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Virtual Reality (VR) VR Headset Technology

Intel steps up VR game with cord-free headset

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By Kyle O'Brien, Creative Works Editor

August 16, 2016 | 3 min read

Let’s face it, none of the current virtual reality headsets are going to win any beauty contests. They are bulky, awkward, clunky and not in the least bit sexy. What VR sells is the visual world you get after the behemoth headsets are on.

Intel announces new VR headset

Intel announces new VR headset

Intel has at least made the VR world a little less wired, offering Project Alloy, a wireless headset that doesn’t require a PC to use, freeing the user from the wired connections that usually come with VR.

Project Alloy was announced by CEO Brian Kraznich at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Tuesday.

A press release on the Intel website talked about the technology with these words:

“The computing power is located in the Alloy Head-Mounted Device (HMD), which allows the user to experience VR untethered. That means you can ‘cut the VR cord,’ allowing a free range of motion with 6 degrees-of-freedom across a large space. This, combined with collision detection and avoidance, enables the user to utilize physical movement to explore a virtual space.”

It uses something Intel calls “merged reality,” which lets you see what’s in front of you through Intel RealSense cameras attached to the headset. It doesn’t need external sensors or cameras. You can use that to interact with elements in the real world through a virtual portal, making you in charge of what’s going on, in essence.

A demo at the IDF showed the ability of Alloy to merge reality with the virtual world by the user’s hands. It is also on display on a YouTube video that shows somebody walking through an impossibly hip party and helping change the outcome (dropping a waiter into the pool) through your actions, no matter where you are.

The Alloy designs won’t be available anytime soon, and chances are the headsets won’t be cheap, like Google Cardboard. But Intel did say that they will be sharing the technology with partners, according to the release.

“Intel will open the Alloy hardware and provide open APIs for the ecosystem, allowing developers and partners to create their own branded products from the Alloy design, in 2017.”

Virtual Reality (VR) VR Headset Technology

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