10 Must Have Gadgets Coming Out In The Next Year

By Michael Downie /

2. Oculus Rift

Speaking of VR, one of the most high profile proponents of modern VR is the Oculus Rift VR headset. The device has been around in a couple of forms for the last two years now but never more has it been popular. The Rift is actually still in test and development but such is the hype around it that people are buying up dev kits faster than Oculus can make them and by the looks of it, their popularity is only going to increase. The Rift headset features two miniaturised HD screens, placed behind a lens directly in front of each eye, with software designed to split an image to slight left and right perspectives to generate the illusion of 3D. Like the aforementioned Galaxy Note 4 add on, the Rift features motion sensors which track the user's head and allows you to move around in a world in real time. Designed primarily with gaming in mind, enterprising developers have created immersive worlds ripe for exploration in true first person 3D. Add in some motion controllers you can hold with your hands and you're one step closer to being able to jack into the Matrix for real. At the minute, the availability of the Rift is limited as they are providing development kits only, however there is a strong sense that the consumer edition of the Rift will appear in 2015 at some point. The hype train is beginning to run at full tilt, with the likes of PewDiePie and other Youtubers who have been lucky enough to have gotten a kit racking up huge numbers of views on Rift based videos, often with hilarious results.