By now, you’ve probably popped your smartphone into a Google Cardboard device and fired up a virtual reality experience. The graphics certainly don’t bear comparison to, say, an Oculus Rift, but the price is right to get the technology out there. Now, Aryzon is offering a Kickstarter to build an equivalent product for AR.
The headset will cost $30, work with any smartphone, and come packed flat (ideal for shipping, or stacking on the swag table at your booth).
Using a mirror, the headset reflects a digital image up to a piece of reflective but transparent glass. When using the headset, users look stereoscopic lenses, and see full 3D objects laid on top of the real world behind the glass.
For all the visual thinkers, here’s a diagram:
The Aryzon’s tracking operates on the same principle as the smartphone “AR” apps you may have used in the past. You point the headset at a target image, and your phone’s camera reads the image to pull up a pre-built AR experience.
The Aryzon headset obviously won’t compete with HoloLens, but that’s not the point—it’s clear that Aryzon is looking to market their device to consumers and prosumers rather than enterprises. The company suggests that a $30 AR headset could be useful for applications like:
- decorating your home
- visualizing products from online shops
- playing a card game on your desktop
- exploring the solar system
- displaying anatomy models for educational purposes
For more information, and to see this headset in action, check it out below:
