The Rift is a virtual reality head-mounted display developed by Oculus VR. It was initially proposed in a Kickstarter campaign, during which Oculus VR (at the time an independent company) raised US$2.5million for the development of the product.
The Rift will be released in Q1 2016, making it one of the first consumer-targeted virtual reality headsets. Oculus has described it as "the first really professional PC-based VR headset". It has a resolution of 1080x1200 per eye, a 90 Hz refresh rate, and a wide field of view. It has integrated headphones which provide spatialised audio. The Rift has full 6 degree of freedom rotational and positional tracking. The positional tracking is performed by a separate tracking unit, which is included with each Rift and normally sits on the user's desk. This system allows for using the Rift while sitting, standing, or walking around the same room.
The Rift has gone through many prototype versions in the years since the Kickstarter campaign, around 5 of which were demoed to the public. Two of these prototypes were sold publicly as 'development kits', DK1 in late 2012 and DK2 in mid 2014, to give developers a chance to develop content in time for the Rift's release. However, both were also bought by a large number of enthusiasts who wished to get an early preview of the technology.