Asian phone makers flock to Google’s VR ‘Daydream’

Las Vegas - Internet search giant Google is looking to boost the reach of its mobile virtual reality offering ‘Daydream’ with the help of Asian phone makers.

Daydream-ready phones are built for virtual reality as they come with high-resolution displays, smooth graphics, and high-fidelity sensors for precise head tracking.

The Google technology was launched in November last year and, up until this week, the tech was only available for the likes of the Pixel and Moto Z smartphones.

READ: PICS - Intel teases new VR headset at CES

But amid a greater push in the industry towards VR, Google this week alongside the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas announced more Daydream partnerships.

And Asian phone makers have jumped at the technology as China’s Huawei and ZTE, as well as Taiwan’s Asus, are set to carry Daydream on select smartphones.

At a Huawei keynote on Thursday, Google’s vice president for business and operations, virtual reality and augmented reality, Amit Singh announced that Daydream will be available on the Mate 9 handset.

"Daydream is Google's stake and our new platform for immersive, mobile high-performance virtual reality,” said Singh.

"What we found is actually building smartphones for VR is a lot of work. It requires a close partnership deep in the engineering level in designing the optics, display technologies, sensors,” Singh added.

Google’s vice president for business and operations, virtual reality and augmented reality, Amit Singh. (Photo: Gareth van Zyl)

Google Daydream is set to become available on the Huawei Mate 9 Pro and Porsche Design Mate 9.

Meanwhile, the technology will also become available on the ZTE Axon 7 and the ASUS ZenFone AR, Singh wrote in a blog post earlier this week.

Headset technology is further set to complement the Daydream app, according to Google.

Google is further partnering on new headsets. (Photo: Gareth van Zyl)

"Alongside the phones, Huawei has been working on a Daydream-ready headset for launch at a later date," Singh wrote in a blog post.

"The Huawei VR headset is built to be easy to use. It has an adjustable focus so it can be used without eyeglasses, and provides a 95° field of view. By bringing new headsets onto the Daydream platform, we hope to give consumers even more choice in how they enjoy VR," he added.

Tango with augmented reality

At the Huawei keynote on Thursday, Singh further spoke of Google’s augmented reality app Tango.

Tango gives phones augmented reality (AR) capabilities via technologies such as motion tracking, depth perception and area learning.

The likes of clothing maker Gap has been working on a new Tango enabled app dubbed ‘DressingRoom’, which Google says “takes the guess work out of apparel shopping”.

Phones such as the Asus ZenFone AR are set to get the app which will be available on Google Play at the end of January.

*Fin24 is attending CES courtesy of Hisense.