It will let you fall into the world of the games you run on your little device

Mar 21, 2014 08:46 GMT  ·  By

We've seen out share of virtual reality headsets, like the Oculus Rift, but designer Liviu Berechet Antoni wanted the concept of virtual reality extended to more than the small handful of VR eyewear out there, so it made the Altergaze.

In a nutshell, it's not actually a virtual reality headset. It's more along the lines of a visor that can turn smartphones into such a headset.

Made from a bunch of frames and lenses interposed upon one another, it can transform the phone's screen into a 110° field of view at high resolution.

The resolution will be of 1136 x 640 pixels on the Apple iPhone, and 1920 x 1080 Full HD on the Samsung Galaxy S4 (and, presumably, the S5 as well).

The idea for a visor like this has existed for a couple of years or so, but only now has Liviu Berechet Antoni made reality from it.

He didn't do it alone either. Instead, he crowdsourced it via Kickstarter. Ergo, the item isn't ready to sell yet, and needs crowd funding to get off the ground.

The funding goal isn't all that high though, at £25,000, which equates to approximately $41,000 and €30,000, according to exchange rates.

A fourth of that has already been accumulated, and there are still 41 days to go, so there are high chances that the goal will be surpassed by a significant margin.

And this in spite of the fact that the Altergaze is an open-source project, meaning that other designers and inventors will be able to just pledge £30 / $50 / €36 and get the files, and do everything else themselves.

£50 / $83 / €60 will get you the parts, and you'll have to assemble them alone (not a particularly daunting task, since there is a tutorial video and everything). Finally, a pledge of £100 / $162 / €120 will get you the fully assembled item.

One of the things that stand out about Altergaze is that it is 3D printed. Sure, the screws and lenses are made as they normally are, but everything else is made via 3D printing. That's why anyone who owns a 3D printer can make one, though Altergaze will have to supply the lenses and rubber pieces.

For something that measures 158 x 82 x 72 mm / 6.22 x 3.22 x 2.83 inches, it has the potential to be very disruptive. Especially since it has head tracking and 6 degrees of freedom. The people behind Altergaze are also working with app developers for accompanying software, but technically, it's not truly necessary.

Altergaze (6 Images)

Altergaze VR accessory for phones
Altergaze VR accessory for phonesAltergaze VR accessory for phones
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