Chinese virtual reality headset gears up to meet market demand

Giant leaps in display technology and industrial design have led to a boom in virtual reality (VR) gadgets to lure investors into this competitive market.

D?ePoon, a domestic consumer-targeted VR head-mounted display developed by Shanghai-based manufacturer Le Xiang Technology Ltd was revealed on Monday in Beijing.

Chen Chaoyang, the CEO of Le Xiang Technology Ltd, delivers a keynote at the launching ceremony of the company's VR product – D?ePoon virtual reality display held in Beijing on July 20, 2015. [Photo provided to chinadaily.co.cn]

The device, which was introduced by Chen Chaoyang, the CEO of Le Xiang, provides an Oculus-like VR experience for users. A desktop computer is required to operate the service.

VR, also known as computer-simulated life, first appeared in science fiction back in the 1950's, and was developed for medical, pilot simulation and military training in the 1990's.

The entire industry began to draw the public's attention as a developer kit named Oculus Rift, which is the first truly immersive VR headset for video games, were initially mooted on the US crowd-funding platform Kickstarter by 9,522 backers who pledged more than $2 million.

More capital and investments flocked into the market since Facebook agreed to acquire Oculus' manufacturer, an American VR technology company named Oculus VR, for $2 billion in cash and stock in March last year.

Joining the Oculus Rift as a high-profile headset promising to change the experience of video games, Sony introduced its Project Morpheus at the 2014 Game Developers Conference and HTC launched its HTC Vive in March at this year's Mobile World Congress keynote.

"Thanks to Sumsung's 1080P resolution OLED display, with only 19 milliseconds latency, 75 Hz refresh rate and 120-degree field vision, the performance of D?ePoon will surpass the latest Oculus Rift DK2 under perfectly optimized conditions," said Chen.

According to Chen, the product has been pre-ordered on Tmall.com for 1,899 yuan ($306). Before its launch, the headset had raised 1.14 million yuan on the crowd-funding site of the domestic e-commerce giant JD.com.

The company will also work together with domestic online game developer Shanda Games Ltd to launch a VR game based on an existing first-person shooter game published by the latter at the upcoming 13th China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference 2015 (ChinaJoy 2015).

Guests from Chinese online-video platforms LeTV, PPTV and iQiyi were also present at the launching ceremony. According to media reports, Le Xiang will partner with the companies to fulfill the content of its own video portal,3D Bo Bo and develop double-branded VR products. '

Foreign visitors experience D?ePoon virtual reality display on May 25, 2015 at the Asian version of the Consumer Electronics Show held in Shanghai. [Liu Zheng/chinadaily.com.cn]