Optics experts offering $99 VR ONE headset for December

Optics experts offering $99 VR ONE headset for December

ZEISS believes that virtual reality is going to change the way we perceive things, beyond all our imagination. They created a new headset, a mobile VR goggle, called the ZEISS VR ONE. The head-mounted virtual reality device can enable you to view pictures and videos in the kind of immersive environment that vendors say will envelop us.

The VR ONE works via your display. To enjoy the experience you need the smartphone and the VR ONE with tray. Gizmodo calls it the "face case" for your phone. VR ONE can be used with multiple smartphone devices with display sizes between 4.7 and 5.2 inches. You feed the phones into a slot using the tray, specifically designed for whatever phone it is. The ZEISS VR ONE provides specific trays for two smartphones: the iPhone 6/4.7-inch and Samsung Galaxy S5. They list smartphones which can fit into the VR ONE based on their screen size of 4.7 to 5.2 inches: Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One M8, Sony Xperia Z2, Huawei Ascend P7, Nokia Lumia 930, Xiaomi MI3, and LG G2. ZEISS is taking pre-orders at $99 and first units will ship before Christmas.

Two ZEISS multimedia apps will be available to enable you, for example, to watch movies, 2D and 3D, view photos and interact with Augmented Reality. These are VR ONE Media and VR ONE AR, downloadable on iTunes and Google Play stores. David Steele, writing in Android Headlines on Saturday, commented on the price. "The reason why it's relatively inexpensive is because it relies on your smartphone's display, accelerometer and gyroscope sensors, speaker, 3.5mm or Bluetooth output for sound, rather than these sensors built into the headset. Beyond the design and famous quality Carl Zeiss lenses, the VR ONE contains no electronic equipment. It's also cheap because the project is completely open; development, growth and to a point, marketing is down to the developer community."

The multimedia app allows you to stream YouTube videos in 2D and 3D, visit "featured views" from Google, and watch films and view photos saved on your phone.

The second is the Augmented Reality (AR) app. The VR One site said, "To use this, just hold the AR cube (included in the package) in front of the VR ONE and the avatars will appear automatically. By turning the cube, you can look at them from any angle."

An open source Unity3D SDK provides functions for app developers. The SDK is available for iOS and Android operating system platforms on Bitbucket.

More information: zeissvrone.tumblr.com/products/q-a

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