Relativty is an open source affordable SteamVR-compatible headset that can be made for around $100.
The Relativty VR headset uses a 3D printed frame to house a 2560 x 1440 LCD screen, together with a pair of 80mm Fresnel lenses to enable the image to be focused correctly. Control of the VR headset is provided by an Arduino Due combined with an MPU-6050 accelerometer, which feed head-tracking data to an external gaming system.
HEADSET SPECS
- Screen: IPS screen 5.5″ diagonal
- Resolution: 1280 x 1440 per eye (2560 x 1440 pixels combined)
- Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- Field of view: …
- Connections: HDMI, USB 2.0, USB 2.0
- Eye Relief: Interpupillary distance and lens distance adjustment
The project has been created by 16-year-old Maxime Coutte and friends and offers a fantastic way to step into the world of virtual reality without spending all your hard earned cash.
“I started programming when I was 13, thanks to Sensei when he created a robotics club. On the first day we were 12 students, the next week we were 3 – yep, you guessed it, the other two were Gabriel and Jonas. I fell in love with VR because of an anime called SAO, but the problem was that the Oculus Rift was way too expensive for me. I talked about this with Gabriel and we both agreed that we should build our own VR headset. That got us into the math and physics behind VR (quaternions, proper acceleration, antiderivatives…). Then we bought the cheapest components we could and we reinvented VR. Now using FastVR and Relativ you can build your VR headset too.”
