Apple Inc. iPhone users are about to get their first augmented-reality headset, as a Los Angeles company announced Tuesday it plans to launch a product that costs just $99.

The company goes by the name of Mira Labs Inc. and the product is called Prism. It’s a headset that allows iPhone users to experience augmented reality in a similar fashion to that offered by competing products such as Microsoft Corp.’s Hololens, whose developer edition costs $3,000.

The similarities to existing AR viewers stop there, because Mira could be best described as unique but more honestly outright strange. Instead of viewers inserting their phone inside the headset and then viewing an augmented world directly through the screen of the phone, such as with the Samsung Gear VR, the headset instead uses the phone as a projector. The phone sits high on the headset above the users’ eyes, facing outward so it can project the AR image onto glass lenses, the focal point for the Mira experience.

“Our minimalist, untethered AR headset works seamlessly with your smartphone to allow users to discover and share engaging AR content,” the company writes on its About page. Minimalist it is: The headset itself involves zero in the way of technology. Instead, it’s simply a caddy that holds the phone in place and offers lenses on which the company’s software can project an AR image.

While the whole concept does seem strange, the company itself has investor support. It has raised $1.5 million in a seed round from an eclectic group of investors, including Sequoia Capital, Troy Capital Partners, S-Cubed Capital, Salesforce.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff, musician and tech investor Will.i.am and Jaunt VR founder Jens Christensen.

Mira said a developer build of the Prism headset will be available shortly and that it expects to begin shipping to the consumer market this fall.

Image: Mira