Last year, Samsung brought out the consumer edition of the Gear VR, and the company looks set to refresh the device with a second edition. However, there is news that the South Korean manufacturer has its sights set on loftier goals and is already developing a standalone VR headset.

The news that Samsung has an untethered virtual reality headset in the works was reported by Variety, which quoted Injong Rhee, head of Samsung R&D. Rhee made the statement about the headset when he was addressing the developer conference, which was hosted by Samsung in San Francisco recently. He went on to describe the headset as being a "dedicated VR device that can operate without a mobile phone" and that it was already in development.

As for the features that Samsung is looking to include in the headset, gesture tracking and also the ability to track the position of the user's hands are among them. Motion tracking is another feature that is said to be included in the standalone VR headset, along with touch controls. Ultimately, Samsung is hoping that the VR headset will function as a sort of a holodeck.

However, the most attractive feature of the VR headset is said to be its ability to function without being attached to a computer. This would make the headset similar to the HoloLens, which is currently being developed by Microsoft and has already been released as a developer's edition. As for the standalone VR headset, which is being developed by Samsung, it will not be releasing anytime soon, and Rhee made it clear that it would take a couple of years to bring it to the market.

In the meantime, the VR market already has two solid headsets in the form of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, both of which require a PC to work. There are also rumors that other companies like Google are also planning to create an untethered VR headset and it is expected that HTC and Oculus will bring out such a headset as a second edition device.