ANTVR Cyclop
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| ANTVR Cyclop | |
|---|---|
| |
| Basic Info | |
| VR/AR | Virtual Reality |
| Type | Head-mounted display |
| Subtype | PC-Powered VR |
| Developer | ANTVR |
| Manufacturer | Beijing ANTVR Technology Co., Ltd. |
| Announcement Date | January 2016 (prototype shown at CES 2016) |
| Release Date | 12 July 2016 (China launch event, pre-orders and Taobao crowdfunding); crowdfunding shipments scheduled from mid to late August 2016[1] |
| Price | 3,499 yuan (desktop kit) and 4,399 yuan (extended kit), China launch prices, July 2016[1]; $450 (discontinued) |
| Versions | Cyclop, Cyclop 2C |
| Requires | Windows PC (64-bit Windows 10) with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, AMD Radeon R9 290 or equivalent graphics card |
| Display | |
| Display | 2 x OLED binocular |
| Resolution | 1080x1200 per-eye |
| Refresh Rate | 90 Hz |
| Image | |
| Field of View | 110° diagonal[2] |
| Optics | |
| Optics | Fresnel lenses |
| Ocularity | Binocular |
| Tracking | |
| Tracking | 6DoF, inside-out infrared camera with floor or desk markers |
| Audio | |
| Audio | Built-in earphones |
| Camera | 1 x built-in infrared camera |
| Connectivity | |
| Connectivity | HDMI, 2 x USB 3.0 |
| Device | |
| Weight | 550 g |
| Sensors | 9-axis IMU |
| Input | 2 x controllers with trigger, four buttons and finger sensing |
ANTVR Cyclop is a virtual reality head-mounted display made by the Beijing company ANTVR. It was the company's second-generation headset and connects to a Windows PC. The Cyclop has two OLED displays with a combined resolution of 2160 x 1200 pixels, a 90 Hz refresh rate and a 110 degree field of view.[2] ANTVR showed a prototype at CES in January 2016 and launched the headset at an event in Beijing on 12 July 2016, opening pre-orders and a Taobao crowdfunding campaign.[3][1]
Instead of the external tracking hardware used by the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, the Cyclop tracks position with one infrared camera on the underside of the headset. The camera sees reflective markers on modular floor tiles, a system ANTVR called HoloDeck, or small marker balls placed on a desk.[3][1][4] The headset works with SteamVR and OSVR content as well as ANTVR's own ANTVR Hall platform.[2] Few of ANTVR's headsets reached Western markets, and by 2023 the company was hoping to license its optical designs to other companies rather than manufacture its own headset.[5][6]
History
Background
ANTVR's first headset came from a Kickstarter campaign in May 2014 that raised over $260,000. The headset shipped to backers, but Road to VR described it as a flop, blaming the company's lack of manufacturing experience and its overpromising. ANTVR offered backers a 20 percent discount on its next headset.[5]
CES 2016 prototype
ANTVR presented the Cyclop at CES 2016 as a prototype of its second-generation headset. TechNode China reported that the prototype had a 2K screen with 1280 x 1440 pixels per eye, a 110 degree field of view and a 90 Hz refresh rate. It was ANTVR's first headset with Fresnel lenses, which the company said widened the field of view to 110 degrees without distortion. An infrared camera at the front of the headset's underside covered a 120 degree range; it tracked the wearer's horizontal position and height, and it could also locate ANTVR's new controllers within its view.[3][7] ANTVR demonstrated two games with position tracking on the prototype at the show.[3]
The resolution of the production model differs from the CES prototype: ANTVR's retail specifications list 1080 x 1200 pixels per eye.[2]
Launch in China
ANTVR held a launch event in Beijing on 12 July 2016 and announced the second-generation headset in two kits: a desktop kit at 3,499 yuan and an extended kit at 4,399 yuan. Online pre-orders opened the same day. On the Taobao crowdfunding platform the kits were offered at 2,999 yuan and 3,699 yuan respectively.[1][8] At the same event ANTVR announced an "ANTVR READY" program, and Asus and NVIDIA announced strategic partnerships with the company.[1]
CEO Qin Zheng told Leiphone that he expected to sell 100,000 units of the headset. According to Leiphone, ANTVR had grown from fewer than 50 employees to more than 100 in the 18 months since its previous headset, and nearly 70 of them worked in research and development.[4] In August 2016, China News Service reported that the Taobao crowdfunding campaign had passed 10 million yuan and that shipments were scheduled to begin in batches from mid to late August.[9]
International sales and later years
ANTVR's English-language site listed the Cyclop in late 2016.[2] The company's site later offered it in a roomscale kit, with two controllers and a tracking carpet, and a hand tracking kit, with two controllers and no carpet.[10] In April 2018, Road to VR wrote that ANTVR had shipped a room-scale headset "called AntVR Cyclops", but that few of the company's headsets had reached Western markets because it sold them only through AliExpress.[5]
ANTVR then turned to a hybrid AR headset called Mix, which it planned to fund through a second Kickstarter campaign in 2018.[5] In 2023 Road to VR reported that ANTVR's crowdfunding campaign for an AR headset had failed to raise enough money to ship the headset, which "wound up tanking the company". ANTVR said it had since shrunk its staff sharply and taken on research and development work that earned enough to refund the backers. Road to VR added that the company did not plan to manufacture its own headset again and instead hoped another company would license its optical design.[6]
Design and hardware
Display and optics
The Cyclop has two OLED displays, one per eye, at 1080 x 1200 pixels each (2160 x 1200 combined) and 90 Hz.[2][10] ANTVR lists the field of view as 110 degrees measured diagonally.[2] The lenses are Fresnel lenses that ANTVR describes as distortion-free, and the company said at launch that it had designed them itself to keep lens thickness and weight down.[2][1] ANTVR also cited the low persistence of the OLED panels as a way to reduce motion blur.[1]
ANTVR's "adaptive IPD adjustment" sets the interpupillary distance automatically, moving the lenses according to the shape of the wearer's face; the company said users did not need to tune the distance between the lenses themselves.[2][9] The Cyclop can be worn with glasses, and a soft silicone nose rest is meant to block light leakage.[1][10]
LCLV viewing windows
Below the lenses, the headset has viewing windows made with a liquid crystal light valve (LCLV). At the press of a button the windows switch between dark and transparent, so the wearer can see the surroundings without taking the headset off. ANTVR said the windows also open automatically when the wearer reaches the edge of the tracking carpet.[1][2]
Tracking
The Cyclop uses inside-out tracking with a single infrared camera. Leiphone explained that the camera emits infrared light, which reflective markers on the floor send back to the headset so that it can calculate the wearer's position.[4] ANTVR offered two tracking modes:[1]
- Desktop mode: small marker balls placed on a desk let the headset follow the wearer moving forward, back and sideways, standing up and crouching, while the wearer stays within view of the balls.
- Extended mode: modular floor carpets extend the tracked area, and more modules can be added. The wearer can jump and crouch on the carpet.
In 2016 ANTVR's product page listed the carpet set as 16 tiles of 60 x 60 cm each, giving a 2.4 x 2.4 m play area, with larger areas optional. Later specifications give the same set as 5.76 square meters.[2][10] According to TechNode, large blocks printed with the letters A, N, T, V and R, similar to QR codes and working as fiducial markers, give the absolute position, while smaller white squares give the relative position. All the markers are made of highly reflective material.[11] ANTVR's specifications list a 9-axis IMU in both the headset and the controllers.[10]
Controllers
The Cyclop comes with two controllers. Leiphone compared their shape, with a glowing sphere on top, to the PlayStation Move controller. Sensors in the grip detect whether each finger is touching the controller, which allows gestures such as an "OK" sign or a pointing gun.[4] ANTVR's specifications list "5 fingers for each controller" for gesture recognition, and a trigger and four buttons for input.[2][10] The infrared camera on the headset tracks the controllers' positions.[3]
Audio and connections
Built-in HiFi earphones sit on both sides of the headset and can be angled.[1] The headset connects to the PC through HDMI and two USB 3.0 ports.[10]
Specifications
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Display | 2 x OLED binocular[10] |
| Resolution | 1080x1200 per-eye (2160 x 1200 combined)[10] |
| Refresh Rate | 90 Hz[10] |
| Field of View | 110° diagonal[2] |
| Lenses | Distortion-free Fresnel lenses[2] |
| IPD adjustment | Automatic (adaptive)[2] |
| Tracking | Inside-out infrared tracking; 9-axis IMU[10] |
| Weight | 550 g[2] |
| Connections | HDMI, USB 3.0 x 2[10] |
| Price | $450 (discontinued) |
PC requirements
ANTVR's recommended minimum system is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 graphics card or better, an Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 processor or better, 8 GB of RAM, one HDMI 1.4 video output, one USB 3.0 port and 64-bit Windows 10.[2]
Software
ANTVR lists SteamVR, OSVR and ANTVR Hall as content sources for the Cyclop, along with 3D and 2D games.[2] CEO Qin Zheng told Leiphone that because HTC and Oculus both connect to OpenVR, the open architecture behind Steam, the ANTVR headset could also become an officially certified Steam-ready headset.[4] ANTVR describes ANTVR Hall as an open platform with regularly updated content.[2] The company also said that native 3D games run directly and that traditional 2D games can be played on a large virtual screen.[1]
Cyclop 2C
The Cyclop 2C is a lower-cost PC VR model that ANTVR sold alongside the Cyclop. Its official specifications list the same 2160 x 1200 OLED resolution, 90 Hz refresh rate, Fresnel lenses and 110 degree field of view, with a 9-axis IMU, automatic IPD adjustment, glasses support, HDMI 1.4 and USB 3.0 connections, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, no microphone and a size of 200 x 130 x 120 mm. ANTVR marketed it for playing SteamVR games with an Xbox gamepad and for watching video in ANTVR Hall. The 2C specifications do not list the infrared positional tracking of the Cyclop. In January 2018 the company's site showed prices of 1,850 yuan for the 2C and 3,699 yuan for the Cyclop roomscale kit.[12]
Reception
At the July 2016 launch, Leiphone played two shooting games, including EVE: Gunjack. The writer felt no obvious dizziness and found the image fairly clear, though slightly less sharp than EVE: Gunjack on Gear VR. The headset felt a little heavier than the HTC Vive.[4]
In an August 2016 hands-on with the HoloDeck tracking system, TechNode China's Zhang Lincheng found its latency and position accuracy fairly good and had no motion sickness while walking in virtual environments. The main drawback was that the wearer could not tilt the head far up or down, because the camera on the underside of the headset then lost the infrared signal reflected from the floor. Qin Zheng told TechNode that the precision was about one millimeter close to the markers and several millimeters farther away, and that each carpet set would cost a few hundred yuan. Zhang concluded that the system was an attractive position tracking product that still trailed Valve's Lighthouse, but suggested that its lower price might make it a more realistic route to wider VR adoption than other solutions.[11]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 "蚁视二代VR头盔正式发布 淘宝众筹价2999元起". ifeng Finance. China News Service. 2016-07-13. https://finance.ifeng.com/a/20160713/14593336_0.shtml. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 "ANTVR Cyclop". ANTVR. Beijing ANTVR Technology Co., Ltd.. 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161114032350/http://www.antvr.com/en/headset.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Du Yu (2016-01-07). "蚁视发布二代虚拟现实头盔Cyclop，配备位置追踪系统". TechNode China. https://cn.technode.com/post/2016-01-07/anther-cyclop-games/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Tian Miao (2016-07-12). "向Vive靠拢的蚁视二代头盔，是国内厂商的正确道路吗？". Leiphone. https://www.leiphone.com/category/arvr/83T99j7EsusFS1P4.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Scott Hayden (2018-04-17). "ANTVR to Launch $500 'Mix' AR Headset on Kickstarter in May". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/antvr-planning-launch-new-kickstarter-fund-hybrid-arvr-headset/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ben Lang (2023-01-24). "A Failed XR Startup is Back With Compact Optics That Switch Instantly Between AR & VR". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/antvr-ar-vr-optics-ces-2023-lcd-switching-opacity/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Lu Gang (2016-01-12). "ANTVR蚁视推出其第二代虚拟现实头盔Cyclop - CES2016现场报道". TechNode China. https://cn.technode.com/post/2016-01-12/antvr-cyclop-ces-2016/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Du Yu (2016-07-12). "蚁视发布二代VR头盔，起售价3499元". TechNode China. https://cn.technode.com/post/2016-07-12/anther-vr/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "蚁视二代VR头盔对比顶级VR设备：国产头盔性能一样出色". ifeng Finance. China News Service. 2016-08-12. https://finance.ifeng.com/a/20160812/14735722_0.shtml. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 10.10 10.11 "ANTVR Cyclop Roomscale kit". ANTVR. Beijing ANTVR Technology Co., Ltd.. https://web.archive.org/web/20230325171017/http://www.antvr.com/en/Cyclop_Roomscale_kit.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Zhang Lincheng (2016-08-19). "蚁视"全息甲板"体验：最亲民的无限扩展级位置追踪系统？". TechNode China. https://cn.technode.com/post/2016-08-19/ant-vr-holodeck/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "ANTVR Cyclop 2C". ANTVR. Beijing ANTVR Technology Co., Ltd.. 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180103012919/http://antvr.com/en/2C.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.