Google partners HTC and Lenovo to create standalone VR headset platform

Along with the plethora of exciting new products and services, Google, on Wednesday teased a new standalone virtual reality headset that does not need to be paired with a smartphone or any other device. Google VR head Clay Bavor announced the new headsets in partnership with HTC and Lenovo during the keynote for the company’s Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California.

The new headset will have positional tracking which means that the hardware can tell the headset’s position in space relative to the environment around it. Google is working with Qualcomm to solve this. The tracking system, called WorldSense, has 6 degrees-of-freedom so users can move about freely instead of more limited platforms like Cardboard and Daydream which only allow users to look around from a fixed point.

“These devices build on what’s already great about smartphone-based VR, and make the experience even easier and more comfortable with WorldSense,” Google explained in a blog post. The USP of these headsets will be that they don’t require a smartphone or PC like most other existing headsets, such as Samsung Gear VR and Google’s own VR headset.

The partnership with HTC is interesting in part because HTC has been building its own high-end HTC Vive VR headset.

Google also announced additional hardware support for Daydream, the company’s existing mobile VR platform. LG’s next flagship phones will support Daydream, and Samsung is also bringing Daydream support to its recently-introduced Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ handsets.