Samsung and Six Flags have teamed up to produce a promotion for Gear VR headsets to be used on actual roller coasters. Visitors to the nine Six Flags coasters in the United States will have the option to wear a Gear VR headset for the "Superman" and "New Revolution" virtual reality coaster. New Revolution will include interactive shooting that probably involves Gear VR's trackpad.
Six Flags reports that Gear VR will eliminate motion sickness, according to The Verge. It will sync the VR device's animation with the real roller coaster, which will fix the eye-body mismatch.
Six Flags addresses two key technical issues about wearing Gear VR on a roller coaster. They include how the unit stays clean and on the head of the wearer.
In terms of the cleaning issue the face mask includes anti-microbial leather and is wiped down before each use.
Regarding the issue of the Gear VR staying on the rollercoaster rider's head, the device includes a head strap and chin strap. It will also include a safety lanyard.
Six Flags' FAQs page also explains that the VR headset even works at night.
It could be noted that theme parks already have VR attractions that are synched to physical motion, and a roller coaster is already an immersive experience for the riders.
A VR roller coaster ride at home is more practical because it lacks a big ride that costs millions of dollars and the landscape that is viewed during the ride. Six flags notes that wearing a Gear VR will be an option.
In other VR news Microsoft has started to accept pre-orders for its augmented reality (AR) HoloLens device, according to AnandTech. Right now it only offers a $3,000 dev kit version of the AR headset through its Windows insider program.
HoloLens is a wearable for personal computers running Windows 10. The device is based on a 32-bit Intel processor and custom-built Microsoft holographic processing unit (HPU)
The number of sensors included on the HoloLens is quite high. It also features a 2 MP video camera; depth camera; set of accelerometers, gyroscope, and maybe magnetometer; four microphones; and ambient light sensor.