Former Valve Employees Take to Kickstarter to Fund castAR Glasses

We talked a bit about ‘castAR’ earlier this year, when it became known that two former Valve employees were given free rein with the project after being laid-off, and now, we’re being given the opportunity to help fund the project. Not surprisingly, Kickstarter is being used as the funding platform, and what also might not be that surprising is just how fast it’s reaching its goal.

Despite having launched just today, castAR’s pledges are sitting at $171,000 (as of the time of writing) – almost half of its $400,000 goal. I think it’s safe to say that this is one Kickstarter that’s going to be funded rather quickly.

It doesn’t appear that the overall goals or implementation of castAR have changed much since earlier this year, but as you’d imagine, the general design has been refined a bit (though no final model exists yet outside of computer interpretation). One notable addition though is the ability to change the glasses from AR to VR with a clip-on accessory – a nice perk.

On the topic of accessories, they are rather plentiful with castAR. This is so much the case, that if you’re planning to help fund the project, a calculator is provided to tell you how much you’ll need to pay to get exactly what you want.

Prices start at $189 for the basic castAR, which includes a 1×1 meter surface. For $285, the Pro version can be had, which increases the surface to 1×2 meters, and adds the Magic Wand and an AR/VR clip.

Are you in?