Just imagine if you could bring virtual reality games into your living room or out into your neighborhood with augmented reality (AR). It’s now possible with the help from the ZED Mini camera that can fit over an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. ZED Mini actually two cameras about 2.5 inches apart that mimic your own eyes and it’s pretty impressive to see how it all works.
The two cameras can actually sense depth and calculate your position. The creators of ZED Mini worked to make everything look and feel as realistic as possible when you interact with real world objects. They even spent time getting the lighting just right. You can also use your hands to activate menus that are in front of your face or use them to interact with the gameplay.
The video captured is sent through a USB-C cable that connects to either the Vive or Oculus Rift at a resolution of 720p at 60 frames per second. If the apps you’re running can operate at the higher frame rate you can up the resolution to full 1080p.
You’ll definitely want to check out the video demo below to see just how it meshes with real world environments.
Shot directly through the ZED Mini. True mixed reality is here. Play games like never before and immerse yourself in a world where the real and virtual merge seamlessly
The Zed Mini also comes with a 100-degree field of view and inside-out tracking. So what that means is you don’t have to use the room trackers that come with the Vive and Rift to work out your position with ZED Mini enabled apps. For the most part, the data coming through the cameras is enough to calculate where you are in the world. So that’s another plus with this system.
While actual AR headsets like the Microsoft Hololens are still on the way, development of them and supported software has been slow coming. In the future, we are likely to see glasses that switch easily from AR to VR, but until then we will just have to wait patiently for technology to catch up with our dreams. This makes the ZED Mini a nice little add-on as we wait for the next generation of augmented reality glasses to hit shelves.
You can preorder the ZED Mini now for $449 and it will ship on December 18.
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