Strap the black box to your face and you are taken to another world, hiding from the alien stalking you around a space station, or looking across a colorful island inhabited by a cartoon fox. The games you play on the Oculus Rift headset leave you focused on the singularly unique experience the hardware provides, ignoring the fact that it is all housed in a simple plastic container.
But when the Oculus Rift makes its way to consumers, it won’t resemble its current form. And it will likely not resemble the target-render that Oculus posted on its Kickstarter page back in August 2012. That’s why it went out last month and acquired the Carbon Design Group.
“The development kits didn’t have the magic of Carbon applied to them. The development kits were designed by engineers,” says Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus VR. “I am pretty confident that whatever Carbon comes up with is going to be a lot more consumer friendly and visually friendly.”
For a new category of technology that has yet to find success, it is even more important that the package is appealing to the public, that people find it approachable and comfortable. The alternative is to release something offputting, that turns consumers away from, not only the Oculus Rift, but from virtual reality altogether.
Read the full article at Co.Design.