Intel is developing a concept for a PC that can be worn inside a vest. It's been designed to offer virtual reality gamers more freedom to walk around.
You may remember a few months ago, PC makers like HP and MSI were showing off prototypes of PC backpacks that could be users for VR gaming. Now Tom's Hardware reports that Intel demoed the PCVR vest during this week's IGF conference.
The PC itself is on the back of the vest, with the front holding its large 100 Wh lithium ion battery. The concept is based on the idea that having a vest for PCVR gaming would offer owners better balance than having everything put in a backpack. The entire system weighs about five pounds:
Further, the team seems to have thought through the cooling issues. The vest houses an entire PC, and as we've discussed in regard to VR backpacks, there are obvious heat issues that can arise. But Intel's vest has fans--possibly three. The I/O ports are at the top of the vest, facing up to the ceiling, and there's an adjacent intake fan. The vest expels hot air out either side of the vest, through metal mesh vents. I was told that the system would never raise the wearer's skin temperature beyond 35 degrees C (95 degrees F).
The PC itself is one of Intel's small NUC designs with an quad-core Core i7-6785R processor, integrated Iris Pro 580 graphics, 8 GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD:
Alert readers will note that the Iris Pro 580, robust it may be, does not meet the minimum graphics requirements for VR. The presenters readily acknowledged this fact, but they wanted to show what the iGPU could do with an Oculus Rift DK2 and unsubtly hinted that they were looking into discrete GPU options that would fit neatly into the super-slim PC's form factor.
This PC vest was created in just a few months as a proof-of-concept, so don't expect it to go on sale anytime soon. Would you wear a PC on a vest for VR gaming? Let us know in the comments!
