About a month back we heard rumors that Samsung is developing a virtual reality headset in collaboration with Oculus and today a picture of that headset has been leaked online. It is called the Gear VR. A couple of weeks back we picked up on a report about Samsung getting a trademark for Gear VR and it certainly looks like this is the moniker Samsung is sticking with. The accompanying report claims that Samsung is going to release the Gear VR alongside Galaxy Note 4 at IFA 2014 this September.
As previously reported the Gear VR won’t be a completely standalone headset like the Oculus Rift. Instead users will be able to dock a Galaxy device through USB 3.0 and VR effects will be achieved through head tracking. Gear VR would use the connected device’s sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope and processing capabilities for head tracking. Since Samsung’s high end devices have AMOLED displays users can expect to get a good visual experience as well.
This way Samsung will be able to keep the cost of its VR headset down. It may even be compared to Google’s cardboard VR box because essentially the principle is the same. However Sammobile claims Gear VR is much more comfortable to wear as it has an elastic headband and padded cushions on each side.
There’s a see-through button on the right side of the sensor which taps into the connected device’s camera to provide users with a real-time feed of what’s in front of them. This way users won’t have to take Gear VR on and off again, something which is sort of an inconvenience on full-fledged VR headsets from the likes of Oculus and Sony.
Samsung is reportedly tackling the hardware side of things on its own whereas Oculus is working on the software end. The company is expected to open up SDK to developers soon after the announcement and it may dedicate an entire section of Samsung Apps for Gear VR.
No word on the price but one can expect it to cost a couple of hundred dollars. IFA 2014 takes place this September in Berlin.
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