Fove have begun shipping out their VR headsets with built in eye-tracking.
We reported the news the other day that Oculus had purchased eye tracking specialists, The Eye Tribe in a move to bring eye-tracking to the Rift headset. Fove are already there though and have started the process of shipping out their headsets.
Fove are built from the success of their Kickstarter and were developing the headsets back in 2014. They were meant to release their headsets in early 2016, but hit some bumps on the road in terms of securing components for the Virtual Reality device. Those bumps have now been flattened, and they have now begun to process of sending out their eyeball tracking headsets that will leave their warehouses on the 8th January. Fove have said they will be focusing efforts on their white themed Fove 0.
There are two applications that developers have created to showcase the Fove 0’s systems. One is a VR Meditation app that allows you to take advantage of the eye tracking system. Framestore, and Time Inc’s LIFE VR have created an app titled, LUMEN. You’ll find yourself immersed within a deamlike galaxy and wherever you look, plants and trees will grow and colours will change. This isn’t a, “turn your head and spawn trees there” system, this is literally a, “Look at that exact area and spawn a tree”. Eye tracking is cool.
CognitiveVR are another developer that have brought an app to the Fove 0. This app allows geospatical tracking, aggregation, and analysis of the users behaviour in a VR world. It places you in a virtual store and records what caught your eye, what you focused on the most, and where you went. It shows an example of companies using virtual worlds to design their shop layout for the best, eye-catching layout they can create in reality. Certainly an app for those interested in retail or real estate. I personally would redesign my house, then wander around a game lair designed into it.
I’m excited to see what users think about the eye tracking system, and it seems like they ship worldwide. Users who had previously pre-ordered will be having their headsets shipped out on the 8th of this month, any further pre-orders will now have to wait until February. The cost of the headset is about £480, but comes with a hefty shipping fee of about £81. That’s a conversion from USD anyway, in dollars it’s $599 with a $100 shipping fee.
Source: Fove Blog
As a Kickstarter supporter, let me tell you that Fove has not started shipping and the ship date on the getfove web site now lists the ship date as February…
Hi David, I believe that shipping for the previous bunch of supporters has now finished the shipping process, and the more recent supporters will.be on the February shipping schedule.
B3NB41L, I’m one of the original Kickstarter Backers and I have not received a shipping notification nor a satusfactory answer as to when they will ship to backers. I’ve asked any other backer to post on kickstarter if they receive a notic but none have. Why do you think they have actualy started shipping? Do you have spicific information or are you just speculating?
Hi David,
http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/fove-confirm-headsets-shipping/
What a technology. I’ve never heard about eye tracking system, but i do know that tracking apps are important in retail, and every company that provides own fulfillment services should have one.