At its opening Google I/O keynote yesterday, Google announced its Daydream VR project. The company mentioned that it would be designing reference headset and controller as a part of the project and share it with third-party OEMs. Now, the company has confirmed that it will also be building and selling a Daydream headset and controller to consumers.
The information was released by Clay Bavor, the head of Google’s VR department, during the second day of Google I/O.
Daydream is Google’s own take on VR, and it will be available on more than just smartphones. However, Google has not talked much about how standalone VR headsets will work. As for smartphones, Google revealed yesterday that major OEMs like Huawei, LG, HTC, Samsung and Xiaomi are already working on Daydream capable devices.
Considering that a VR controller is an integral part of the Daydream experience, its not surprising to see Google launch a VR controller alongside the Daydream headset. It is likely that the final Vr headset and controller from Google will look similar to the reference design that it showed off at the opening I/O 16 keynote yesterday.
Google did something similar with Cardboard a couple of years ago. It released a reference design for other Cardboard makers to follow and also sold its own Cardboard headset.