It appears Samsung is betting big on augmented reality and virtual reality. Apparently, the South Korean electronics company is preparing to release a number of new AR and VR headsets in the coming months.
The information comes from a company executive, who notes that Samsung plans to release "multiple AR and VR products," and that it might involve a new product in the Gear VR line of headsets.
Samsung Bets Big On AR And VR
Farshid Fallah, Samsung's director of developer relations for XR and gaming, spoke at a panel at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, California, last Thursday, as Variety reports. There, Fallah shared Samsung's broader efforts with VR, the Gear headset, and AR capabilities of the Galaxy S10.
He also provided a brief history lesson touching on Samsung's early efforts with VR, which began with the launch of the original Gear VR headset in 2015.
"Gear VR was a good entry point," said Fallah. "But things have moved on since then."
There's no clear indication of what devices Samsung might release over the next few months. Fallah's comments are somewhat vague but "have moved on" could mean either Samsung is going to modernize its VR efforts to account for recent innovations or is rethinking VR entirely for the new generation.
Galaxy S10
Samsung's latest flagship, the Galaxy S10, is packed with VR features. For starters, it comes with an advanced depth sensor that captures depth information. It's also got Bixby Vision, which can identify objects automatically with the point of a camera.
Samsung And VR
In addition to its mobile VR efforts, Samsung has also released two versions of a high-end VR headset powered by Microsoft's Windows Mixed Reality platform. Plus, the company has been exploring an AR headset. It even showed off an experimental AR prototype at its developer conference last year.
That headset, however, isn't being sold to consumers as a mainline commercial product. It's based off the same software developer kit originally built for the Gear VR, though.
It's not clear what Samsung's forthcoming AR and VR products are going to be called, but it's possible Samsung will retain Gear branding in some fashion. Fallah suggested that the company has "other plans for Gear." Either Gear will end up being used as the name of these upcoming products, or Samsung has other plans for the brand altogether. In any case, make sure to check back with Tech Times as we learn more.
