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Intel Is Making A VR HMD, Too, Sort Of

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After some lackluster demos and a seeming lack of support from the company at CES, it looked like things were going south for Intel’s Project Tango endeavor. However, at Mobile World Congress, the group showed off much more impressive demos, new hand- and object-virtualization using only the RealSense camera, and its own VR HMD.

Yes, its own HMD. Don’t get too excited, though; it’s not as if Intel is looking to compete with the likes of Oculus and HTC here. This HMD falls somewhere between Gear VR and Google Cardboard on the quality scale, and it’s meant to be a value-add for the Project Tango smartphone. In fact, I was told that Intel is considering giving the HMD away for free along with the smartphone dev kit.

However, Intel’s Project Tango team is looking to continually unlock new experiences with the phone, and with the HMD, that includes exploring the idea of enabling multiplayer interactions within a VR environment. That’s not nuthin’, as they say, and it taps into a certain realm of VR being pioneered by the likes of Altspace VR. Within Altspace, you can attend virtual meetups with other people, and you’re all represented by avatars. This sort of VR videoconferencing/hangouts idea is yet another vector of the VR world that will entice people into using the technology.

Although I do not believe that Intel generally, nor its Project Tango smartphone team specifically, has any particular plans to push further into the HMD business, it does now have one. Bear in mind that with this Project Tango smartphone, Intel is focused more on showing off what its RealSense cameras can do rather than on making smartphones, but if that’s the case, why not continue to develop an HMD to pair with the camera technology?

After all, they showed me VR demos using the RealSense camera’s ability to see hands and objects and recreate them inside a VR experience. Clearly, the team has VR on the brain.

Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Achoo22 24 February 2016 00:48
    Would one of you insiders please get NVidia to go on record regarding 3d Vision and why their list of supported games is so disgustingly meager? Have they just abandoned it, or what? I think that information would be useful in interpreting the nauseating amount of VR hype.
    Reply
  • clonazepam 24 February 2016 01:44
    3D Vision support is similar to SLI or Crossfire. The developer has to support it first for it to be possible. Number of dual cards on the market? Miniscule. Number of 3D Vision kits out there? Even less.

    The answer you're looking for comes later this year with VR units shipped and in peoples' hands.
    Reply
  • thor220 24 February 2016 02:17
    Would one of you insiders please get NVidia to go on record regarding 3d Vision and why their list of supported games is so disgustingly meager? Have they just abandoned it, or what? I think that information would be useful in interpreting the nauseating amount of VR hype.

    Nvidia have literally said nothing about 3d vision is so long, it's definitely safe to assume it's dead. That's the problem with Nvidia's propriety tech, once they loose interest in it it's worthless.
    Reply
  • 24 February 2016 13:17
    Amazing VR hype but the thing is, the shit is useless.
    Reply
  • CerianK 24 February 2016 22:53
    Would one of you insiders please get NVidia to go on record regarding 3d Vision and why their list of supported games is so disgustingly meager? Have they just abandoned it, or what? I think that information would be useful in interpreting the nauseating amount of VR hype.
    I'm no expert, but it seems there is a difference between 3D Vision Ready (46 games/demos at 5 stars) and merely 3D Vision compatible (hundreds at 4 stars or less):
    "NVIDIA 3D Vision® automatically transforms hundreds of PC games into full 3D right out of the box".
    List is here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-games.html

    Many of the list entries are older, but quantity seems fair.
    Reply
  • DbD2 25 February 2016 17:58
    3D Vision still works fine but dev's don't bother to optimize games for 3D any longer as it's out of fashion, however enthusiasts do. Go to here: http://helixmod.blogspot.co.uk
    Reply
  • scolaner 29 February 2016 16:19
    Amazing VR hype but the thing is, the shit is useless.

    Er--what's useless?
    Reply