Samsung Gear VR Replacement ExynosVR 3 Standalone Headset: 5 Features To Know

Samsung has been rumored to be working on its virtual reality offerings for some time now, but its standalone VR headset is a product that stands out. Details about the device were revealed Monday by Visual Camp, a company which is working on the eye tracking technology for the headset.

It is being called the ExynosVR 3 and not the ExynosVR, indicating Samsung might have been working on the technology for long, and which it has finally actualized in the third version of the ExynosVR.

Read: Samsung's Prototype Standalone VR Headset Comes With Eye-Tracking Technology

Here are some of the features of the upcoming device:

Eye-tracking technology: In the press release, Visual Camp announced Samsung ExynosVR 3 will use the company’s eye-tracking technology. Eye-tracking is the new craze among companies working on VR, since it actually tracks and responds to the movements of a user’s eyes, which makes for a more involved experience.

"The recent buyouts by Apple, Google, and Facebook of companies that possess eye-tracking technology show that this technology is receiving a great deal of interest within the VR industry. We therefore have high expectations for the future of Visual Camp, which has demonstrated its highly promising VR-related technology," Kim Jong-kap, chief executive director of the Korean government’s Born2Global technology center, which coordinates with Samsung for VR technology, said in the press release.

Exynos processor: The device will be called the ExynosVR 3, unlike Samsung’s existing VR headsets from the Gear VR range. The difference in the name of headsets indicates that they are using different processors – the Exynos products come with processors made by Samsung itself, while the Gear range is powered by Qualcomm processors.

Inbuilt Display: Since the ExynosVR 3 will come with its own inbuilt display that will function independent of a smartphone. The company is reported to be working on a 2,000 pixels per inch display for the device.

The current Gear VR headset functions using a smartphone dock. It will feature a technology called "foveated rendering," which sharpens the area of display in front of the user’s eyes.

Hand tracking controllers: The device, according to a new patent, will have hand tracking controllers, which will track your hand movements and coordinate with the headset to emulate the response in virtual reality.

Read: Samsung Working On Standalone VR Headset With 2,000 ppi Display Density: Report

Voice recognition and facial recognition: The device will also feature voice and facial recognition, according to VRfocus. While voice recognition is being hinted at, it isn’t clear whether the handset would support Samsung’s own voice assistant Bixby. Facial recognition might be used to lock or unlock the device.

Samsung’s VR technology had a head start with the Oculus-based Gear VR, but was left behind by the likes of HTC Vive, Google Daydream and Sony’s PlayStation VR. The ExynosVR 3 seems to be a part of the company’s effort to target the VR gaming market, which remains the biggest VR segment.