The Galaxy Rift? Samsung may dive into virtual reality.

Interest in virtual reality technology is growing by the day, and new reports indicate that Samsung is the latest company to develop a VR headset. Who will make it to market first?

|
Ahn Young-joon/AP/File
A man passes by the Samsung Electronics Co. logos at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea.

The Galaxy Virtual Reality Headset? Samsung is making it happen, according to new reports.

Tech website Engadget is reporting that Samsung is working on a virtual reality headset that will rival Sony’s Project Morpheus and the Oculus Rift, which was recently bought by Facebook. The hope is to expand into yet another wearable tech market following updates to the Galaxy Gear smart watch, and potentially launch by the end of this year. With three major companies moving quickly toward the virtual reality market, interest in the nascent technology is picking up.

Though Samsung has worked with Google on Android products in the past, Engadget’s sources say the Samsung virtual reality headset won’t be a Google Glass replica. Rather, it will be a full on virtual reality headset that will offer options for games and interactive programs. It will have an OLED screen, and may be able to connect to Samsung smart phones. Sources say that the gadget will be priced to undercut Oculus and Sony as the race to the market picks up speed, though by how much is not yet clear.

Though Samsung declined to comment on the news, wearable tech seems inevitably on the horizon for the South Korea-based technology company. Rumors of the virtual reality headset come only a week after sources reported Samsung is working on a Google Glass competitor, and just a few months after Samsung released the second version of its Galaxy Gear smart watch.

Samsung is also far from the only tech company with an eye on virtual reality. Facebook recently bought Oculus, a Kickstarter-funded virtual reality company that has made waves with its Rift gaming headset. Sony also demoed a virtual reality gaming headset for the PlayStation 4 at a gaming conference in March. GameFace, a startup from Canada, debuted an Android-based virtual reality headset at the same conference. Though there are plenty of prototypes, neither of these virtual reality headsets has yet gone on sale – most believe they won’t debut commercially until next year.

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t testing. Oculus announced that it is rolling out its Rift headset to 29 Chuck E. Cheese restaurants over the next six weeks, allowing kids (and likely a few tech-obsessed adults) to try out the headsets for just a few tokens. Even if Samsung undercuts the Rift's price and beats it to mass market, rewarding new users with game tickets is a smart move when it comes to new technology.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to The Galaxy Rift? Samsung may dive into virtual reality.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Horizons/2014/0522/The-Galaxy-Rift-Samsung-may-dive-into-virtual-reality
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe