You might have heard about Oculus. Its a company that’s working on virtual reality technology and was recently acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. You will have certainly heard about Samsung. Its the world’s largest phone manufacturer and is reportedly working on a virtual reality headset for its mobile devices. A new report claims that both Samsung and Oculus are working together on this project, with the latter handling software and the former taking care of the hardware.
According to Engadget both companies have agreed to a swap. Samsung gets early access to Oculus’ mobile software development kit whereas Oculus gets early access to Samsung’s next generation OLED displays which it needs for the gaming-focused PC based VR headset.
The previous report suggested that Samsung is rushing development of its VR headset because it wants to beat others to the market, which includes Sony’s Project Morpheus.
Apparently the company’s headset won’t have a display of its own, it will simply plug in to a high-end Samsung phone and become its screen. Motion tracking will be offloaded from the mobile device’s processor as the headset is at least expected to have an accelerometer and other built-in sensors. It may be used as a standalone media device or with a paired game controller. The headset will reportedly depend entirely open motion and voice for navigation.
When contacted by the scribe both Samsung and Oculus denied to comment. There’s no official confirmation about their partnership as yet and it is not known when Samsung aims to bring this product to the market and at what price point.
Filed in . Read more about Oculus, Samsung and Virtual Reality (VR).