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HTC joins Valve to make leap from smartphones into virtual reality with ‘Vive’
The mobile phone company HTC Corporation just announced a partnership with video game distribution company Valve Corporation to create a virtual reality headset called the “Vive.” Consumer information for the device is available at the HTC Vive website.
The announcement came during HTC’s Mobile World Congress press conference and, while bulky, looks a great deal like competitors in the market including Facebook, Inc.’s Oculus Rift and Sony Corporations’s Morpheus VR. The sensor suite appears to also be analogous to other VR headsets on the market, but the killer app takeaway of the announcement is the involvement of Valve.
Valve originally announced the SteamVR system, with new hardware, would be unveiled during the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC 2015). However, Valve did not specify details as to what the hardware would be beyond a new controller and the name of the distribution network.
Valve’s involvement means that the Vive will receive games through Valve’s SteamVR digital distribution network, meaning that the Vive will be connected to what is potentially the largest PC games storefront in the world. Through this distribution network the headset will “[pull] those virtual worlds off your computer screen and into your home.”
The Vive will feature a 1,200 by 1,080 pixel screen for each eye and 90 frames-per-second refresh rate to allow for highly photorealistic stereoscopic 3D images. The audio setup permits a user to plug their favorite headset into the Vive via a jack. The headset will also include 70 sensors—including gyrosensor, accelerometer, and laser position sensors—that will allow the headset to track the inclination and motion of their head. By adding a pair of VR base stations into a room a user can walk around the room and have their physical location tracked–within a 15 x 15 foot space.
“It is rare that a company has an opportunity to forever transform the ways in which people interact with the world and communicate with each other,” said Peter Chou, HTC’s chief executive.
HTC intends to release more details on the headset during a planned presentation at GDC 2015 in San Francisco on Wednesday.
The developer edition expected availability is Spring 2015 and the consumer edition’s launch will be around holiday 2015.
Image credit: HTC Corporation, HTC Vive from http://www.htcvr.com/
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