What is Oculus Rift?

A virtual reality headset made by Oculus VR (the company), the Oculus Rift was released last March 28, 2016. It started as a proof of concept before the final production models were announced that virtual reality will change the face of computer interfaces.

In 2012, the Oculus Rift development began a KickStarter campaign in order to make some initial prototypes. Oculus VR had in itself announced that it will be an independent developer two months before the KickStarter started. It was a major success, the campaign raised US$2.5 million. It was enough to fund the initial creation of its first prototypes.

March 2014, Facebook bought Oculus for US$2 billion. Facebook saw a potential in the virtual reality as a niche and invested heavily on the future development.

Being the pioneer in the virtual reality game, the Rift have undergone some various changes and versions. A number of these were publicly demostrated yet some models are sent to KickStarter backers. These are back then called ‘development kits’.

Models that were announced are the following:

• DK1 – 2013
• DK2 – 2014

These ‘development kits’ allowed the developers of the Oculus Rift to make games and applications for the VR headset. Way back then, the headset was a massive hit to enthusiasts who would want to see the technology first hand.

The Oculus Rift had the following features in its current state.

• OLED display with 1080×1200 resolution per eye
• 90 Hz refresh rate
• 110° field of view
• integrated headphones with 3D audio effect, rotational and positional tracking called “Constellation”
• USB stationary infrared sensor