Zeiss VR One Virtual Reality Headset

The Zeiss VR One is another plastic shell HMD that uses your smartphone as the high tech electronic component.  What makes the VR One notable is that Zeiss are known as world leaders in lens manufacturing and optics. The marketing material reflects this and the VR One trades on the claim that it has some of the clearest lenses of any HMD. The VR One does not require adjustment of interpupillary distance and users who wear eyeglasses can keep them on while using the HMD. Zeiss says that the picture through its HMD lenses remain clear from the edge of the lens to the center.

There are a few more clever design features on the VR one. The base model comes with no phone tray, although you can purchase a bundle that includes one tray of your choice. Zeiss has made custom trays for several models of smartphone that can be bought separately. However, if you have access to a 3D printer you can request the CAD files from Zeiss and simply print the appropriate tray for your particular phone.

The front tray of the VR One is transparent, which allows for augmented reality applications that require the camera to see. Google Cardboard and its clones achieve this with a camera cutout slot, but the VR One solution is more elegant and means exact camera placement is irrelevant.

The VR One also has ventilation slots to prevent lens fogging and presumably this will also mitigate phone temperature problems that crop up with some unventilated smartphone shell HMDs.

It is important to note that the VR One provides no control mechanism at all, not even the magnetic button found in the Google Cardboard. You will therefore have to use a wireless controller of come sort or use it tethered wirelessly to a computer using software such as Trinus VR.

The VR One is compatible with phones between 4.7 and 5.2 inches and trays are available for the Galaxy S5, S6 and Iphone 6 from Zeiss. If you have another type of phone it’s advisable to check if CAD files for that model are available and then 3D print it yourself or use a 3D print service in your neighbourhood.