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This Kickstarter campaign could bring virtual reality to your living room

What will they think of next?

 

Imad Khan

Tech

Posted on Feb 16, 2015   Updated on May 29, 2021, 1:01 pm CDT

VR is definitely the future, but why does the future have to be so lonely?

It won’t be lonely for long if one Kickstarter campaign has its way.

Catopsys’ campaign, which recently surpassed its goal of raising $100,000, introduces a fascinating idea. Using the crowdfunded technology, a single “Immersis” projector in the middle of the room throws your video games onto your wall, allowing VR to become a much more social experience.

The biggest hurdle will be getting the image to project correctly from the player’s point of view. Catopsys, the company behind Immersis, has the patents on this type of spatial projection, making Immersis that much more likely to do the job well.

The experience will also require quite a bit of user expertise. Users will, at the very least, have to measure their walls, but Catopsys recommends that they create 3D models of their rooms as well. Doing so would allow the program to know exactly where to project each pixel.

Immersis uses a high-resolution 4K projector to get the most detail possible. Unsurprisingly, it will be limited to computer gaming only. Because Immersis will project at 4K resolution, only gaming PCs crazy enough to output high-quality gameplay at four times the resolution of 1080p will be supported.

When Immersis does hit retail, it won’t be cheap either. One of the Kickstarter‘s goals is set at $1,500 and says “save $1000 off the retail price,” meaning the device will cost $2,500 at launch. That’s pretty expensive, but if Immersis does deliver on its promises, it may very well be worth it.

H/T The Verge | Screengrab via  Catopsys/YouTube

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*First Published: Feb 16, 2015, 8:40 am CST