Last year HTC announced the Industry of Virtual Reality Alliance (IVRA), a collection 170+ enterprises designed to help push the Chinese VR industry. This month, the alliance makes one of its first big announcements.
Spinning out of the VR Summit at the International Cooperation event held in Beijing on April 6th, the IVRA has announced a set of standard specifications for producing VR headsets, titled ‘General Specifications for Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays’. Created with the help of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the document offers guidance on the design, production, inspection and testing of VR headsets, be they mobile-based devices or tethered to a more powerful machine.
It details specs like display resolution, system latency, field of view and tracking system, all areas in which HTC’s Vive is arguably one of the leaders right now, though other headsets like LG’s SteamVR device and Microsoft’s inside-out tracked kits are on the way too.
HTC had a direct hand in drafting and publishing the standard. The document was formed after gathering opinions and feedback from members of the Chinese VR industry, with 85 proposals being taken on board for the final release.
Ultimately it’s more of a set of guidelines than strict rules; VR companies won’t have to follow the standard when developing their own headsets, but may find the specs given useful. The IVRA also hopes that introducing the standard will help others build upon it and advance VR technology faster.
The actual specifications haven’t been revealed yet, though will be released in Chinese soon.
