One of the most interesting XR headsets currently in development is the Lynx-R1 by French startup Lynx. Combining both virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) capabilities, today sees the launch of the company’s Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign, looking to raise a substantial $300,000 USD over the next month.
Lynx has garnered a lot of attention thanks to the technology its employing in the headset and founder Stan Larroque’s vision for the device and the company as a whole. He started developing his own headset back in 2016, a mishmash of various components that included an Oculus Rift DK1. Fast forward five years and the Lynx-R1 embodies the latest technology to provide customers with an all-in-one (AIO) headset with hand tracking, 6DoF tracking, and many more features.
All of which have now been confirmed by the company. The hand tracking for example comes from Ultraleap and will be the primary control method. The front-facing cameras will be full-colour passthrough – no B&W here – whilst the display will offer 1600 x 1600 per eye resolution at 90Hz at a 90° FOV. Powered by a Qualcomm XR2 chipset the Lynx-R1 will have 6GB of RAM and 128GB internal storage that’s expandable to 1TB thanks to an SD card slot. It’ll also have Wifi 6 and Bluetooth, compatible with SteamVR thanks to OpenXR support and three-hour battery life. Oh, and there’s a magnetic VR facial interface to prevent any light leaks.
What everyone really wants to see though is those lenses. While they’ve gone through several revisions the optics feature a 4-fold catadioptric freeform prism in conjunction with a 2.1″ octagonal LCD panel helping to keep the headset’s form factor small. To maintain comfort the battery is located on the back of the head strap which is becoming much more commonplace in AIO devices.
Lynx has launched the Kickstarter to help with the final production run with a variety of funding tiers available. To secure one of the standard black Lynx-R1’s you’ll need to spend €530 EUR, £453 GBP or around $600 USD. Or if you’re looking for an XR headset that’s aesthetically different a limited edition transparent version is available but that’ll cost €745/£636. Only 1000 of these will be offered.
While the Lynx-R1 doesn’t come with motion controllers Lynx has been working with Finch to supports its FinchShift controllers if hand tracking isn’t to your liking. As the Kickstarter progresses, VRFocus will keep you updated.
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