5MB
11.9MB
20.4MB
7.4MBM
I can squeeze 4 on this device. Not very many.
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I've never seen an epub file that big. Are they really graphics-heavy or something? Or do they contain embedded font files? I suppose either of those could create a blown-up epub file like that.
Novels tend to be in the 200-500k range, depending on the length of the text unless they have a huge cover graphic or embedded fonts.
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What I was reading last night
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1638... [amazon.com]
That is 12.6 MB and has 16 pictures.
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That isn't very much. That is maybe 1-3 books.
Here are some stats from my library of epubs. Most are novels, some are short stories.
1292 epubs, all with at least a cover image.
average word count pr. book is 109 000.
Average file size 719 kb.
My very largest book is 22MB (Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson), that one has quite a few illustrations
only 10 books out of all 1292 are larger than 10MB.
As for your file sizes, I suspect that the newer Kindle formats are quite inefficient, converted to epub (which is basically zipped html+css) they should be much small
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As for your file sizes, I suspect that the newer Kindle formats are quite inefficient, converted to epub (which is basically zipped html+css) they should be much smaller.
This is incorrect. Minus a handful of reference books and my comics, everything I have is epub.
About time someone invented it! (Score:1)
lol, no (Score:2)