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Kids Review the Top Virtual Reality Headsets

posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday November 15 2016, @04:22PM   
from the is-it-live-or-is-it-memorex? dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Virtual reality or VR headsets are one of the biggest tech trends of the year, and could soon be part of our daily lives.

The first VR headsets were released earlier this year, and have already been selling in their thousands.

The PS VR even outsold every other console on the market, during its first week of release in Japan.

Tech expert Mark Zuckerberg, who created the social media site Facebook and owns a VR company, thinks that Virtual Reality is: "going to change the way we live and work and communicate in the future."

So, we asked four tech fans to put some of the best VR headsets through their paces, and find out what they think...

Headsets reviewed were the PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Microsoft HoloLens.

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Original Submission

• Not sure what you mean by "first" Not sure what you mean by "first" (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Tuesday November 15 2016, @05:49PM

  by requerdanos (5997) on Tuesday November 15 2016, @05:49PM (#427067) Journal

  The first VR headsets were released earlier this year

  Only if by "this year", they mean the early 1960s [vrs.org.uk]...

  From the link:

  In 1961, two Philco Corporation engineers (Comeau & Bryan) developed the first precursor to the HMD as we know it today – the Headsight. It incorporated a video screen for each eye and a magnetic motion tracking system, which was linked to a closed circuit camera.

  The first head-mounted display had come out the previous year (1960), fully functional but without interactivity (it showed 3d films with stereo sound).

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		2

• Re:Not sure what you mean by "first" (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:20PM

  by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:20PM (#427578)

  Umm... neither closed circuit cameras nor HMDs make for a VR headset, though the latter is a precursor. To do VR you need a virtual environment to interact with (closed circuit camera delivers only telepresence)

  Obviously though we have had real VR for a long time, the line should read "First consumer VR headsets worth a damn". We've had good VR for decades, though with a 6 figure price tag it saw very limited use. And we had crappy consumer VR in the 90s, but the less said about that the better - the enabling technologies just weren't yet up to the task.

  Parent