HTC introduced its first standalone VR helmet - Vive Focus
At its own VR conference in China, HTC showed a fully autonomous virtual reality helmet Vive Focus with six degrees of freedom. The company claims that this is the first such gadget on the market - existing designs offer only three degrees of freedom, not too different from Google Cardboard.
How is it interesting?
HTC Vive Focus is equipped with two cameras to monitor the movements of the head without any external devices. The heart of the novelty was the powerful mobile chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, and the image is displayed on two AMOLED-displays. Other characteristics, including battery life, are unknown. Most likely, the total resolution of the panels is 2560x1440, and the viewing angle is about 100 degrees.
The gadget with an adjustable headband looks like a hybrid HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. Comes with a simpler controller with three degrees of freedom versus six in the versions for desktop helmets (Vive Controller, Oculus Touch).
Now without Daydream
Initially, HTC planned to release a standalone VR helmet for Google Daydream, but the company changed the solution and focused on its own development - Vive Wave. Creators of VR-content can easily port their projects to a new platform (in the case of Daydream and Gear VR, even a week is enough), and partners will be releasing not only helmets, but also accessories to expand the capabilities of existing devices (for example, as Leap Motion does) .
Currently, HTC is targeting the Chinese market, where stand-alone VR-helmets have already occupied 24% of the market by revenue and can soon squeeze mobile virtual reality.
How much is?
The price of HTC Vive Focus has not yet been announced, as well as the date of the start of sales. Probably, the helmet will cost more than the simpler Oculus Go, which can be bought from $ 200 in early 2018. As for stand-alone devices for the Daydream platform, Google now tests pre-release versions of the Lenovo headset.
Updated: the gadget is sold in China since January at a price of $ 630. Not cheap, however, pleasure.
