Gadgetory

virtual reality headsets are sometimes described as a computer that you wear on your face which is not entirely untrue but what if there was a virtual reality headset that had all the components of an all-in-one PC and you didn't have to be tethered to a separate computer that's what Intel is pushing with project alloy it's new prototype design for merged reality experiences now this isn't a headset that Intel is going to sell directly to consumers but instead it plans to partner with companies like Microsoft to create a headset that it thinks is going to offer a unique experience I don't know about you but I could use a little break from actual reality lately so we went down to Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara to try on project alloy and find out a little bit more about what merged reality is supposed to be this is project alloy it's a prototype headset that Intel is built to show potential hardware partners what it's capable of is a bunch of processors and intel's realsense cameras built directly into it and it runs in a battery so you don't have to be tethered to anything although it could work that way too the mobility of project alloy along with this concept of merge reality are really what's supposed to set it apart merge reality means that you can bring real world objects into a virtual environment and then make them virtual too you can also see other people in the room in your virtual world it's kind of bizarre and cool and disorienting if microsoft's hololens is all about augmented reality meaning you can see all of the real world with a layer of computing over it an oculus rift is all about virtual reality meaning you're entirely in a virtual world just lies in this crazy place in between so for example while we were shooting this video I found myself in a completely virtual environment but one where I could still see my berge colleagues and the other people in the lab I could use physical objects to play a virtual game if someone handed me a piece of paper and pen I could still see well enough to write a note with it while I had to be our headset on I could even check the time and a real physical watch or take a selfie while I was wearing the headset so a VR headset like this is arguably stay because it means you're not blocking out everything around you and maybe you'll be less likely to walk into something it also means you don't need complex sensors or fancy hand controllers in order to have a more interactive experience the model I tried is only version 1 of project alloy it was pretty clunky and honestly didn't fit all that well it also felt heavy on my head even though Intel says that in an ideal world project alloy headsets won't weigh more than around one and a half pounds and a lot of the real world objects that appeared in my virtual world whether it was a person standing in front of me or even my own hands we're sort of pixelated and difficult to see but Intel says a second updated project outlay headset it's coming sometime in the new year with better internals and a sleeker design it will have the newer Intel Core processor KB Lake and improved computer vision chip from Ovidius and the option for a discreet graphics card intel also has a series of dedicated lab setup in its offices where the company is constantly testing things like latency in other words how many milliseconds it takes for real-world stuff to show up in your computerized world so far only Microsoft has publicly committed to working with Intel on this project but Intel is hoping that project alloy is intriguing enough that other companies will want to jump on board as well so right now VR is kind of all over the place right you have these super simple experiences where you can just throw your phone and a piece of cardboard or even a cloth headset and use it that way and then you have really advanced VR experiences that usually require tethering to some sort of computer system intel is hoping to strike the balance between something that offers mobility and something that's powerful which so far has been really difficult to achieve but in an alternate reality i guess anything's possible throwing your phone and a piece of card bare card bare hard bare that card bared headwear super cool