Exploring Future Reality
Display Types
There are two types of head-mounted displays (HMDs) for virtual reality. The first affixes a smartphone to a headset directly in front of the viewer’s eyes; Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR, for example. The other headsets have a display built in like the forthcoming Oculus, HTC Vive and Sony Playstation VR. The refresh rate, resolution and latency for these displays all have similar specifications.
Samsung Gear VR
The Samsung Gear VR is a smartphone enabled headset that works in conjunction with either of the Samsung Note, Galaxy S6 or S6 edge phones. The headset connects to the phone via microUSB. Since the smartphone is held in the device, a touchpad is provided on the side of the headset as a user interface.
The Gear VR was first released in fall 2014 and an update was released with new phone compatibilities in March 2015. A team led by John Carmack at Oculus developed the Gear VR with Samsung.
Early versions of the Gear VR were called the Innovator’s Edition. A consumer release and marketing push for Gear VR rolled out in November 2015.
Google Cardboard
First announced at Google’s I/O Developer’s conference in 2014, Google Cardboard is a software development kit that allows people to create virtual reality applications that work with a smartphone and a cardboard viewer that consists of a simple phone holder and two lenses.
Google estimates that millions of smartphone holders that meet Google Cardboard specifications have been produced. Google has developed the API and the specifications for the viewer, but Google doesn’t sell the cardboard viewers. Google has created a “Works with Google Cardboard” badge and QR code that indicates that viewers are compatible with the Cardboard app. In order to participate, manufacturers send work samples to Google’s Mountain View office.
Google released software developer kits for Android and Unity, a development platform for creating 3-D and 2-D games and interactive experiences.
Oculus
The Oculus has shaped the trajectory of recent interest in virtual reality. There is a large development community working on games, media and software for the platform. As of September 2015 more than 100,000 Oculus developer kits have been released and more than 200,000 developers registered. Oculus is rumored to be the best funded and most staffed virtual reality effort currently in development.
The combined price for an Oculus compatible computer and the Oculus display itself is anticipated to start at approximately $1,000 dollars. This price is significantly higher than most items in the gaming accessories category and more in the ballpark of 3-D televisions or Google Glass.
A camera and sensors on the Oculus headset tracks a user’s position to replicate movements in the virtual space as they move through the physical space.
The Oculus will require a reasonably powerful computer for playback. The minimum system requirements are an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD 290 GPU, an Intel i5–4590 CPU and 8GB of RAM. A computer with those specifications currently costs around $1,000 out of the box. If a potential Oculus customer needs to upgrade their computer to use the headset, this will add to the price of the device.
The Oculus will initially run only on the Windows operating system. Microsoft and Oculus have partnered to offer an Xbox One controller with every headset of the consumer version that is sold. These controllers mean that the Oculus will have more opportunities for input from the user than smartphone based virtual reality experiences. This could mean a much richer type of content will be available for the Oculus, but if media experiences aren’t able to offer a deep interaction users may be left tantalized and disappointed by the promise of the Oculus. To address the lack of content, Oculus has started its own content production unit called Oculus Story Studio.
Sony PlayStation VR
The Sony Playstation VR, called the Sony Morpheus early in development, is a headset that will work with the Playstation 4 gaming console. Since the Playstation 4 is one of the most popular gaming consoles the Playstation VR will have a large potential audience of users.
HTC Vive
The HTC Vive is a collaboration between HTC and the Valve company that runs the popular Steam gaming service, which has built a platform for content creators.
The Vive was used for an experience at the 2015 US Open tennis tournament, produced with American Express. It allowed fans to play a virtual game of tennis with Maria Sharapova.
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