Wearality Sky

Wearality Sky
Basic Info
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Type	Head-mounted display
Subtype	Slide-on HMD
Platform	Wearality Sky
Creator	Wearality
Developer	Wearality
Release Date	Backer shipments underway by August 2016
Price	US$69 commercial preorder offer (2015)
Website	wearality.com (historical)
Requires	Smartphone
Display
Display	Depends on smartphone
Resolution	Depends on smartphone
Image
Field of View	150° (advertised)
Optics
Optics	double-Fresnel lenses (2 Fresnel lenses per eye)
Tracking
Tracking	Depends on smartphone and application
Rotational Tracking	Via smartphone
Positional Tracking	No tracker in adapter

Wearality Sky is a smartphone adapter for Virtual Reality developed by Wearality. Wearality Sky contains only the optical components of an HMD. It requires the insertion of a smartphone for its display and processing, similar to Google Cardboard. The phone and application determine display resolution and tracking behavior.

Its portable, open, folding frame had an advertised 150° field of view.

The Kickstarter campaign ran from 6 April to 6 May 2015, raising US$117,650 from 1,091 backers against a US$100,000 goal. By August 2016, Wearality reported that backer shipments had begun. A US$69 commercial preorder offer was documented during the 2015 campaign. It was a campaign price, separate from the expected retail price.

Hardware

The 2015 prototype looked like a pair of glasses with bulky black rims and thick lenses. The phone holder placed the screen a few inches in front of the lenses.

Its double-Fresnel lens design uses two lens elements per eye. Wearality called this arrangement the Panorama Lens and described compatibility with prescription eyewear and variation in interpupillary distance without adjustment. These were manufacturer descriptions, rather than a guarantee of fit for every wearer.

Field of view

Wearality's technical report separates optical output angles from the screen area visible through the lenses. Its geometry uses a design eyepoint 18 mm from the center of the near lens. The report's summary gives the following lower bounds:

Manufacturer-reported optical output field of view

Viewing arrangement	Horizontal	Vertical	Diagonal
Single eye	Exceeds 130.3°	Exceeds 123.3°	Exceeds 156.6°
Both eyes combined	Exceeds 150.6°	Exceeds 123.3°	Exceeds 165.4°

The report says field of view changes with eye-to-lens distance, eye rotation and interpupillary distance; image size and formation can also limit the perceived view. These figures describe the manufacturer's optical geometry, rather than an independently measured view for every phone and app.

Contemporary hands-on observations

In May 2015, Ben Lang tested Sky with a Nexus 6 and a demonstration app that switched between narrower views and the full phone viewport. He reported a substantially wider view at the full setting, good focus without adjusting lens spacing, and no visible chromatic aberration during his test. He also observed scattered light from the Fresnel ridges and streaks around bright objects on dark backgrounds in Titans of Space. The streaks became more evident when his eyes were away from the lens centers. His report describes a particular demonstration and observer, rather than laboratory measurements of optical quality.

Setup Tutorial

The 2015 FAQ described a foldable viewer with 5-inch or 6-inch phone arms and built-in hat clips. Setup involved sliding a phone into the arms and clipping the viewer to a hat for hands-free use. The company distinguished its limited early-adopter design from a planned enhanced commercial design.

Historical sizing guidance assigned 5.0-5.5-inch displays to the smaller arms and 5.5-6.0-inch displays to the larger arms. Named examples included iPhone 6+, LG G3, Galaxy S4-S6 and Nexus 5/6.

Apps

The 2015 FAQ specified left-right stereo applications and promised a Cardboard configuration QR code. Contemporary demonstrations included Cardboard applications on an LG smartphone.

Developer

An Autodesk interview in May 2015 identified David Smith as founder and CTO and Michael Jones as CEO. It described the technology's origins in defense and aerospace work at Lockheed Martin. Wearality used Fusion 360 for design, product renderings, machining and 3D printing. An April 2015 interview also identified Gunnar Wieboldt as chief operating officer.

Research use

A 2025 PLOS ONE paper reported a laboratory experiment using Sky with a OnePlus 3 and JBL E45BT headphones, compared with an HTC Vive Pro. Thirty-four participants were recruited in February 2020; four were excluded, leaving 30 for analysis. Random assignment combined two devices with three audience conditions: absent, attentive or inattentive. Participants explored a virtual classroom for 90 seconds and then delivered a five-minute speech.

The study detected no statistically significant device differences in presence, cybersickness occurrence or heart-rate response. Cybersickness used a five-symptom yes/no checklist adapted from the SSQ, rather than the standard composite questionnaire score. The small, short-task comparison does not establish device equivalence or prevention of simulator sickness. Navigation and embodiment tasks were untested. The paper's separate field experiment used Cardboard, so its field and nature-viewing results do not describe Sky.

Reviewed 15 October 2026. Historical campaign and shipping record, optical report and hands-on observations, compatibility descriptions, and device-specific research methods and limits. About review dates.