Oculus introduced a stand-alone VR helmet for $ 200

Virtual reality helmets have been on the market for electronic devices for a long time. Unfortunately, they are not very popular due to the high price and no less high demands on the PC to which they are connected. Those who want to buy a VR-helmet will have to spend not only a few hundred dollars on the device itself, but also thousands and a half, or even two US dollars on a computer that can play content for such glasses.



It is clear that sales of helmets under such conditions cannot be high. But things can change, and it seems to be changing. So, the company Oculus introduced a stand-alone virtual reality helmet, which costs only $ 199 and does not connect to anything. $ 199 is also a significant amount, but it’s still less than $ 499 that anyone who wants to buy a Rift should pay.



By the way, the story of Rift began five years ago, in the summer of 2012. It was then that Kickstarter began to raise funds for its device company Oculus VR. The requested $ 250,000 was collected in just one day. The startup then collected 10 times more than requested, but the gadget entered the market was delayed due to the technological features of the device, which were not easy to implement. Whatever it was, but the helmet still came out, competitors began to urgently create their own versions of VR devices and then the company bought Facebook.



But back to the new product. According to the developers, this device is intended for daily use. Since the device is autonomous, the user does not need to bother with the settings of the "base", you just need to turn on the helmet and everything - you can have fun. Facebook headmaster Mark Zuckerberg presented the helmet, who at the same time spoke about the purpose of his company: to make VR publicly available in the near future. The criterion of “accessibility” is simple - a billion users have to get acquainted with virtual reality.



The device is called the Oculus Go, and this is nothing more than the Oculus Connect, which has long been discussed by fans of virtual reality. And this, by the way, is not the commercial version of the Santa Cruz prototype, which was shown last year. Go does not have full tracking or supported motion controllers. It is because of this that the price turned out so low. But Santa Cruz still remains the prototype, which has both of the above functions, which Oculus Go is deprived of.



The head of Oculus, Hugo Barr, said that Go is a device that is the easiest road in VR. This gadget has a new lens, a display with a resolution of 2560x1440 plus its own audio system, so you don’t need to use headphones. By the way, there is a controller, which is similar to its “relative” in Gear VR. Thus, developers can simultaneously develop applications for both Oculus Go and Gear VR.





Santa Cruz Helmet Controller



The same prototype of a full-fledged autonomous virtual reality helmet with controllers and tracking, called Santa Cruz , will be available to developers writing applications for Oculus later this year. At the same time, the motion controllers will be refined and become even more perfect. Tracking in the final version of the device will be more perfect and accurate.



But Oculus Go will hit the market in 2018. By the way, another good news. The cost of the Oculus Rift "temporarily" will drop to a mark of $ 399. This is exactly what the buyer will have to pay if they decide to purchase a set with Oculus Touch controllers. Perhaps all this - and reducing the cost of the Rift, and the output of a relatively inexpensive stand-alone helmet will help virtual reality to become much more accessible to users.