The success of crowd-funding campaigns for virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift, the Virtuix Omni and the STEM System have amply demonstrated that there is a huge latent demand for virtual reality gaming and experiences. And the stream of innovation shows no signs of abating with two hugely exciting projects hitting Kickstarter recently –

Firstly we have (the oddly named) vrAse – a case for smartphones that delivers a very affordable entry level virtual reality experience to a mass audience –

Having successfully ended the campaign with £66,556 pledged towards a £55,000 goal the vrAse looks like a worthy competitor to the Durovis Dive (which, interestingly, appears to have no intention of going down the crowd-funding route)

Secondly we have castAR which claims to be “the most versatile AR & VR system” yet and $335,094 already pledged towards a goal $400,000 with 29 days still to go, it seems that plenty of people agree. While the AR side is impressive it seems that the VR aspect isn’t much more than an after-thought and hardly delivers an impact that will keep the Oculus Rift team awake at night –