A virtual reality headset is a heads-up display (HUD) that allows users to interact with simulated environments and experience a first-person view (FPV). VR headsets replace the user’s natural environment with virtual reality content, such as a movie, a game or a prerecorded 360-degree VR environment that allows the user to turn and look around, just as in the physical world.

Although virtual reality has been around for years, the tethered hardware to experience it has traditionally been expensive, bulky and power-hungry. Today, mobile VR headsets, which are basically goggles that will hold a smartphone, have allowed VR apps to spread into the consumer market. The goal of each type of VR headset is to provide the viewer with an experience that is so real, the headset itself is forgotten.

VR apps for both mobile and tethered apps incorporate technology such as gaze tracking, IR sensors, gyroscopes and accelerometers to move the user’s point of view in a natural manner. Mobile apps often include stereo sound, while tethered apps may feature surround or even 3D sound.