New Devices for Gaming

Most Gamers are tech naturals and therefore a more than interesting target group for the wearable tech market. The topic is not entirely new and has already been featured here but lately lot of new products have come up for this segment. Wearable gaming products with big market potential are already out there today.

Virtuix Omni™ is a virtual reality system with a complete body experience approach. It deeply immerses wearers in their favorite games by allowing them to stand up and walk around in the game’s map and featuring a VR headset, gun, platform and a special belt. The entire system is quite pricy but you can also buy parts and already play with them as they also work without the entire set of products. See the system in action here:

Sulon introduced the Sulon Cortex last year – a head-mounted visor that uses proprietary technologies to transform any physical environment into a “holodeck-like” experience. It offers a fully immersive experience that combines both augmented and virtual reality. Get an idea how this looks like below:

As already mentioned in our Mobile World Congress recap HTC launched the HTC Re Vive in Barcelona beginning of this month. The headset is powered by Valve’s SteamVR and aims to pull virtual worlds off the computer screen into the wearer’s home. It uses tiny LEDs to track the movements of the wearer’s head. Here the product trailer:

Razer, one of gamers’ favorite hardware companies, is part of the Open-Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) ecosystem. The OSVR™ ecosystem is designed from the ground up to set an open standard for virtual reality input devices, games and output with the sole goal of providing the best possible game experience in the virtual reality space. The companies involved in this project ask gamers worldwide to participate actively in the development process to push the boundaries of today’s VR-Gaming. Watch the video below to get an idea of the vision:

Another headset that is highly anticipated especially by gamers owning a PlayStation 4 is Sony’s Project Morpheus. The device has been announced last year in March but will only be released in 2016. Here a recent sneak peak on the new prototype of Project Morpheus that has been unveiled at the 2015 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco:

But enough about headsets; a completely new and some may say even more immersive approach is the Tesla Suit. The full body suit consists of a belt (with a central control unit) and as modular units haptic feedback gloves, vest and trousers – and will be fully compatible with existing virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus, Google Glass and META Space Glasses, as well as consoles (PSP, Xbox), PC and smartphones. The wireless suit performs a dual role as a motion capture system and a state of the art smart textile, incorporating thousands of nodes to directly stimulate sensation and pleasure in the skin through tiny electric pulses. But see yourself:

For more advanced group communications with your online clan Orion Labs offers a fun wearable device to add a real Star Trek experience to your game:

So game on everyone! See you soon in the virtual world!

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Johanna Mischke
Johanna Mischke () is Editor-in-Chief at WT | Wearable Technologies – the pioneer and worldwide leading innovation and market development platform for technologies worn close to the body, on the body or even in the body. Besides being an expert for wearables and their broader ecosystem she is experienced in the startup world and international marketing. Johanna can be reached at j.mischke(at)wearable-technologies.com.