FOVE is a new VR device that is founded through Kickstarter. It brings a new twist to the virtual reality gadget arena. And that has not gone unnoticed, as FOVE already reached almost $200000 out of the quarter million goal set and there still are 44 more days to go, meaning there is a lot more time for interested individuals and companies to pledge funds to the project.
The novelty is that FOVE is capable of reading and following the eye movements and, as such, the user can control the VR headset.
Even though the Kickstarter page focuses more on game scenarios when describing the capabilities of the gadget, it can do much more than just aim your weapon at a target with the eyes when playing a shooter game, for example.
The hardware that will come in the first developer kit is certainly on par with other VR solutions, with a 5.8 inch screen at a 2560×1440 pixels resolution. The FOV is more than 100 degrees and the frame rate should reach 90fps. The head tracking sensors will have a low latency and will be able to follow the position and movement of the headset while being worn.
The two infrared eye tracking sensors are small and unobtrusive and will achieve an accuracy of within 0.2 degrees, while the positioning data is transmitted 120 times per second for each eye.
There are some clear advantages brought by FOVE’s eye tracking system, one of which is that more realistic scenery can be rendered with details being enhanced and sharpened or blurred to mimic the image perception of the human eye of objects that are in direct focus and in direct line of sight or, on the contrary, of objects that are perceived by peripheral vision being outside of the center of gaze.
This in turn has an effect of balancing the resource requirements for rendering images by lowering details outside the field of view and enhancing them around the focus point, allocating these resources where they are most required.
Another advantage is that by controlling the direction of the gaze with the eyes rather that with the head movements, like the other VR devices, FOVE manages to also gain accuracy and reduce the nausea associated with VR headsets usage.
The future is promising for FOVE and its developers, as they have already managed to convince the investors with their past 4 prototypes and their production timeline, which, after the very likely successful crowd-funding stage, will go on to production testing in July 2015 and eventually to the shipping of the first developer kits in 2016.
Image Source: techcrunch
Share this:
