In August of this year, Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich appeared onstage during the company’s developers conference wearing a clunky VR headset. He then participated in a live demo that involved using a dollar bill to cut through (virtual) chunks of gold. The headset was called Project Alloy, Krzanich said, and Intel was officially working with Microsoft on the device to offer a “merged reality” experience.
With the race to get humans wearing face computers heating up, it’s no surprise that Intel decided to join the likes of Samsung, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Sony, HTC, Qualcomm, and others in creating a solution that could hopefully, possibly, maybe, help VR make the leap from ultra-nerdy to sorta-mainstream. And after having missed the boat on mobile, Intel is trying to ensure that it’s well-positioned for the next big wave of computing.
Intel’s pitch with Project Alloy is that it has figured out a way to offer a PC-like VR experience without the need to tether the headset to a computer system. The reference design has two processors, Intel’s RealSense 3D cameras, and a detachable, rechargeable battery. The first headset that ships will be based on Microsoft’s Windows Holographic desktop software.
Okay. So what’s “merged reality”?
Vjeran Pavic
It’s a good question, and it’s one I’ve been asking ever since Intel first dropped the term this summer. Fortunately, Intel was willing to let The Verge into its labs and let us try on an early version of a Project Alloy headset to get a better sense of how it works.