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There’s a Fan for Your Sweaty Headset

ViveNchill offers a playful solution to a problem us hotheads didn’t want to admit we had.

When HTC Vive launched last year, it ushered in a whole new era of roomscale interactive experiences. It’s truly no exaggeration to say that it singlehandedly catapulted VR beyond the realm of seated gaming to immersive embodiment—letting us interact in tactile, physical experiences.

But it turns out that newfound physicality came at a bit of a cost: an uptick in body temperature. Meaning an increase in perspiration. Meaning an increase in sweat drying on facepads. Meaning a righteous olfactory apocalypse accumulating on said facepads.

But don’t you dare delete that Vive from your shopping cart; the enterprising folks at RedRotor have developed a system to keep your temperature in check and your facepads fresh and clean: ViveNchill.

How? Collapsible add-on fans rigged to target the parts of your face most likely to generate unsavory fluids.

Pop-culture moniker aside, ViveNchill is a legitimate solution to a real problem, and the VR-world has taken note (thanks in no small part to an robust discussion on Reddit). In less than two weeks—and with 17 days to go—the Indiegogo campaign has already exceeded its funding goal by approximately $3000.

The functionality of this tool especially targets those interested in using VR as a fitness solution. We’ve seen a number of notable cases to that end over the past year, including a man who lost over 50 pounds in VR, another who cut over 14 pounds in a 50-day challenge, as well as a sojourner who biked the entire length of Britain in VR, axing over 50,000 calories over the course of 85 hours—all in VR.

New Vsports titles like Sparc and Red Accent continue to enter the VR marketplace alongside more established options like VirZOOM and Virtual Sports. And let’s be real, you probably emit some heat in the breakneck action of Raw Data and yogaesque body contortion of SUPERHOT VR. However you bring the heat, ViveNchill is there to keep things cool.

The team is already beginning production of the product, with a projected ship date of September 2017. Retail MSRP will ultimately clock in at $32, but for the remainder of the campaign, contributors can secure a 22% discount ($25), so don’t miss out on your chance to keep cool at a discount!

About the Scout

Jesse Damiani

Jesse Damiani is Editor-at-Large of VRScout and Deputy Director of Emerging Technology at Southern New Hampshire University. He's also Series Editor for Best American Experimental Writing (Wesleyan University Press) and the author of @endless$pectator: The Screens Suite #loliloquy (BlazeVOX, 2017). Other writing can be found on Adweek, Billboard, Forbes, Quartz, and The Verge.

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