According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is developing android based virtual reality software.
The California-based company apparently has “tens of engineers” that are working on a virtual reality project to rival Facebook’s Oculus.
Google said that they will freely distribute the android virtual reality software. By making it free for hardware manufacturers the tech giant will generate a lot of interest from third party developers, giving it a strategic boost.
Google is not the first tech firm to look into virtual reality. In fact, the company is a little bit behind – compared to its competitors.
Facebook acquired Oculus last year for $2 billion and Samsung teamed up with Oculus to develop a virtual reality headset. HTC also announced that it has partnered with ‘Valve’ to create a virtual reality devices known as ‘Vive’.
The growing interest in virtual reality
There are currently no virtual-reality devices sold in large numbers yet, in fact there are only developer kits and none of the major virtual reality players have mentioned any information such as app compatibilities or release dates.
Instead, it appears that manufacturers are trying their best to perfect the hardware.
The industry shows a lot of promise, with video game companies, filmmakers, and other seeing huge potential in the field.
Earlier this month at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco virtual reality was one of, if not the most, talked about topics.
Clay Bavor and Jeremy Doig are leading Google’s team working on Android for virtual reality.
Clay Bavor is vice president of product management and Mr. Doig’s is director of engineering – he was also behind the low-tech virtual reality viewer called “Google Cardboard”.