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Comment by cineticdaffodil | Hacker News Reader

In industrial robotics, there is this emergency practice when the payload and tooling on the robot gets to heavy, to connect the payload to a counterweight and pully system, to "neutralize it in weight". Has anyone here tried that ? It should take three thin ropes with weight to make a object neutrally buyont. Yes, its tied to one room, yes its not pretty and futuristic, but its practical? If you want freedom of movement, connect via magnet- and dedock on leaving the room?

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Here is a video:

https://old.reddit.com/r/VisionPro/comments/1cki7jc/brillian...

More simply, I wonder if anyone's tried adding an equal weight to the back of their head. This would double the weight, but people can carry very heavy loads on their heads as long as the weight is acting downwards.

The issue with that is you would constantly need to keep your head on the same plane, as soon as you move it around, it becomes unbalanced and now it's even harder to move around because it's heavier. Walking with something balanced on your head is a completely different use case than looking around, up and down etc.

Yes. This is how various headsets are made. The HTC focus Vision is one example, and there’s an addon (not sure if third party) for the quest 3 that puts a battery back there.

So yes, this is done and it can help.

This has been done as a mod for the Valve Index, it works pretty well. Really is mainly a balance issue.

First thing I thought of when I tried a Vision Pro was why they never provided a way to attach the battery pack as a pouch on the back so that it sits horizontally across the rear of the head. You have to carry that external battery anyway, so why not use it as a natural counterweight?

I think the only device that don't have that option is Vive Flow VR yoga goggles(???), which I happen to have, and suspect that someone at Apple fell in love with its concept. It just feels too similar if described in PowerPoint slides to the production Vision Pro.

I did this with my aftermarket Quest 3 headset strap. Added a few counterweights to the back to keep it from sliding down on my face. It is indeed much more comfortable.

Counterweights are common in a lot of industrial machinery. Most CNC mills have them on the Z axis to neutralize the spindle weight. And they're not always a weight on a rope or chain, they can be gas or hydraulic cylinders with valves enabling dynamic loading.

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