After years in development and constant reassurances that no, really, it’s going to happen, virtual reality is finally becoming a practical reality.
The Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive are now available, and PlayStation VR finally has a release date set for October of this year and the public will finally get to see that VR isn’t just an elaborate prank by the tech industry. Soon it’ll be common knowledge what separates VR from traditional gaming.
But the headset alone isn’t enough to totally set it apart. When you’re playing VR games with standard devices like Oculus Touch, the Xbox One controller, Vive controllers and PS VR Move, chances are you still won’t be fully immersed in the experience. They’re great devices but your hands are still only controlling digital hands.
That’s a problem peripheral makers across the world are trying to solve, with controllers that add to VR gaming in different ways. While a few are still in the middle of development, others are nearly ready for prime time. Here are the VR peripherals we’ve checked out.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Diving into the Raspberry Pi RP2350, Python Survey Results and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
