Open source hardware often takes a back seat to open source software. Hardware pulls in the problems of physical distribution and sourcing. 3D printing has alleviated some of this, but still, some of the required components are sophisticated optics and screens that need a modern manufacturer. But the idea of open hardware is so important. Have you ever got really excited about a piece of hardware tech only to have it discontinued? Worse, these days discontinued generally means no longer able to be used due to the coupling of hardware with web for account support etc. Project Northstar is a project to make an open source AR headset/eyeglass.

The AR space has had a number of cancelled projects, or projects that appear hot and then go silent, so it’s a great area to apply open source principles. The headset looks very professional, and the other open source projects used to create the solution provide a great glimpse in to the state of open source XR. Bryan chris Brown talked about the project as a “glue” between a large number of software and hardware technologies to make a complete solution. Each of these areas (like hand tracking for example) are their own area of specialization.

Even though our emphasis on Field of VR is VR, AR is certainly an interesting tech, and has some great overlap with VR. In addition, having more projects use WebVR and OpenVR frameworks will benefit both the VR and AR space. Exciting stuff!