Composition of Virtual Reality Glasses/Headsets

“How does VR work? How does wearable tech make you think you’re standing on Mars when you’re actually about to bump into the kitchen counter?”

 

All headsets have three main components which are: a PC or Smartphone (to run and store the app), a headset screen - placed in front of your eyes - and additional applications such as head tracking, controllers, hand tracking, audio and buttons or trackpads. When you wear a Virtual Reality headset, the images displayed on the screen in front of you shifts as you look up, down or side-to-side; due to the installed head tracking software in the headset. Head Tracking also improves the sound of the headset as it gives the wearer the sense that sound is coming from various directions.

 

Working hand-in-hand with the Head Tracking, there is Motion Tracking; headsets either have buttons on the side of the headset or wireless controllers which you hold, both having sensors and/or buttons on the controller to detect gestures such as pointing and waving. 

Another important component of the Headset is the audio. There is data for hundreds of points around your head as well as software which smooths the audio between those points for natural sound. The audio is enclosed in 360-degree surround sound to match the video precisely. 

The eye doesn’t affect your experience with the VR headset as in all the headsets there are infrared sensors that monitor your eyes which blurs and neutralises the naturally pin-sharp focus the headset possesses.

It is rather safe to say that the more commercialised Samsung Gear headset is no comparison to the more advance Oculus rift. As technology goes, the ‘advanced software’ we know of today, will be considered as average tomorrow – and as for the day after, well, technological advancement is a great thing.

Author: Claudia Ceresa

References:

http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/what-is-virtual-reality.html

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/virtual-reality.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBNH8tzsfVM

http://www.wareable.com/headgear/the-best-ar-and-vr-headsets