Disqus
There’s a fair amount of speculation about what the iPhone is going to do from this point forward. And, with iFund putting up that $100 million to nurture the iPhone development environment, iPhone-ideas are bound to start creeping up. Box Fab has come out of the woodwork and announced a few of their own off-the-wall ideas for iPhone development. The most outlandish concept? The 3D Virtual Reality head-mount for the iPhone.
No, I’m serious. Box Fab wants to bring the world of 3-dimensional virtual reality to iPhone users everywhere. For just $200, the company envisions using the iPhone as an image plate which clips into the head-mount – allowing iPhone users to go about their day in virtual reality bliss. According to Box Fab, the concept is “a virtual reality head-mount which the iPhone clips into instantly become a networked, head-tracked, virtual worlds viewer.”
The head-mount would use the iPhone’s accelerometers to translate head-movements into VR movements, all the while being networked with other iPhone users trippin’ along in their own VR worlds – with the aid of “special close-view depixelization flat optics turn the iPhone screen into a 3 dimensional window into another world.” And, with a projected $200 price point, the idea sounds enticing. Unless you consider the downsides.
Doc over at Macenstein points out that it’s going to be a bit difficult to manipulate the iPhone’s multi-touch display while it’s clipped into the head-mount. Add that to the overly-optimistic $200 price point (in case the super-realistic 3D rendering above didn’t give it away, these guys still have to develop this stuff), and I’m not going to hold my breath for a VR head-mount for my iPhone.
Still, Box Fab has a couple other ideas that seem a bit more realistic. The iPhone video conferencing camera idea is interesting. It’s a “A clip on camera lens which lets you point the internal camera back at yourself for live internet video conference calls.” Although, the idea would be limited to WiFi-only use.
The iPhone LED flashlight idea sounds the most practical (in terms of development) of the bunch, but it’s still limited to a tiny niche. Box Fab envisions the iPhone LED light being used as “a plug on adapter that lets the device project laser or LED light patterns on the walls or ceilings in time to the sound output without the need for an electronic connection.” Like I said, it’s a good idea, but would you really buy this (assuming Box Fab can get Apple’s “Made for iPhone” blessing to mess around with the dock connector)?
Keep in mind, Box Fab’s concepts are little more than ideas at this point. The company is hoping that somebody out there picks up on one of their ideas and pays them to run with it.
We’ll keep an eye out for the VR head-mount…
[Via: Macenstein]
About The Author
Will Park
Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...
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Hardgeek
