FOVE- The World’s First Eye Tracking VR Headset

Fove has reached its Kickstarter goal as Friday, May 22, just three days into its 45-day campaign. Oculus managed to raise US$400,000 during its first 24 hours on Kickstarter, but it’s still exciting to see an Asian competitor hit its target so quickly.

No matter how cheesy it made sound, virtual reality (VR) is here, with current technology finally ready to match its science fiction-level ambition.

Using it for science fiction is one thing, but have you ever thought about the impact it can have on your business organization, especially when it comes to the safety of its employees. VR Safety Training programs offered by places similar to 360 Immersive can help to make your staff training experiences more engaging and interesting so everyone can learn all they need to know about workplace safety. But for now, using it to help with science is the next step that virtual reality has decided to take.

Meet Fove. Named after the fovea, or the part of the eye responsible for central vision, FOVE claims to be the first VR headset available to consumers to use eye-tracking technology. The company’s proprietary algorithm, aka “Foveated Rendering,” measures depth of field focus by calculating the parallax between the wearer’s eyes.

“Fove tracks a user’s gaze and calculates where in 3D space a user is looking,” Kojima said. “This enables the graphics engine to adjust focus and allocate rendering resources accordingly, giving the user the most natural VR experience.”

In addition, the Fove’s eye-tracking “drastically reduces” the motion sickness that has plagued many consumers who use headsets that rely only on head-tracking, Kojima pointed out.

Since Fove is still in the early stages, there are issues with it being fooled by mascara and eyeliner. The algorithm sees the dark area of the makeup and adjusts itself accordingly. Fove told Engadget that a future version of the algorithm will only look for things that are dark and round.