How Does Virtual Reality Work With Phones?

How Does Virtual Reality Actually Work With Phones?

Well, it might sound and look really complicated, but it actually is not. When it comes to virtual reality headsets for phones, the way they work is not actually too difficult to understand. First of all, of course, you need to have a virtual reality headset that is specially built for use with smartphones.

The virtual reality headset will then allow you to place your phone into the front of the set. So, whereas a PlayStation VR would project the image onto the viewing surface within the headset, with a virtual reality system for phones, the screen, which in this case is your phone, actually sits right in the front of the headset.

However, this is not all, because to make it a true virtual reality experience, a bit more is needed. It is pretty technical, but we will do our best to try and explain this. Smartphone virtual reality works with special lenses.

These lenses take the image which is displayed on the screen of the phone, and then modifies them to provide you with an immersive view. So, in essence, these specialized lenses take a flat image and turn it into a 360 degree environment, or in some cases a 120 or 140 degree panoramic view. In other words, it makes it feel like you are actually immersed in the content, rather than just watching it.

There are some cool features which smartphone VR systems have, but one thing that you need to know is that you will have to install special software on your phone in order to use the virtual reality headsets.

Now, some smartphone VR headsets will automatically download and install the software on your phone, while others require you to install it manually. Either way, the way in which this whole system works is by taking the image from your smartphone screen and then modifying it, using special lenses and viewing systems, in order to create a panoramic and fully immersive world for you to enjoy.

Head & Eye Tracking

Something that you do need to know here is that virtual reality systems for phones are not quite yet as advanced or well developed as those used for PlayStation, Xbox, or PC. However, these systems are quickly advancing in the way they function and how well they function

In terms of head tracking, this is a pretty cool feature no doubt, something which every VR headset has to have. What this means is that when you tilt your head up, the image shifts up, or in other words, like you are actually looking upwards. The head tracking features of virtual reality systems for phones is not yet 100% functional in all cases, but it has made some pretty big advancements over the last few months.

Furthermore, there is also something called eye tracking. This allows the virtual reality headset to actually know where you are looking, and then focus on those spots or move the image you see to correspond with where your eyes are pointing. Keep in mind that this tech is still a ways away, as even the current version of the PSVR does not have it yet. The point of this function is to make 3D look more realistic, but it is not perfect yet.

Controllers

One thing which is somewhat lacking when it comes to smartphone virtual reality systems is that they do not really have good controllers to control the action. Now, what is important to note here is that these systems are primarily designed for watching videos and for playing very simple smartphone VR games.

Remember guys, this tech is relatively new, but there are many developments on the way. The point here is that you cannot expect an experience akin to the PSVR or PCVR, because those systems are specially designed for gaming, whereas smartphones are very limited in terms of gaming capacity. At this time, there are only really simple games available here, as there are also only very simple controllers that can be used.

Conclusion

When all is said and done, virtual reality for phones is very new and the tech is still being developed and perfected. However, there are some really good options out there right now and we would recommend checking them out.