New Virtual Reality Devices

Imagine being able to fly over New York City like Superman, using your arms to guide over the tallest buildings or dive down to street level with the simple tilt of your head. Or perhaps it’s Mt. Everest that you’re scaling, with every step of your feet taking you closer to the summit. Or maybe you’d prefer to pilot a spacecraft to Mars, or do precise surgery on a beating heart.  

And you are doing it all from the comfort of your living room.

It’s called virtual reality and in the near future endeavors like these—and many other extraordinary adventures—will be available through the use of special headsets designed to take you into a virtual world that provides a wide range of experiences to surprise and delight the senses.  

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) systems are currently being developed by many of today’s top tech companies, like Microsoft, Google, Apple and Samsung, and will soon be available for all to experience in awe and wonder. Working through an app on your smart phone, these systems bring life–like color, clarity and performance to a visor or screen that you wear over your head in order to create a realistic experience that immerses the participant in an unlimited variety of experiences.

Would you like to tour a potential vacation home for sale? Done. Redesign your kitchen with the latest appliances? Done. Stand in the batter’s box of a major league baseball game? Done. The possibilities are endless with this new technology.

Computer–simulated life has been around for years with high–tech, 3–D games and computer animation, so it’s only natural for this technology to now be evolving into an immersive experience that takes the images away from your computer screen and laces them into your head by way of wrap–around wearables and motion sensors for your hands. Now, instead of watching the game on a screen, you are inside the game, a part of the process, with total control of where you wish to go and how you wish to experience it.

Here are some of the main players in the VR world:

Google Cardboard

Without a doubt, Google Cardboard is the simplest virtual reality headset available because it is, literally, made of cardboard. All you do is open a virtual reality app on your smart phone and slip it into the cardboard headset. The app allows you to choose your experience, including exploring exotic parts of the world, experiencing concerts, watching 360–degree videos or playing VR games. There’s an app for just about every experience. Prices range from just a few dollars to $30.00.  

Samsung Electronics Gear VR 

Samsung has teamed up with Oculus to develop the Gear VR that is compatible with many smartphones, including the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, S6 and S6 edge, leveraging each device’s display to provide the color, clarity and performance needed for an amazing virtual reality experience. 

Gear VR allows people to play immersive VR games with friends, share 360 degree video experiences and even teleport themselves around the world with photos and videos. The Gear VR’s touchpad has been improved from earlier models, providing greater control while enjoying a wide range of film, gaming, 360 degree video and experiential content available for Gear VR. Available soon. $99.00.

Microsoft HoloLens

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The Microsoft HoloLens is an augmented reality system, meaning that it blends high–definition holograms into your reality and allows you to hold or move these visuals as you move your hand. This provides wearers with the ability to collaborate virtually, sharing graphics, collaborating, training and exploring through virtual hands–on interaction.  

The headset will be fully untethered and requires no phone, PC or wires to work and will soon be released to developers who will begin producing the HoloLens for sale to the general public. Price range estimates run from $500 to $1,500.

PlayStation VR from Sony

Originally named Project Morpheus, Sony’s system is due out in 2016. Sony’s Morpheus VR is a lightweight headset that uses the company’s PlayStation4 to transport the user into a virtual reality space. It features a 1080p HD resolution display, a 90–degree field of view and tracks a wearer’s motion with a PS4 camera. Pricing has yet to be announced.

Those are just a few of the top new virtual reality systems that are poised to hit the market in 2016, so keep your eyes out for the release of the Next Big Thing in computer gaming and virtual living. It may be just around the corner, but will eventually take you around the world . . . and beyond.