FOVE Closes Kickstarter Campaign and Raises $480k

News provided by

FOVE

06 Jul, 2015, 13:00 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO, July 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

World's first eye-tracking VR headset also secured support from Samsung and Valve 

FOVE, the world's first eye-tracking VR headset, has reached the end of its successful Kickstarter campaign, having raised over $480,650 - almost double its initial goal of $250,000. The project also attracted over 1,480 backers and gained widespread support from companies such as Samsung Ventures and Valve Inc.

Unlike other VR headsets, FOVE offers low-latency, high-accuracy eye tracking, which has resonated with the backers of the campaign. The company's technology enables users to more truly immerse themselves into virtual reality worlds with instant and precise user interface control and can enable human connections with VR characters in a way that has not been possible before.

After 45 days of accumulating funds through crowdfunding, FOVE is now able to initiate the final stages of production and will be delivering the first developer kits to backers starting in May 2016 (Super early birds aside). For those who missed the project, later this year they will be able to pre-order FOVE directly from the website http://www.getfove.com/. Those interested can now sign up to their waitlist for the additional information.

Yuka Kojima, CEO and co-founder of FOVE, commented, "All of the team at FOVE has been blown away by the enthusiasm and the support of the Kickstarter community. With our backers we are now able to finalize production of what we envision to be the most immersive and enjoyable VR headset on the market today".

Thanks to the campaign's success, FOVE is also able to commit to adding support for Valve's Lighthouse positional tracking system to the first developer kits. Adding sub-millimeter accurate position tracking to FOVE will help to establish the headset as one of the most compelling available to pre-order; though the Lighthouse base stations and any additional controllers will be sold separately from the Kickstarter bundle. In addition to Lighthouse, FOVE will be supporting the OpenVR SDK and Valve's Steam VR platform at launch next year.

Key features of FOVE include:

  • Eye Tracking - to an accuracy of 01/5th of a degree
  • Head Tracking - ultra low latency head tracking to gain positional awareness
  • Hi-Res Display - incredibly wide 100 degree field of view on a hi-res 5.7-inch display
  • Reduced motion sickness -reduce simulation sickness by reducing the need for unnatural head movements
  • Widely compatible - convert existing VR games easily, and develop more advanced features in engines including Unity, Cryengine, Unreal Engine, and more

Editor's notes: 

High-resolution images, logos and headshots can be found here.

For more information, please visit the FOVE website here and Kickstarter page here.

About FOVE 

Founded in May 2014, FOVE is the world's first eye-tracking virtual reality headset aiming to revolutionize the entertainment and medical industries with gaze control in virtual reality interfaces. FOVE is the first batch member of RIVER, the first Virtual Reality acceleration program by Rothenberg Ventures.

FOVE has completed the Microsoft Ventures London Accelerator Program in December 2014. FOVE has won recognition at major international startup contests, including 'TechCrunch Disrupt SF Battlefield' (semi-finalist), 'Japan - UK Startup Pitch Deloitte (1st place winner), SF Japan Night Final (1st place winner), SlushAsia (3rd place).