Gallery: Inside Oculus' Quest to Design an Invisible VR Controller
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This prototype embodies a trifecta of roads not traveled: it's worn rather than held; it employs a centered thumbstick and no buttons; and rather than a conventional trigger button, it opts for a rotary scroll wheel.
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While engineers wanted to give sensors as broad a tracking ring as possible, the design team knew that smaller would be better (though, as in this case, there was such a thing as too small).
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The face of this prototype has some elements that persisted, namely the off-center thumbstick, but its hook-style wearability fell by the wayside.
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This is what it looks like when you make tracking as easy as possible for the sensors—without considering actual usage patterns.
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Should a controller be held, or should it be worn? While Oculus ultimately opted for the former, there was plenty of investigation of what the latter might look like.
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How to integrate occlusion-proof trackability led to a series of mockups that affixed tracking rings in various ways—like this one, in which the ring hovered just in front of the hand.
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While the finished product sticks with rigid plastic, the design team briefly explored the idea of a pressure-sensitive squeezable grip—all the better to experience haptic feedback.
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What if people were using the controllers while seated? Shouldn't there be a flat bottom so they can be rested on your thighs?
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A wearable prototype that disregarded features to explore optimal face angle.
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While Oculus had settled on a general shape, there were still unanswered questions regarding how responsive thumbsticks and buttons needed to be, leading to prototypes that explored whether to go make triggers saddle-style or spring-loaded.
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The Half Moon prototype, which Oculus brought to E3 in 2015 in order to introduce its input devices to the world.
