Samsung to Launch Virtual Reality Headset: Report

After Sony demonstrated its Project Morpheus headset, and Facebook bought Oculus, the makers of the Rift VR headset, now, Samsung is also said to be throwing its hat in the ring and will release a virtual reality headset of its own, which is being developed by the company's mobile division.

Engadgetreports that sources in Samsung say the headset has been in works at Samsung's mobile division and is expected to be announced this year, in an aim to beat the Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus to the market.

(Also see: Sony's Project Morpheus: Will 2014 be the year VR goes mainstream?)

Accordingto the report, some developers already have early versions of Samsung'sheadset, which can apparently be connected to current flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the Samsung Galaxy S5 but apparently the consumer model, when released, will require the next generation of flagships to work.

This is not, in some ways, an unexpected development. Last year, the team at Oculus had mentioned that mobile support was something they were actively looking at, and speaking on Thursday at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey mentioned that John Carmack was "focusing a lot" on the mobile SDK for Android.

According to Engadget's report, Samsung's VR headset is separate from a so-called "Galaxy Glass" project,where the company is trying to make an augmented reality headset like Google Glass. This VR headset on the other hand seems to be geared towards things like gaming, and apparently has an OLED screen that is asgood as, or better than, the one on the Rift.

Gaming is of course the first thing that people think about when discussing the Rift,but particularly if paired with a smartphone, Samsung's headset could be used in a number of innovative ways. Since your phone has gyroscopes and accelerometers, you also get a means of input that can be used to track your hand movements. There are other possibilities too - for example, since a phone already has a camera, you could use the combination for augmented reality, tele-presence, or even shared virtualreality experiences.

Samsung's plan is to beat the Rift to the market, and beat it on price as well - a move that definitely makes sense considering that the headset will allegedly require a high-powered(and doubtless expensive) Samsung handset to pair with it as well.