The team has also been working closely as an approved content provider for Oculus (Rift), Valve (Vive), Samsung (Gear VR) and Fove, plus building release VR demos for Autodesk, AMD and The Foundry. To date Aardman have created the 360 story Special Delivery (2015) for Google Spotlight, and We Wait , an animated VR doc for the BBC. The first ever Develop:VR conference debuts in London tomorrow, December 1st. We preview the event by speaking with five speakers presenting at the show. MORE

Just what Google has brewing in their skunkworks, we can’t say for sure, but with their most recent acquisition of Eyefluence , a company that builds eye-tracking technology for VR headsets, it seems Google is getting ever deeper into what’s largely considered ‘the next generation’ of dedicated VR hardware. SEE ALSO Google Goes on VR Hiring Spree Amid Daydream Launch. MORE

With notable exceptions, these are often companies producing cheap replicas of existing mobile hardware like Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear without any additional, unique features. HTC, Oculus, Sony, Samsung, and Google—all of which offer higher quality headsets with the reliability of market-testing, customer support, and general accountability. News China Chinese VR FOVE iiMedia MORE

AR mode will be everywhere else: calling a heads up display of Google Maps on the street, stopping to catch a Pokemon in a field, or scanning the person in the coffee meeting across from you to cross-reference their LinkedIn profile. AR and VR viewers: HTC Vive (VR): Oculus Rift (VR): Google Cardboard (and the upcoming Daydream) (VR): Samsung Gear (VR): Playstation VR (VR): Magic Leap (AR): Microsoft Hololens (AR): Meta (AR): Snow Crash (novel). MORE

He works at FOVE which is making a VR headset with eye-tracking, but wanted to speak to me on his own behalf about some of the deeper philosophical questions and conceptual frameworks around the types of intimate data that will become available to VR headsets. When I was at the GDC VR Mixer, Jim Preston struck up a conversation about his concerns about privacy in VR. MORE

There is something of an arms race developing between the major VR hardware companies (Facebook, Google, HTC, Sony) to add more intuitive controls for VR. Recently, Google acquired a company called Eyefluence. Companies like FOVE are having big breakthroughs using eye tracking to enhance social interaction in VR and foveated rendering techniques could make VR/AR more processor efficient than ever. MORE

The industry has been experiencing a boom in recent years with hundreds of startups and heavy investment from tech giants including Google, Apple, Samsung, and Facebook. In January of 2017, FOVE, a Japanese VR startup, released the first eye-tracking VR headset. Tobii and other eye tracking developers have begun licensing their technology for consumer AR/VR products while tech giants like Google and Facebook have absorbed some of the most promising startups in the space. MORE

Eye-tracking has a number of applications for VR, including foveated rendering and avatar replication, and can already been seen in upcoming headsets like the FOVE 0. Google also recently purchased Eyefluence, suggesting we could see eye-tracking in headsets powered by Google in the years to come. We recently tried eye-tracking as a means of input inside VR with FOVE, though found it came with its own set of problems. MORE

Rothenberg Ventures is a VR-focused venture capital company that has made early-stage investments in VR startups like Wevr , Jaunt , AltspaceVR and FOVE. Some of River Studio’s work we have covered in the past have included the traveling VR exhibition for Björk and Birchbox Man’s inclusion of a Google Cardboard headset, along with four 90-second video clips, in the subscription-based beauty retail delivery box. MORE

Google recently purchased Eyefluence , a company that was making perhaps the most significant strides in VR eye tracking, for an undisclosed sum. Companies like FOVE are already hoping to create headsets that have this capability but it would be a significant coup to see it incorporated into one of the industry’s most “mainstream” devices. The Samsung Gear VR is one of the most successful virtual reality headsets of all time when it comes to pure numbers. MORE

This fourth River Accelerator program, set to launch September 12, will ultimately join the prestigious River Accelerator alumni network of over 40 companies, including Fove, Emblematic, Roqovan, Psious, Boom Supersonic, and EmergentVR, that collectively have gone on to raise over $100M in funding from investors including Accel, Google Ventures, Samsung NEXT Ventures, and Colopl VR Fund. MORE

As of January 2016, Google Cardboard has shipped over 5 million units. Fove has created an eye-tracking headset, which other headset manufacturers may seek to include in future iterations. On March 25th, 2014, many people were left scratching their heads: why did Facebook spend 2 billion dollars to acquire a Kickstarter funded virtual reality company called Oculus. Since then, we have seen a movement. Virtual reality has taken the world by storm. MORE

Many of the biggest companies on the planet, from Samsung and HTC, to Facebook, Amazon, and Google, and even all the way to Ford, Mercedez, and countless startups, all gather in the desert at the start of the year to unveil the latest and greatest advancements in consumer electronics. Eye-Tracking VR Headset FOVE 0 Costs $599, Starts Shipping January 2017 [ Link ]. Gap And Google Just Showed Us How AR Shopping Will Work [ Link ]. MORE

MARUI supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and all Windows MR headsets, while BlenderXR supports all these and the eye tracking PC VR headset ‘FOVE 0’ too. like Google’s Tilt Brush and Facebook’s Quill. Maya, the paid tool from Autodesk, and Blender, a free and open source alternative, are two of the most popular 3D creation tools in the industry. Maya is the tool used to create the 3D assets for countless films, TV shows, and video games. MORE

In fact, this tech is apparently behind the mixed reality face-scanning tech that Google demonstrated last week, bringing a user’s full face into these videos. That’s something that eye-tracking headset FOVE is looking into , as announced this week, and will no doubt become an important feature of many devices in the future. MORE

You can enjoy the full audio recording below: Episode 28 of the VRScout Report, we got new 360 toys on iOS, Hololens is helping elevator technicians, VR might help you control your dreams, Apple CEO Tim Cook on augmented reality, VR/AR industry funding wrapup, and more… iOS NOW CAN TAKE 360 PHOTOS WITH GOOGLE CARDBOARD CAMERA, TOO. FOVE, THE EYE-TRACKING HMD: FINAL SPECS AND PRE-ORDER DATES. MORE

Samsung VR is now somewhat similar to the App Store or Google Play store in that it’s where you can find the latest content for virtual reality products. River Studios, born out of Rothenberg Ventures (which has early-stage investments in VR companies like FOVE, Jaunt, WEVR, and AltspaceVR) in 2015 as the answer to VR production work requests. MORE

FOVE is distributing a eye-tracking headset too. Meanwhile, both Google and Facebook have acquired eye tracking technologies within the last year — underscoring the expectation that the technology will power future headsets. Over the last week we learned that by spending essentially $300 to purchase three Vive Trackers, you will be able to bring your legs, feet and torso into VR — so you can kick a dinosaur in the face without even looking at it. MORE