Google, Samsung, Xiaomi ... The list of companies that are gradually including Virtual Reality increases with the passage of time. The great technological events such as the CES in Las Vegas or the MWC in Barcelona, demonstrated that this element is acquiring an important role in tablets and smartphones. On the other hand, we find a growing number of compatible applications that, however, are still scarce and are one of the Achilles heels in relation to this advance that we can find today. However, years of research are already paying off, and with an eye on the short term, brands are unwilling to lose positions in a race that will be, as is often the case in the consumer electronics field, dizzying.
Intel, which is known to all for having equipped millions of computers around the world over the years, and which later was in charge of equipping tablets and smartphones with processors, is also trying to take a prominent place in the world of Virtual Reality thanks to Alloy project. Below we tell you what it consists of, how it intends to differentiate itself from other initiatives such as Tango and when we could start to see it on a day-to-day basis.
What is it?
Broadly speaking, Alloy consists of offering a new experience in this field but without the support associated with it, such as smartphones. The idea is simple at first glance, since the controls required to use it will be our own limbs and on the other hand, cables, connections are eliminated and the insertion of terminals inside the glasses themselves.
Mixed reality
The main difference compared to products like Cardboard lies in the fusion of virtual and augmented reality. How is this achieved? Through Real Sense. This feature allows that while we are seeing a virtual world, we can be aware of everything that really happens around us. According to its developers, increases freedom of movement of the user. The glasses study our location and reproduce the environment. Therefore, we know at all times where the obstacles and the objects that surround us are, among others, and the hands become the keys to interacting with both realities.
Power
Before we mentioned that Project Alloy glasses do not require connection to computers or the introduction of terminals in them. The key is that the same lenses contain the processors that are in charge of generating the virtual image and simultaneously, of recreating what we are seeing in reality. The downside of all this lies in their size.
For all audiences?
Specialized portals have echoed Intel's intention to make available to developers software these glasses. At first sight, its arrival to users is not expected at least, in the short term. One of the arguments used by the company is the fact that the lenses will be accompanied by open source software that will allow brands to work on it and increase the compatibility of Alloy with a greater number of terminals. This release of the source code will also allow to extend the available applications for this format in the catalogs that we find today.
Towards interconnection
On tablets and smartphones, Intel It has passed without pain or glory in a market in which most of the processors are manufactured by companies like Qualcomm or MediaTek. Given these results, the US firm has decided to focus its efforts on wearables and the Internet of Things. However, when it finally reaches the general public, it will have to compete with the initiatives of other firms that are having a good reception and that are already more consolidated. Project Tango or the Gear VR will be some of the rivals to beat. However, from Intel they assure that Alloy can be complemented with other technologies such as Microsoft's Hololens.
As you have seen, Virtual Reality is becoming one of the business lines towards which the players in the sector are focusing their efforts. In just over a year, we have witnessed not only the appearance of new experiments in this field, but also their materialization and dissemination among millions of users. The technology fairs held at the beginning of 2016 and other events such as the IFA in Berlin, which will begin in about two weeks, show that this element will be key to the success of the tablets and smartphones that are launched in the coming years.
After learning more about what the American firm is doing to compete for the throne of the most innovative, do you think that Project Alloy will help Intel regain market positions? Do you think there are other more accessible initiatives that are already managing to offer a good experience among consumers? You have more information available related to the progress made by others such as Google so that you can give your own opinion.