As most current virtual reality devices weigh heavily on users' faces at contact points, NOLO VR, a Chinese manufacturer of augmented reality and virtual reality devices, is taking a different path.

In September, the company partnered with a leading electric vehicle company to launch a VR device that is as small as a ring. The smart ring comes with a tiny pad that enables users to swipe and tap with virtual pointers used to enjoy in-car entertainment.

"The future development direction of terminals, including VR devices, is expected to be more lightweight, portable and interactive. Wearable VR controllers promise to be a leader in the VR sector," said Zhang Daoning, founder and CEO of NOLO VR.

Currently, most VR equipment relies on heavy headset devices and controllers, which, to many users, are not comfortable to wear for extended periods.

"There might be a certain contradiction between easy-to-use and reliability. Only when a product keeps a good balance between the two can it be truly popularized, just like the mouse and keyboard in the PC era and touch screens in the mobile internet period," Zhang said.

The smart ring is embedded with the company's self-developed 6DoF, or degree of freedom, technology, which basically shows how many axes are being tracked. 6DoF is widely considered as full VR by giving users more freedom to move around their environment and interact with objects more realistically.

The Beijing-based company first applied related technologies in VR devices in 2015, when such modalities had already been used in drones but not in the VR and AR sectors.

"The application of 6DoF in mobile VR devices has then become a first-mover advantage, after which, the company continues to make breakthroughs on other related core technologies," Zhang said.

With such efforts, NOLO has become a leading VR company in China in terms of shipments. More than 500,000 units of VR equipment were sold last year in China while NOLO's 6DoF products ranked second in shipments, he said.

"One thing for sure, NOLO has, and will, insist on the research and development of core technologies, and will not follow the path of any other similar company," Zhang said.

"A valuable technology company should leverage core technologies to reduce costs, ensure higher gross profits, and at the same time give consumers a good experience," he added.

Zhang said that while VR devices tend to be lighter, an open cloud ecosystem is an important support for the healthy development of the VR industry. Therefore, his company has completed the adaptation of mainstream VR all-in-one devices with major domestic manufacturers like Huawei Technologies Co, Xiaomi Corp and Pico.

The Chinese company has also cooperated with telecom operator China Mobile to build cloud VR. It helped drive the General Standard for XR, an extended reality standard set led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which aims to reduce the difficulty of software and hardware adaptation for extended reality.

Though the small startup has finished six rounds of fundraising, it is far from enough for Zhang, as he expects to create a VR product that everyone can enjoy and is easy to use.

"There should be VR equipment like a mobile phone size priced at less than 1,000 yuan ($143), so that more users can buy them, making VR more into a mass consumer market," he added.