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TECHNOLOGY A23
Thursday 24 March 2016
Startup makes virtual reality intuitive with eye-tracking
YURI KAGEYAMA It could also prove useful which enables users to see With the help of Fove and a illness that has weakened
AP Business Writer for training of pilots and three-dimensional objects Japanese university, for ex- his arms and fingers, used
TOKYO (AP) — No more surgeons, and has already in the real world, while VR ample, a young man with eye movements to play a
fiddling with remote-con- been adopted by the mili- delivers a 360-degree fic- spinal muscular atrophy, an piano.q
troller buttons or a mouse. tary. The make-believe ex- tional universe. “It allows
Just look. San Francisco- perience could aid in so- connecting — going fishing
based startup Fove has de- called “empathy training” with your father who is far
veloped eye-tracking for for police and other service away.”
virtual reality — that kernel
of technology many feel In this March 7, 2016 photo, Fove’s staff wearing an eye-track-
is key for the illusion of be- ing headset goggles demonstrates virtual reality at his office in
coming immersed in a set- Tokyo. San Francisco-based startup Fove has developed eye-
ting. tracking for virtual reality - that kernel of technology many feel
Glance, and a video-game is key for the illusion of becoming immersed in a setting. Fove
character talks back. Or has devised a way to use tiny infrared sensors inside headset
use a death stare to shoot goggles to monitor the movements of a wearer’s pupils.
down virtual spaceships.
Watch a movie of a forest Associated Press
or a room and be able to
look around wherever you providers. Pornography is New technology usually
want. another potentially lucra- has its share of detrac-
“It allows you to go inside tive application. tors, and there are worries
the world that’s behind the A recent report by New that VR could have harm-
display,” said Yuka Kojima, York-based Superdata, ful effects if users become
Fove’s co-founder and a which analyzes data on too immersed in their fan-
rare female chief execu- games, said smaller com- tasy environments and es-
tive in male-dominated Ja- panies could become tranged from reality.
pan Inc. “first-movers,” as estab- But Fove developers say VR
Fove, which comes from lished players keep a cau- can play a positive role.
“fovea,” the part of the tious wait-and-see attitude. In one poignant dem-
eye with the sharpest vision, Rahat Ahmed, co-founder onstration, a bed-ridden
from “field of view,” and and chief of strategy at grandmother wears a Fove
the word’s similarity with New York-based Trinity VR, headset to “attend” her
“love,” has devised a way an investor in technolog- grandson’s wedding, send-
to use tiny infrared sensors yand emerging markets, ing a human-shaped robot
inside headset goggles to says the big plus of VR is controlled by her eyes in
monitor the movements of “intuitive interaction.” her place. The woman ges-
a wearer’s pupils. Augmented reality enables tures happily, reaching out
It’s a small company, users to see three-dimen- from her bed as if the new-
founded in 2014, with offic- sional objects in the real lyweds are standing before
es in Tokyo, San Francisco world, while VR delivers a her.
and Los Angeles, and em- 360-degree fictional uni- Eye-tracking can enable
ploying just 17 people. But verse. disabled people to use their
Fove is getting attention “Every major company eyes to control devices,
from the fledgling VR in- has to have a VR-AR strat- says Kojima’s co-founder at
dustry, as “virtual reality” is egy,” Ahmed said recently Fove, Australian Lochlainn
known, and winning back- at the CLSA Japan Forum Wilson. He developed
ing from innovative finan- in Tokyo, referring by AP Fove’s breakthrough tech-
ciers. It has raised about to “augmented reality,” nology for eye-tracking.
$500,000 through Kickstart-
er.
Virtual reality could revolu-
tionize entertainment, like
movies, games and live-
streaming of sports. It has
myriad potential business
applications, such as giving
apartment hunters a virtual
look at real estate options
and car buyers tours of vir-
tual showrooms.
