There’s a lot of hardware chatter in the XR space at the moment. From Meta’s Quest 3 announcement to the Apple Vision Pro, new hardware means new possibilities. But the PC VR sector, the one that originally rebirthed this wave of VR hasn’t been getting much of a look in. That’s where Somnium Space comes in, the metaverse company that previously announced its Somnium VR1 headset in 2021. Recently, the company revealed further specification details, highlighting the fact that Somnium VR1 is truly geared towards the VR community.
Originally slated as a standalone and tethered headset, Somnium Space has now focused on the latter. The Somnium VR1 is first and foremost a cabled, PC VR headset that aims to give owners the best immersive experience possible. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but it’ll certainly be feature-rich with as much customisation potential as possible. This could very well be its unique selling feature in this growing market.
Somnium VR1 personalisation
In a recent blog post, Somnium Space CEO Artur Sychov outline how production is going and the improvements the team has made. These range from 2880 x 2880 QLED Mini-Led Fast LCD panels and dual-lens aspheric modules (2 lenses per eye-box), to a new field of view (FOV) (125° horizontally and 100° vertically) as well as manual IPD adjustment of 60 – 76mm.
All those specifications are great, but it’s the customisation options that’ll attract a lot of the VR modding community. As the blog post notes: “The VR1 now features four customizable and 3D printable anchor points, allowing for custom 3D printed extensions to be mounted onto the headset, thus enhancing user customization possibilities. Three of those four anchor points come with fast 10 Gbit USB-C ports.”
Those should allow various industries to tailor the Somnium VR1 to their own specific needs. Whether that’s industrial, medical, or gamers simply wanting to pimp the headsets in funky ways.
This flexibility isn’t solely reserved for the final end product. It’ll start way before then. The Somnium VR1 isn’t merely a VR headset, it’ll feature pass-through cameras and even an external LiDAR sensor for mixed reality capabilities. Most importantly, only if you want them. The company is working on a Somnium VR1 web configurator so you can select the features you want. Add eye and hand tracking, or just have one. Make the headset lighter by taking out the passthrough cameras or include everything for the ultimate package.
Somnium VR1 specs
Designed and built entirely in the Czech Republic, the Somnium VR1 is currently slated to arrive in 2023. There’s no price just yet.
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