HP announces their revolutionary new HP Z VR Backpack, the world’s first professional wearable VR PC. Crafted to bring the full potential of VR to-life, it is the world’s most secure and manageable wearable VR PC ever created.
HP see the potential for VR to revolutionise sectors such as industrial and military training, medical and healthcare practice, product design, architecture and to take consumer engagement to the next level. The HP Z VR Backpack is designed to help companies make the first step into using VR and give them an easy to use, end-to-end VR solution with the capabilities to easily build those immersive capabilities into their business.
HP see the potential for VR to revolutionise sectors such as industrial and military training Click To TweetAnnounced alongside this new technology is HP’s partnership with HTC, makers of the VIVE HMD. The new “Business Edition” VIVE will come with built-in headphones and 1 year of commercial support, and will be offered bundled with this new HP backpack.
“Virtual reality is changing the way people learn, communicate and create,” said Xavier Garcia, vice president and general manager, Z Workstations, HP Inc. “HP is uniting the right innovation and the right partners to position our customers with commercial VR solutions that matter. With our long history of insights-based innovation, and new solutions like the HP Z VR Backpack, we are empowering VR experiences our customers can use today to reinvent the future.”
This new externally untethered VR Backpack is light with an ergonomic design and hot swappable batteries to provide unrestricted freedom within any immersive experience. It packs serious high-end processing power with the latest Intel® Core i7 vPro processor and chipset, providing the power to process applications at incredible speeds.
This untethered VR Backpack is light with an ergonomic design Click To TweetIt is also the first wearable VR PC in the market to use the NVIDIA® Quadro® P5200. The 16GB of video memory will provide a huge frame buffer to avoid stuttering and dropped frames that break the sense of immersion. The Quadro GPUs also ensure immersion is smooth and responsive with low latency and high frame rates which – when paired with the HTC VIVE – should give a spectacular ride! Neither the CPU nor GPU are throttled so there is plenty of power on tap whenever you need it.
Some possible use cases include:
- Businesses can use VR to deliver safe and effective simulated training in dangerous environments, medical training or for heavy/large equipment operations, avoiding costly mistakes
- In architectural building development, virtual walkthroughs at scale for client reviews can help quickly close the deal.
- In product development, executive agreement and sign off for new styling can be done in virtual showrooms.
- New location-based entertainment centres featuring exhilarating virtual reality experiences are now a step closer
To help market this new VR solution HP are opening thirteen immersion centres later this year in Palo Alto, Houston, Boise, Fort Collins, Stockholm, London, Paris, Barcelona, Boeblingen, Beijing, Sydney, Tokyo and Singapore. The centres have been designed so customers can have an immersive experience using HP VR technology and receive consulting on how to best deploy VR devices within their business to streamline workflows.
HP are opening thirteen immersion centres all over the world to showcase their latest VR tech Click To TweetIn designing the backpack HP have addressed some major pain points their research identified:
- No trailing cables helps preserve immersion, improves freedom of movement and is safer for users and bystanders
- Hot swap batteries help retain immersion for long periods
- Lightweight at just over 10lbs
- Designed for comfort with the workstation kept off your back and air flow directed to the sides
- Durable enough for military training
- Designed as a single, unified VR solution that is a delivery rig and a true VR workstation for content creation and testing, enabling companies to design, test and develop content on the same equipment that will deliver the experience to their customers
Its docking solution lets digital creators quickly transition back and forth between high-powered desktop for content design and wearable VR PC to test out their creations. The docking station can drive two 4K Z or DreamColor displays (sold separately) and the HTC Vive Business Edition HMD (sold separately) is also part of the HP VR portfolio. The Backpack will be available in September starting at $3,299 USD. The datasheet is available here.
For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy.
