Augmented reality (AR) has been gaining traction in recent months, with the profile of the technology being raised by products such as ARKit and Pokemon Go. AR headsets and smartglasses have also been attracting interest, but most versions of this technology remain out of reach of the majority of consumers. A new product is aiming to change that, and has launched an IndieGoGo campaign to support its creation.
The Ghost is an AR headset that aims to be affordable to consumers, using a smartphone to power the technology, by offering a 70-degree field-of-view, a high resolution display and inside-out tracking, along with support for ARKit and ARCore.
The creator of the project, Jean Helfenstein, is seeking $80,000 (USD) in funding to fund the finalisation of the design and the manufacturing process as well as marketing and distribution to consumers.
Helfenstein spent some time working on AR technology before hitting something of a dead end: “As creative technologists and designers we wanted to design and build useful software for this medium, but after looking at the current market we got frustrated that the headsets available today are mainly expensive developer kits costing over $1500. On the other hand, Virtual Reality has been evolving the past few years and there are a lot more options available. Some of the most successful VR headsets are the ones powered by your smartphone because they are affordable and easy to use. That’s why we decided to design a smartphone-powered Augmented Reality headset so we can build our AR softwares and make it accessible to as many people as possible.”
The base pledge is for $79, which is for an Early Bird special, which will net backers of the first Ghost headsets to be produced, though only 100 of this special offer tier is available. Other funding tiers are available to get access to multipacks of the headset.
Further information can be found on the official Ghost AR website, or the IndieGoGo page. As always, VRFocus will bring you further updates as they become available
via Mint VR