Samsung collaborates with Oculus to venture into Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality or VR as it is fondly known as, is the latest sensation in the world of Technology. The Rift from Oculus Virtual Reality company was the first virtual reality head-mounted display to be used mostly for 3D gaming purposes. In September 2014, Samsung announced their version of virtual reality headset Samsung Gear VR along with their much awaited Galaxy Note 4 at events in Berlin, New York and Beijing. The Gear Vr from Samsung just like the Rift from Oculus can be mounted on your head with two straps which you can adjust easily according to your liking and get your eyes a detailed experience.
What is Gear VR?
Gear VR is the virtual reality headset from Samsung. The Gear VR displays images through individual lenses to your eyes to provide you with a unique virtual reality exposure. The working of the Gear VR is a unique experience in itself. The device reacts to our different movements through a series of sensors along with input provided by a touchpad and button on the left side of the device. The device gives output through speakers or a Bluetooth wireless earpiece connected to the Gear VR.
Launched way back
Samsung Gear VR was launched way back in September 2014 along with Galaxy Note 4. It is better that it was launched with Note 4 because the Gear VR is as useless as a dead mouse without the phone. The Note 4 can be set in the front section of Gear VR with other required components through USB port. The advantage of this is that the Gear VR is lightweight and now there is no need of more cables or external devices to be connected to the Gear VR.
How does the Gear VR get its content?
This is one of the most important points to be raised for any virtual reality headset or any other device venturing into virtual reality has to keep in mind while designing the headset and a source of content to be seen on the device. The Gear VR gets its content from the downloads section of the Galaxy Note 4 device attached to the VR headset, but there is one more option of a SD card which is pre-loaded with loads of content to start using right away. Most of the content is available on Oculus Store.
Similarities with Oculus Rift?
There is a high possibility that at first instance if we show you an image of the Samsung Gear VR without the tag of Samsung, you will definitely mistake it for Oculus Rift, again only if you have heard of Rift. (You must have because of the recent news of a person spending a month on the Virtual Reality headset) The similarities stem from the fact that there is a partnership among Samsung and Oculus for this product. There is “Powered by Oculus” branding on both the software and the hardware.
Samsung should have no problem with Oculus getting the royalty, because they have got immense support and expertise from the Oculus team who are pioneers of Virtual Reality headsets. Whether this device will be able to capture people’s attention and hearts alike is yet to be known, but this new device risk taking ability of Samsung must be applauded and we hope to see more such technologies from the R&D team at Samsung. If you have any questions pertaining to Virtual Reality, you can mention it in the comments section below.
Nisarg is the Business Development Manager at Nimblechapps, a top mobile game development company and has been with the organisation since its inception in 2014. He likes to update his knowledge on changing trends in technology and marketing and pens his thoughts regarding the same on various blogs and LinkedIn.