Valve Index may get a wireless adapter through Nofio.
Nofio is a new Australia-based company building a low-latency adapter to make Valve’s Index headset wireless. It plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign soon.
In 2019, just after its launch, Valve itself said it was “exploring different methods of doing Index untethered”. In 2020, the company said it was “excited about the promise of wireless VR” and “continuing to explore its possibilities”. More than 3 years after the launch of Index, no official wireless adapter has yet been announced.
Nofio’s adapter uses Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi’s new 6GHz band, to achieve a claimed latency of less than 5 milliseconds. 6GHz Wi-Fi has a higher bandwidth and is much more resistant to interference, but it suffers from greater degradation when penetrating solid objects such as walls. That’s not much of an issue for wireless PC VR – Nofio promises a supported playspace of 5m×5m, but claims 5m×10m will work in testing.
The receiver weighs 200 grams. Nofio says the included battery lasts 2 hours, but since it’s connected via USB-C, you can swap it out for your own. That battery also weighs 200 grams and can be mounted on the head or kept in a pocket.
Nofio hasn’t set a final price yet, but expects it to be somewhere around $450. You can sign up to be kept informed when the Kickstarter campaign launches. Nofio claims that the shipment will start in the first quarter of 2023. As with all hardware kickstarters, read that as an ambition, not a promise, especially given the ongoing supply chain crisis.