Pocket-friendly Virtual Reality headset for a 3-D experience

A cardboard sheet, a pair of bi-convex lenses and a strap with a clip that’s all you would need to convert your smartphone into a Virtual Reality (VR) headset.

Students from the department of Computer/IT at Ahmedabad's Silver Oak College of Engineering and Technology (SOCET) have challenged the expensive Virtual Reality headsets available in the market with their own ‘Socet Vision’ goggle.

The head-mounted device, developed jointly by the faculty and students of the college, provides a 360-degree 3-dimensional experience for gaming, still photos or motion picture viewing.

Virtual Reality is a form of technology which creates computer-generated world and gives immersive experience to the people with their head movement tracked in a 3-D world.

Encouraging innovation

“We want to encourage students to think global and make it locally. Following the Make in India concept, all the material is sourced locally. This reduced our cost to as low as ₹300-400 per headset,” Satvik Khara, Head of the Department of CE/IT told BusinessLine. The model will be showcased at the institute's annual tech-fest Talaash this week.

The newly developed device can give an experience of walk around a 3-D building, watch 3-D movie, experience thrilling rides, perform virtual operations and interact with an artwork.

“Potential applications are in entertainment, communication, tourism, education, gaming and leisure,” said Khara.

Video conference

The institute, having about 1,000 students in the faculty, looks for further research to make the model more interactive to connect people globally. “We plan further research to make this device useful for live video-conference through internet, so that four people in different corners of the world can connect virtually to have a dinner together or for meeting. This will also boost tourism and medical science if used accordingly,” said Pushkar Joshi, a faculty and associate in the project.

Khara ruled out the need of a patent for the devise, “We have used the open source Google Cardboard technology to make the model. Therefore it is accessible to all. Anyone can make this device at his home,” he added.

Some of the branded VR headsets available in the market include HTC Vive, Google Glass, Samsung Gear, Microsoft HoloLens, Oculus besides some like Sony’s Project Morpheus being in line for the launch.