For those of you waiting on an HTC Vive bundle that includes the Deluxe Audio Strap, you may want to turn your attention to LG.
We’ve known for some time now that LG is makings its own SteamVR headset. The kit first surfaced at GDC 2017 back in March and has been seen a handful of times since. We’re hoping to learn much more about it in 2018 but, this month, a new patent has surfaced suggesting the kit may have built-in headphones. You can see images of it in this article.
Let’s Go Digital spotted the patent, which was filed at the beginning of 2016 and published last week. It details a VR headset not too dissimilar to the one we tried at GDC albeit with one major addition: integrated audio. Two large headphones are located on the kit’s strap, much like you can see on Vive’s add-on that released this year.
Given the patent’s age, it’s possible that this isn’t the SteamVR headset, or that plans for integrated audio have been scrapped (they weren’t featured on the 2017 prototype). We’re hoping that’s not the case, though.
This isn’t the first patent we’ve seen pointing to interesting design choices for the LG VR headset, which may be named the UltraGear. Last month we saw a design that suggests the device may also split in two, and we’ve also seen a patent for a screen that tackles the dreaded screen-door effect. Seeing which of these features actually makes it into the finished product should be one of the biggest stories for VR in 2018.
