SAN FRANCISCO, April 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Virtual
Reality Venture Capital Alliance (VRVCA), founded by HTC
Corporation (HTC), the pioneer in innovative smart and VR
technologies, successfully held its fourth closed-door members
meeting in San Francisco with top
VR/AR start-ups from around the world presented to over thirty of
top investors for the industry. In total, 10 teams from 5 different
regions showcased their achievements, which covered technology,
software, hardware, and beyond.
With support from HTC VIVE™ and its $100
million accelerator program Vive X, startups including
7invensun, ObEN and TPCast have been able to make significant
progress alleviating some of the most pressing challenges facing
the industry today, such as interactive eye tracking, intuitive
social connection, and seamless high-quality wireless
experience.
7invensun (7invensun.com), a Vive X batch II team based in
Beijing, is the first company to
bring real-time eye tracking technology to all existing Vive
systems in the form of an upgrade kit known as aGlass, enabling
foveated rendering and real-time eye control interactions, lowering
the hardware requirements for VR applications, and creating a more
natural VR human-computer interaction. The aGlass DK II will start
limited pre-order sales next month at the price of RMB 1,500 (approx. USD219) (binocular version). Each set of aGlass
DK II comes with a pair of 200°, 400° and 600° myopic lenses
respectively and also supports customized lenses depending on
consumers' need.
"It's a great honor for us to attend VRVCA this year and we're
super excited about the benefits aGlass can bring to lower hardware
requirements and thus enable broader access to high quality VR.
Thanks to Vive X, we are able to work and share resources with a
variety of Vive X teams, and jointly create more VR/AR eye-tracking
solutions in game interaction, financial payment, travel guide, and
so on. Our vision is to empower a new and cool way of
human-computer interaction through eye tracking," said Thomas Huang, Founder and CEO of 7invensun.
ObEN (oben.me), a Vive X batch I company, also achieved its
landmark success by showcasing the world's first WeChat integrated
VR experience through Vive. Enabled by ObEN's breakthrough
artificial intelligence (AI) technology, this integration of VR
with China's most popular social
platform allows all Vive users and WeChat's 889 million mobile
users to interact with each other in the same virtual space in real
time. ObEN's Personal AI combines voice, visuals and skills,
resulting in a personalized photo-realistic avatar that allows
users of Vive and WeChat to interact with one another's virtual
selves, making the experience more engaging, social and memorable.
By bringing WeChat into the VR world, Vive users will never miss
any WeChat interaction from friends while inside VR. ObEN's APIs
will be available to VIVEPORT™ developers later this year.
"China is a world leader in
both mobile internet and VR adoption. We are thrilled to join
forces with Tencent and HTC Vive to
tackle the challenge of improving Social VR experiences using
ObEN's AI technology," said Nikhil
Jain, cofounder and CEO, ObEN. "Today's showcase not only
enables shared experiences between users of China's top social and VR platform but is also
an early demonstration of how ObEN's Personal AI can drive and
create AI generated content."
Together with the formerly launched TPCast's tether-less upgrade
kit for Vive, these technologies present a next-generation and more
intuitive user experience to move the global VR industry forward.
TPCast (tpcast.cn), a Vive X Shenzhen Batch I company, announced
its Business Edition tether-less upgrade kit for the Vive, which is
the world's first multi-user tether-less VR solution that allows up
to six users to interact in one physical space. Available later
this year, the TPCast BE is set to bring the freedom of tether-less
VR to numerous VR vertical markets including arcade, theme park,
education, real estate, travel, furniture, automobile, etc.
"We believe this industry milestone will really change the game
completely for multiuser VR and ultimately unleash the tether-less
VR world!" said Michael Liu, CEO of
TPCAST. "We sincerely appreciate VRVCA for giving us this
opportunity to show our latest tether-less VR product to the world.
Also we would like to express our gratitude to HTC Vive for being
always supportive to us."
Alvin W. Graylin, China Regional
President of Vive, HTC and President of VRVCA said, "It's always
wonderful to see the amazing innovation presented to the venture
capital industry at the VRVCA events every two months. This time
it's a special treat to have these three Vive X companies come in
and debut the breakthrough tech they have created which are helping
solve major industry roadblocks."
With 50 VC members and USD 18 billion in investible capital,
VRVCA has established itself as a major force for development
within the global VR industry. Following the pioneering innovations
demoed by Vive X's teams at the meeting, Vive remains committed to
helping more local startups fund their projects and use the
accelerator platform to showcase their ideas as they have the
potential to make a global impact and cultivate the entire
ecosystem.
The next VRVCA meeting is currently slated to be held end of
June in Shanghai. All interested
teams are encouraged to visit vrvca.com/submit to submit the
application.
- END
-
About HTC Vive™
Vive is a first-of-its-kind virtual reality system to deliver on
the promise of high-quality VR developed by HTC. It is designed
from the ground up for "room-scale" VR while still allowing for
standing and sitting use cases. The Vive makes possible
true-to-life interactions and experiences thanks to its high
fidelity headset displaying stunning graphics and the bundled
wireless controllers with HD haptic feedback all of which are
motion tracked in real-time across a room-sized space with low
latency to ensure the most immersive experience in the industry.
Vive has recently released the Tracker, which together with its
front facing camera can blend physical elements in the real world
with the virtual world taking user experience to a new level of
realism. For more information on Vive, please
visit www.vive.com. Applications and content for the Vive are
available on VIVEPORT at www.viveport.com.
© 2017 HTC Corporation. All rights reserved. HTC, HTC VIVE,
VIVE and the VIVE logo are trademarks or
registered trademarks of HTC Corporation. All other trademarks are
property of their respective owners.
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/innovation-breakthroughs-from-vive-x-teams-set-to-drive-the-global-industry-towards-a-next-generation-vr-experience-300447055.html
SOURCE HTC Vive