This startup wants to build the Gear VR for iPhone-based augmented reality

A customer views the new iPhone 7 smartphone inside an Apple Inc. store in Los Angeles, California, U.S., September 16, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles-based augmented reality (AR) startup Mira has raised US$1.5mil (RM6.43mil) in seed funding from will.i.am, Sequoia Capital, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Jaunt VR founder Jens Christensen and others to build a kind of Gear VR headset for iPhone-based AR. The company’s Mira Prism headset can now be pre-ordered for US$99 (RM425). 

That’s significantly cheaper than AR headsets from Microsoft and others, for a reason: Mira Prism uses an iPhone to render AR games and experiences, similar to the way Samsung’s Gear VR headset is being powered by a phone that is inserted into the headset itself.