Intel’s Project Alloy standalone VR glasses will cost at least $600

VR glasses based on Intel’s Project Alloy reference design will be priced somewhere between $600 and $900, the company expects. Intel calls this a reasonable price for consumers, as these glasses don’t require a PC or smartphone to function.

Intel’s head of the Perceptual Computing Group, Achin Bhowmik, makes a comparison with the price of an average laptop in a conversation with UploadVR. It would be a cheap VR entry for consumers, he says, ‘because you don’t need a PC.’

Intel announced Project Alloy last August. The reference device includes an Intel Core i5 or i7 of the Skylake generation, sensors, display, battery and RealSense cameras. The latter enable augmented reality applications, with virtual objects projected over images of the real environment. In addition, hands are recognized so that they can serve as controllers. Manufacturers will be able to develop their own VR headsets based on Project Alloy from the second half of this year.

Qualcomm also has a dev kit for standalone VR glasses, with Snapdragon 835, while Facebook’s Oculus is also working on a cordless headset and Samsung is planning a Gear VR without a smartphone.