Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Headset to Support 'Next Gen Cellphones'

Wednesday July 17, 2013 11:17 AM PDT by Juli Clover
The Oculus Rift headset, which features a fully immersive virtual reality experience, originally made its debut on Kickstarter last summer where it raised almost $2.5 million. Since that time it's been in development and while a dev kit is available, the initial consumer version is expected to debut next year.

As the dev kit is only compatible with the Mac and the PC, there's been speculation about whether or not the Oculus Rift will work with next generation consoles, like the upcoming PS4 and the Xbox One, but it turns out that's not what the company is aiming for.


According to Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe, who spoke with Edge, the company isn't planning to develop the headset with upcoming consoles in mind, and instead plans to focus its efforts on both PCs and mobile devices.
"I love consoles but internally we're a lot more excited about where mobile's going to go, and being able to plug it right into a next gen cellphone," he told us. "It's the innovation, and how fast cellphones are now improving – where we'll be with the next Galaxy or the next iPhone compared to where consoles are. Those things are almost doubling every year, compared to a console that's just stuck it out for eight years – it just makes us very excited. There's a lot of improvements that can be made on the hardware side for VR that no-one's doing yet because it's a new thing. The mobile rate of innovation is going to be able to make a lot of those improvements."
As our sister site TouchArcade points out, mobile devices like the iPad and the iPhone are fully capable of supporting the headset's 1080p display and the technology exists for a potentially wireless system using Bluetooth and AirPlay. With the addition of MFi game controllers, mobile gaming could be entering a whole new era with the Oculus Rift.

Iribe wasn't able to give a specific release date for the Oculus Rift, but he said that the company "would love for it to be next year."

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mixel
73 months ago

Still looks nerdish - still looks terrible.

"looks" don't come into it at all, and the experience will sell it to enough people. (it's not for everyone) Nobody is going to make VR trendy looking - but that's not what it needs.

Anyway.. Most fun things look weird when you're not the person who's actively doing them.
Rating: 7 Votes
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filmantopia
73 months ago
They really made the right move here. Oculus should be tied to mobile-- this device could go much farther than just gaming. Just about anyone who has tried it has described it as a striking experience that in some form represents the future of entertainment.
Rating: 2 Votes
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TedM
73 months ago
I'm so excited for this. I really wanna try some open world skyrim or fall out with it.
Rating: 1 Votes
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Pakaku
73 months ago
Hopefully that doesn't mean people walking on the streets, too busy focused on whatever they're doing and not paying attention to what's going on around them...

Still looks nerdish - still looks terrible.


Well, seems you're rather over-self-conscious, aren't you?
Rating: 1 Votes
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ConCat
73 months ago

Doom3 ...meh

Angry Birds 4D - Mind officially blown


Wait a sec... So a version of Angry Birds where you can move through time as easily as you can move through space? That would be something indeed!
Rating: 1 Votes
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pgiguere1
73 months ago

Hopefully that doesn't mean people walking on the streets, too busy focused on whatever they're doing and not paying attention to what's going on


What you're describing is more like Google Glass.
The Oculus Rift doesn't have a transparent display/camera to allow for augmented reality, and doesn't have a battery so it can be used outside (yet anyway).
Current version is only meant to be used inside, tethered to a PC and power source.
I personnally think upping the resolution and fixing the latency/motion sickness issues is more pressing than making this device mobile. I think they should perfect the VR experience first, and then care about mobility. It still has a long way to go before being a truly realistic experience, but I have faith in Oculus to deliver something really good at some point.
Rating: 1 Votes
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