In the world of gaming, Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR) is the most successful console gaming VR headset, backed by comfortable wear and a relatively massive VR game catalogue. When Lenovo announced their Mirage Solo at CES 2018 in January, people quickly noted the obvious design similarities between the two, especially the comfortable crown that many prefer to the Oculus or HTC Vive sets.
After these questionable similarities between the Solo and PlayStation VR gave way to legal threats, on October 30th, Sony and Lenovo announced that Sony licensed the PSVR industrial design to Lenovo through 2020 for use in the Mirage Solo head-mounted display, which is one of the only headsets that supports Google’s standalone Daydream VR platform.
In addition to being one of the only functional standalone solutions and one of only a few VR solutions outside of gaming, Daydream’s WorldSense capability promises full environmental tracking that allows for six degrees of freedom (6DOF) navigation — meaning Daydream allows the user to not only look around the virtual environment, but to move through it.
After licensing agreements were settled, Yao Li, Vice President and General Manager of Tablet & Smart Device Business at Lenovo, suggested that this licensing agreement also will lead to some exciting collaboration between Sony and Lenovo.
“The preeminence of the PSVR design is obvious,” said Li. “This agreement will allow us to work together to greatly enhance the design sophistication and appeal of the rapidly expanding VR field, and is an outstanding example of how great consumer brands in the VR industry can work together to benefit the consumer VR market.”
