The Virtual Reality Headset You've Never Heard Of

Virtual Reality remains one of the more exciting prospects for technology, even despite the fact that it’s had a few false starts in past years. One of the challenges is making it accessible and affordable to the masses, not the fortunate few. Altergaze is a device that hopes to make such technology much more readily available, and at a more reasonable price than most.

Currently part of a UK based Kickstarter campaign, Altergaze is mobile Virtual Reality for your iOS based or Samsung smartphone. Almost entirely 3D printed and offering a highly customizable design, the lightweight device simply requires one to slide their smartphone inside to get going. Offering a 90 to 110 degree field of view, as well as 6 degrees of head tracking, the device is set to be convenient yet powerful.

Thanks to its open source nature, Altergaze can be easily used in conjunction with iOS and Android apps that support it, through a specific script via the Unity game engine. Plus, an app allows you to use a 2nd device as an input controller for maximum variety.

The potential for Altergaze is quite widespread for avid gamers so now’s the ideal time to dip into it. For £30 (around $50), you can pledge in order to acquire the 3D files needed to print an Altergaze yourself, while £100 (around $166) snags you a fully assembled model with rubber eyepieces and a choice of colors and phone dimensions. The campaign has until May 1 to run.