Valve Lighthouse positional tracking now on board thanks to the extra cash
The prospect of FOVE VR becomes more exciting by the day. Not only did the VR headset smash its Kickstarter target – $450,000+ and counting against a goal of $250,000 – it’s now revealed that Samsung Ventures has invested into the project too.
We recently told you how, if the Kickstarter campaign reached a $700,000 stretch goal, it would integrate Valve’s Lighthouse tech into its developer kits.
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That stretch target is no longer required, thanks to the Samsung investment, with FOVE’s makers stating the advanced tracking tech will be added to the headset, as well as support for the OSVR standard.
It means FOVE will not only track your head and eyes accurately but, like the HTC Vive, will also track your hands and body’s position in the room using base stations.
Yuka Kojima, CEO and co-founder of FOVE, said: “With this new investment and from our Kickstarter community, we will work diligently in making FOVE development possible on a large scale. Our goal is to further advance the virtual reality market.”
A spokesperson for Samsung Ventures added: “Our investment in FOVE is evidence of our belief in FOVE’s superior technology and we believe FOVE will launch a competitive VR device in the market soon.”
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FOVE’s futuristic system uses an infrared sensor inside the headset to monitor a user’s eyes, meaning it can simulate the depth-of-field we experience when viewing the real world, adding to the immersion, as well as having your eye movements mimicked by in-game avatars.
The FOVE headset boats a 5.8-inch, 1440p, display; a 100+ degree field of view; a 90fps frame rate; and eye-tracking measured at 120fps.
The Tokyo startup has also revealed plans to tap into the Wear VR software platform and claims that its headset is compatible with Unity, Unreal, and Cryengine game engines.
The early bird special of $349 for a headset is no longer available – you’re gonna need to stump up at least $375 to nab one one. Shipping is estimated for May 2016.
