CES 2017: FOVE To Start Shipping Eye-Tracking VR Headset

Each CES for the past 50 years has had an underlining theme.  With CES 2017 only one day away, my money is on this year’s theme being VR.  Already we’ve seen multiple hardware companies offering a VR experience, either within their own ecosystem or within an established one like Vive or Rift.  One of those companies is FOVE.

FOVE, the creators of the world’s first eye tracking virtual reality headset, announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that they will begin shipping their cutting-edge HMD around the world. After a successful pre-order campaign launched last fall, FOVE will begin shipping thousands of headsets to customers around the world beginning January 2017.

“This is the culmination of a two and half year adventure,” said Yuka Kojima, co-founder and CEO at FOVE. “We started FOVE as a small team back in 2014, and now we’re finally realizing an entirely new way for humans to interact with a virtual world.” Kojima also announced that FOVE will focus exclusively on white headsets, another unique aspect to the FOVE 0. The black headsets were part of a limited-edition launch wave of headsets, and Kojima mentioned that FOVE will stop selling them by the end of January.

In addition, FOVE is debuting new software at CES 2017. “LUMEN,” is a nonlinear VR meditation that allows you to procedurally grow a forest with your headset gaze. It is the result of a partnership with Framestore, an Oscar-winning creative studio, and Time Inc.’s LIFE VR platform. The updated version of this experience at CES invites users to engage with the dreamlike world where the power of eye tracking causes trees to grow, flowers to blossom and colors to change.

“FOVE technology is a fantastic addition to the essence of LUMEN, “said Framestore’s Executive Creative Director Aron Hjartarson. “Eye tracking removes another layer between the user and the world and makes everything more natural.”

In addition, cognitiveVR will be showcasing the latest addition to its virtual reality analytics technology – eye tracking. CognitiveVR’s platform provides tools to geospatially track, aggregate, and analyze how users behave in VR experiences. The eye tracking analytics debut provides a demonstration of how the technology tracks and replays the user’s actual eye movement. The demo puts users into a mock retail environment where they will be able to see gaze heatmaps and product placement statistics from their own session. This demonstration provides insights into how enterprises can analyze new retail or real estate environments right in virtual reality.

Tony Bevilacqua, Founder and CEO of cognitiveVR, remarks that “eye tracking is going to be ubiquitous in the future of VR and AR. The value it brings for analytics is hard to overstate because with devices like the FOVE we will now be able to know exactly where the user is looking.”

FOVE fully supports SteamVR, the open-source platform championed by Valve. Users would be able to play over 250 titles that are currently available on the Steam distribution service. FOVE does not currently support VIVE’s Lighthouse tracking system. The headset will ship with its own position tracking camera and an extra foam faceplate for comfort.