Future iterations of the HTC Vive may come without the clunky train of wires protruding from the back of the virtual reality headset. A new partner, Quark VR, has teamed up with Valve and HTC to free the Vive from its many strings.
The Bulgarian VR startup recently announced plans to showcase a prototype of the wireless HTC Vive this fall. Instead of an extensive set of wires that fall to the floor, Quark’s “gadget” would connect to the HTC Vive, while a transmitter would reside in a user’s pocket. This configuration will allow a PC and HTC Vive to communicate via Wi-Fi. There would be a single wire connecting the Quark gadget and the transmitter; however, the technology would resolve the issue of the Vive’s current wire setup being cumbersome for fluid use.
Quark VR’s co-founder, Georgi Georgiev, noted in a blog post that the biggest challenge the company is trying to overcome is ensuring that Vive maintains a constant connection for a seamless VR experience with no connection delay. Such latency is what can cause users to become sick in VR . However, Quark is close to resolving the issue.
There is no word on exactly when the wireless HTC Vive prototype will be available for demonstration.
