The still-young virtual reality
headset wars have a new competitor, though it's being sold as more of a
"mixed reality" solution than purely VR. At the Intel Developer Forum
today, the company announced Project Alloy, an untethered headset that
packs everything into a single head-mounted display without the need for
a PC or a mobile phone.
In addition to the battery, display, and
computing resources needed to run the headset, Project Alloy will also
include Intel's Real Sense motion tracking system, which will use
cameras and sensors to map the world around you and track your hands
without the need for gloves or handheld controllers. The system can also
see real-world objects and integrate them into the virtual world, as
shown in a demo where the user opened a real door and saw his boss' face
appear in the virtual world (hence the "mixed reality" moniker Intel
stressed in its presentation).
Alloy will be integrated with Microsoft's Windows Holographic platform,
which will itself be available on all Windows 10 PCs next year. Intel
also said it plans to release the Alloy hardware specs under an open
source license at some point, letting others essentially use it as a
reference design for their own hardware.
The Alloy announcement immediately called to mind the similar AMD-powered Sulon Q headset, announced back in March
as an all-in-one VR headset with inside-out untethered tracking. As
with that headset, we're somewhat skeptical that Alloy will be able to
deliver a powerful, high-fidelity VR experience without encountering
weight and heat-dissipation issues. In any case, it's an ambitious
direction for Intel to take and an interesting new development in what's
shaping up to be a crowded headset marketplace.
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