Virtual reality is about to become a real product in the hands of consumers

Just put on a pair of goggles and instantly immerse yourself in a fantastic 3D world--and believe we have more or less imagined it. Of course, virtual reality has been known for decades (perhaps due to some terrible movie), but until recently it was finally a step closer to being a real product in the hands of consumers.

The pioneers of virtual reality assert that today's technological developments may make consumer-level virtual reality products available as early as 2016.

That's why various companies, including Lei snakes, which have a religious leadership position in computer games, and Samsung Electronics, go to Las Vegas this week to attend consumer electronics exhibitions and launch their own virtual reality products. They hope that these products will eventually make virtual reality technology as popular as Netflix.

"We think virtual reality is still in infancy," said Chen Minliang, chief executive of Lei Snakes, "and we all know that it is facing chicken eggs or raw chicken."

At this consumer electronics exhibition, Chen Minliang introduced two products related to virtual reality technology. The first product is a software development platform named OSVR (open Source virtual reality), which is designed to make it easier to connect virtual reality devices to games or other content. The other is a osvr-head-wearing device that the company will sell on its official website, priced at around 200 dollars.

Osvr as an open source project that allows everyone to download and modify VR software. OSVR is what the developers call the abstraction layer, which means it can be used to translate the directions in the app or game so that it is compatible with other platforms, where "other platforms" are virtual reality helmets.

Let's understand it in a different way: if a gamer hunts evil aliens in the jungle, the virtual reality helmet's motion sensor needs to tell the software-and the controller and the phone or computer connected to the helmet-where the player's eyes are heading.

A consumer Electronics Show visitor is experimenting with Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet. Oculus Company has not yet launched any consumer-grade products.

Pictures from Bloomberg news agency

The company has signed up with several large companies, including video game publishers Ubisoft and hardware maker Leap Motion (Leap Motion's device supports users to control apps and games via gestures) in order to support OSVR development.

Gearbox Software is also among the OSVR supporters who have developed a popular series of shooting games running on the Xbox and Playstation-unowned. "For developers, including me, the biggest challenge of virtual reality is that we don't want to write software for every virtual reality helmet," said Randy Pitchford, CEO of ",gearbox software. We need an abstraction layer sandwiched between our software and the new hardware device, which is what Raytheon is trying to create.

The company is famous for its high-performance game books, keyboards and mice. These hardware devices are very popular among loyal computer gamers. Moreover, the company is not only popular with gamers, but also loved by game developers, which is very helpful in its promotion of OSVR, Randy Pitchford said, "We have the technology to eventually produce virtual reality content, However, we do not have a real consumer-grade product for consumers to buy.

Last year, Facebook's 2 billion-dollar bet on Oculus Rift would be a head-and-wear device to make virtual reality a mainstream technology. However, Oculus Company has not yet launched any consumer-grade products. Like Oculus and Samsung, the company is only selling "developer Kits", and the price is more expensive than its competitors, at $350 trillion.

Sony also demonstrated the virtual reality helmet prototypes they developed--project Morpheus, which will be used to connect to the PlayStation 4, but they haven't announced any sales plans yet.

Like the company, Samsung is well aware that virtual reality helmets will require more and better content to entice consumers to buy. However, it is trying a completely different path from the company.

Samsung launched the Milk VR on Monday, a 360-degree video service for Gear VR, which was developed using Oculus technology. Although the company chose Open Source to promote the development of virtual reality technology, Samsung chose not to open the Milk VR project temporarily. The Milk VR service is currently available only on Galaxy Note 4 (because Gear VR is currently only connected to Galaxy Note 4), which provides entertainment and advertising video services from the NBA, Red Bull and Mountain Dew (Kings Dew).

Other companies are trying to provide consumers with a 360-degree webcam that allows them to create their own immersive experiences to nurture the virtual reality market. The Allie play of Giroptic's 360Cam and IC real Tech company is very compelling at this consumer Electronics show, allowing users to watch any direction after filming a series of continuous lenses (IC real Tech uses a 360-degree camera, So you can shoot a 720-degree spherical video. The two products are expected to be listed later this year, priced at around 500 dollars.

However, no company has yet been able to completely eliminate a major obstacle to the path of virtual reality-motor vertigo.

"When virtual reality technology is about to take off, it crashes on a cliff," ",patrick Moorhead, who is head of Moor Insights and strategy, and chief analyst," Athletic Vertigo is a big part of that cliff. "

A major reason is that, when the user in the virtual reality of the rotation of the head, even if only a slight delay phenomenon, it will cause the picture a serious jitter. Moorhead expects the visual effects of virtual reality to rise this year, thanks to faster frame rates and lower latency.

"Cost is another hurdle,",roger Kay, who is the head of a research institute Endpoint Technologies. Samsung and the company's virtual reality helmet are priced at around 200 dollars. "It's really a reasonable price," he said, "but at this stage it's still too high for the poor content."

"In the 2015, those loyal gamers will pay for virtual reality products," he predicts, "but they're just a small audience."

Mike Dunn, head of Fox Home Entertainment (Fox House Entertainment), expects virtual reality technology to enter the mass consumer market next year. His department has produced a three-minute film for Samsung's Gear VR, a film called "wild". They demonstrated the film at the Consumer Electronics Show. It will also take part in the Sundance Film Festival, which opens late this month, to watch it wear virtual reality helmets.

But, despite his optimism about the prospect of virtual reality, Fox didn't gamble all the bets. "We will do our best to push it, but in fact, we are still relatively less invested in this area," ",dunn said. "We are not going to risk spending 60 million of dollars on the budget, given that there is no real universal hardware product in the market today."

First there must be a market, he said, "This is a chicken egg or egg raw chicken."

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)