The virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) industries, while similar in some respects, tend to keep separate in many ways. In the VR camp there are devices such a Oculus Rift, Gear VR and HTC Vive, while for AR (and mixed reality (MR)) devices such as Microsoft HoloLens and Meta 2. Now Chinese company Shadow Creator has unveiled what it claims is an amalgamation of the two, a head-mounted display (HMD) called Halo.
Shadow Creator revealed the Halo HMD at the CCG Expo 2016 in Shanghai, China which industry analyst ZhugeEX posted via Twitter. Looking quite similar to other AR/MR headsets the Halo has been given a price point of $1,500 USD, half that of Microsoft’s HoloLens.
The company’s website lists a few specifications such as a Qualcomm Xiaolong 820 processor, gesture recognition, a large field-of-view (although no actual numbers are given), and a AR/VR switch to alternate between the two modes. It’s this latter feature that’s most intriguing, as to whether the Halo can fully immerse users in a VR world using what seems to be just clear panels for AR, at the same quality as a VR headset like HTC Vive would manage.
Currently the Halo HMD has only been announced for the Chinese market, with availability from January 2017. Other regions are due to be revealed next year.
The Halo isn’t the only device Shadow Creator is working on. Unveiled at the event was the Air Glass, AR glasses similar to Google Glass. And the website also lists a headset which does have similarities to Samsung Gear VR, called Air VR.
There’s no further details on these products as yet, but VRFocus will bring you any more updates as we get them.
