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Can You Wear Glasses With A Virtual Reality Headset? Tips For Comfort And Clarity

Virtual reality (VR) training needs to be accessible, safe, and comfortable for every learner to complete, especially for those who wear glasses. 

Learners can wear a standard VR headset with glasses on, but they may face challenges with comfort and clarity. Luckily, there are strategies to overcome these hurdles to ensure their VR experience is conducive to learning:

  1. Take extra time to adjust the headset straps
  2. Consider buying spacers that provide more depth
  3. Use clip-in insert lenses

With roughly 64% of adults wearing glasses, it’s likely that a large portion of your workforce will wear glasses when completing VR training. While learners can wear their glasses with a VR headset on, there may be added challenges. 

If you’re planning on implementing a virtual reality (VR) training program at your organization, you’ll want to ensure that every learner can comfortably complete activities, even those who wear glasses. 

At Roundtable Learning, our expert team, many of whom wear glasses themselves, have generated a list of tips for learners who must wear glasses with a standard VR headset. Through our experience working with clients across the globe, we’ve found ways to overcome potential issues learners who wear glasses may face. 

This article will explore how to wear glasses with a VR headset, provide tips for comfort while wearing a VR headset, and discuss strategies for creating a clear view of the virtual environment. 

Can You Wear A Virtual Reality Headset With Glasses?

To put it simply — yes, you can wear a standard VR headset with glasses on. Learners with glasses will need to complete a few extra steps to ensure their headset is comfortable and displays a clear virtual environment

If a learner is unable to see clearly in real life, it’s very likely that they’ll want to wear their glasses while in the VR experience. While this is common, there are two areas of concern when wearing glasses with a headset: comfort and clarity. Both of these elements are critical in providing learners with a seamless VR training experience. 

Importance Of Comfort When Wearing A Virtual Reality Headset

Comfort is critical when learning, especially with VR technology. A VR training program offers an immersive experience that many learners may not have experienced before. By putting on a headset, learners with glasses on may feel burdened by the hardware. Learners may experience any of the following feelings of discomfort with a VR headset:

  • Extra pressure on a learner’s face
  • Heavy weight of the headset on their head
  • Disorientation from having their senses cut off from real life
  • Eye strain due to the bright light in the program

A main area of concern that could cause discomfort stems from the width of the learner’s glasses. Different headsets have different clearances, which indicates the amount of space between the lenses on the headset and lenses on the glasses of the learner. 

The wider the frames of the glasses, the more likely they are to rub against the headset. Learners with bigger and thicker plastic frames will have problems with the fit and comfort of their headset. Luckily, we have a few tips to resolve this comfort issue. 

Read More: Top 5 VR Headset Alternatives To The Oculus Quest For 2021

How To Comfortably Wear A Virtual Reality Headset

  1. Take extra time to adjust the headset straps — Before putting on their headset, learners should take extra time to adjust their headset straps and make sure it comfortably rests on their face. 
  2. Consider buying spacers that provide more depth — With a spacer, learners simply take out the inner cushion in the headset and replace it with a plastic spacer that creates more depth. Most headsets actually come with a spacer to make extra room for a learner’s glasses. 
  3. Use clip-in insert lenses — These lenses are typically under $200 and simply snap into place inside of the VR headset. With clip-in lenses, learners eliminate the possibility of scratching the headset lenses or the lenses on their glasses. 

Clarity Of Images Within The Virtual Environment

As with any learning experience, learners must be able to clearly see the details within the VR activity (e.g. selection options, directions). If not, they won’t be able to complete the activity and the blurriness will only distract them from their learning. 

The quality of a VR experience is affected by the resolution level and pixel count it was developed in. Most VR experiences are developed at 8k resolution for both eyes, so the quality of the program itself is high. Blurriness within the VR experience typically stem from issues related to the placement, cleanliness, and alignment of a learner’s glasses. 

Read More: How To Overcome VR Training Safety Problems: 6 Solutions

Tips For A Clear Virtual Reality Experience When Wearing Glasses

  1. Make sure your glasses are clean — The easiest way to make sure your glasses have clean lenses is to simply wipe them down with a cloth before you jump into your VR activity. 
  2. Position your glasses correctly on your face — Make sure your glasses are resting comfortably on your face in their normal position. Double check to make sure they aren’t lopsided or too low or high. 
  3. Make sure the lenses in the VR headset are clean — Before putting on your headset, make sure that the headset’s lenses are clean. You can do so by using a non abrasive antibacterial wipe
  4. Position the headset so your glasses lenses and headset lenses are touching — Learners should make sure there isn’t too much space between their lenses and the headset’s lenses. These should line up with each other so that images in the virtual environment won’t appear skewed or blurry. 
  5. Adjust your headset’s pupillary distance to align with your lenses — Within a VR headset, learners can actually adjust the distance between the two lenses. This helps with aligning the distance between the lenses on your glasses with the lenses on the headset. 

Try An Alternative Access Option For Virtual Reality

For learners who are unable to wear their glasses comfortably within a VR headset, there are other access options, including:

  • Cardboard VR Headset — Coming in at a low price of $7 – $12 per headset, cardboard VR headsets are a lightweight, scalable option that may be more comfortable for learners. 
  • Mobile Version — A mobile VR activity avoids the need to wear a headset and provides learners with a 360° VR activity accessible through a mobile device. 
  • Desktop Version — With desktop VR activities, learners can access the same training as their peers and interact with their VR environment by using their mouse and keyboard. 

Experience Virtual Reality Training Comfortably Today!

We’ve covered all there is to know about wearing glasses with a VR headset on. Not only is it important for learners to be comfortable with the fit of their headset, it’s also critical that their training is presented clearly.

Are you ready to start designing your custom VR training program? Schedule a meeting with one of our experts today or check out more of our resources on everything VR training.

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