The Year Ahead: What to Expect in Virtual Reality This Year
As exciting as 2017 was in VR and AR, 2018 already looks even more promising.
Extended realities have been all the news last year. With the release of apple ARKit and Google ARCore, several patent filings, buyouts and releases, there seems to be a lot the tech world has to offer us this year.
Here are five standalone headsets to look out for this year:
Oculus Santa Cruz and Oculus Go:
In a post in October ’17, the extended reality company shared further details about the two products.
The Santa Cruz is what the company feels VR should ideally be. Standalone, simple and yet powerful. This machine is what will come to redefine how we interact with the digital world this year.
The prototype showed a softer shape with rubber straps.Essentially an advanced version of the Rift.
The Oculus Go is an affordable mobile VR solution that allows you to experience movies, concerts and other digital content in immersive VR. The design is as elegant as they come.
The go is designed with breathable fabrics that make it comfortable and fully adjustable. It can even be used with glasses.
HTC Vive Focus:
The news of cancellation of the Daydream project came as a disappointment to fans but HTC more tried to make up for it with its own Standalone machine, the Vive Focus. The ergonomically designed headset comes with built-in water-repellent padding and instant-on. The device is already available for pre-order in China.
Magic Leap One:
So far the best looking Augmented Reality headsets we’ve seen, the Magic Leap One are as powerful as they are pretty. The focus for magic leap is on revolutionizing gaming and socializing while providing an optimized solution for AR. Targeted at developers, the headsets have one iconic design.
Pico Neo:
The Chinese manufacturer announced its standalone project that uses Vive Wave open source API. This means that users will be able to view content meant for the Vive Focus in six degrees of freedom. Shipping starts this month.
Lenovo Mirage Solo:
No official announcements so far for this headset, but a patent filing showed us just how cool the Lenovo’s Mirage Solo could be. It uses google Daydream and could potentially be the best thing in VR this year.
The new announcements, patent filings and other news releases lead us to believe that the coming year could be the year extended reality goes wireless. The ever-growing market for these technologies will also see fresh content, social apps and games, making the headsets more fun to use than ever. With time, it could be a part of our everyday lives, the way mobiles and computers are today.
