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Facebook debut wireless VR with the Oculus Santa Cruz prototype

Oculus Santa Cruz prototype

Oculus are working on a headset to bridge the power gap between mobile VR – like Samsung’s Gear device – and the full-fat, tethered PC experience. Codenamed the Santa Cruz prototype, the new headset will sit in a lovely wireless middle-ground between these two extremes. 

Why not see what’s currently sitting in our list of the best VR games

Where mobile VR is currently underpowered, this device will deliver a VR experience much more powerful than your mobile phone can, though not quite as hefty as your PC. This untethered device will let you take VR out and about with you, but maybe don’t use it near a road, eh?

At least you won’t be tripping over any wires.

The tech uses advances made by Oculus on inside-out tracking, using cameras built into the device so the headset can see where you are in the real world as you move through the virtual space.

It’s still very early days, as the device is currently only a prototype, but there’s a teaser video right here:

The Santa Cruz is packed with the tech needed to run the thing and it also draws from the power of cloud computing, hooking up wirelessly to the internet and pulling in extra juice from the ether.

During the Oculus Connect conference, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg also spoke at length about his plans to fund more VR developers. He thinks that filling VR with killer games and apps will bring the audience, which in turn will drive the tech forward.

Maybe holding off buying that first wave of tethered VR was a good idea after all.