Virtual Reality Headset Hygiene: Solving the VR Headset Hygiene Issue

How do you keep your virtual reality headset clean? No doubt, virtual reality headset hygiene is a major concern for most users of VR headset technology. If you are one of users of VR headset, you would welcome suggestions on how to maintain your headset. It is the most important of this unique device.

Keeping your headset clean can be broken down into three areas - the ‘dry’ (skin, scalp, and hair), the ‘wet’ (sweat, oils and makeup/hair products), and the ‘unusual’ (lice/eggs, earwax and others). Why is keeping your headset clean an important issue? Well, VR headset can be a medium of bacterial transmission. When this happens, it will need more than a quick wipe-over to make the headset clean. The transmission of bacterial is not unusual for item like this that is evasive. For some times now, the 3D cinema industry has been trying to address the hygiene issues, especially as their 3D glasses are in the hands of very young users. The first method being used today to address the hygene issue is dish-washer style systems for large 3D cinema installations and the second is a less invasive ultraviolet light sterilization process.

Before the coming of virtual reality headset cover, there were challenges that faced virtual reality headset hygiene. Back in 1995, the team that started the Disney GatorVision carried out an exhaustive research to ascertain the best way to operate a VR headset for various categories of people and also to find a way to easily clean VR headset.

As noted, keeping the VR headset clean is a tricky issue. This is partly due to the need to avoid abrasive cloths and solvent in the cleaning process. However, the baby wipes (wet wipe) are a good option and are seen as the savior of the mass VR headset operation. But, it is important to ensure that the wipes do not have alcohol, solvents, or surfactant that may affect the headset.

The needs of VR headset users who may be allergic, as well as the damage to the actual VR headset components are some other challenges virtual reality headset hygiene face. It is important to consider VR headset comfort for this category of users. The interactions between some solvents, dev-kit plastics, and lenses pose concern and need to be carefully handled. It is advisable not to use unsuitable cleaning products, especially for headset like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR. When cleaning these headsets, care should be taken and it is good not to use a window cleaning product that some people are using to clean down a lens while ignoring the issue that the liquid in question may cause skin irritation.

For some headset like the Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2, as well as some other VR headsets, there was a challenge as to how to clean the sponge face-liner and the cloth strap to the head. Before now, there seem to be no immediate answer to that. But, one solution that has been recommended is virtual reality headset cover and other prototypes or developer kits. It is recommended also that the quality of these headsets should be check and best cleaning method should be adopted for each headset. There is another solution that everyone is talking about now.

Which VR headset is most hygienic at the moment?

Samsung Gear VR and Oculus are the two headsets currently making wave for their ergonomic and hygiene features of the HMD. These two have much more improved features that promote hygiene and they are easy to maintain for users. There are two important features that contribute to this. Both headsets are made with ‘Removable Foam Liner and Forehead Support.’

One good thing that users will love about them is the padding that lines the user facing aspect of the HMD. It is easy to remove. With the removable foam liner, the difficulty in keeping VR headset clean is now solved. The other feature – forehead support – is another interesting feature of the Samsung Gear VR. This forehead support is attached to the central head strap of the device. There is a curve that is conventional with the user’s forehead and a wide cross section that is responsible for distributing the downward force of the HMD throughout a wider surface. The forehead support feature is meant to provide VR headset comfort for users.

With these two latest VR headsets, the concern about virtual reality headset hygiene can be said to have been tackled to some extents. If you are a lover VR headset technology who is concerned about keeping the device clean, the introduction of Samsung Gear VR and Oculus should be cheering news.