Another virtual reality headset has a successful Kickstarter campaign.
The Fove raised $480,650 on the crowdfunding site, which is almost double its original $250,000 goal. Unlike other upcoming virtual reality initiatives, like the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus for PlayStation 4, the Fove has eye-tracking. This means the helmet not only knows which way your head is tilted but also where exactly your eyes are looking.
That may not seem like a lot of money compared to the $2,437,429 raised on Kickstarter. However, Fove stated in a press release sent to GamesBeat that it will use the funds it raised to initiate the final stages of production for the device, indicating that the helmet was already decently far along in development. The first developer kits for Love will hit backers in May 2016.
Virtual reality is only now starting to become trend, and analysts don’t expect sales to have a huge impact on the market in the near future. The consumer version of the Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus won’t come out until 2016. Research firm Newzoo predicts that VR could take 10 percent — about $3 billion — of the entertainment screen revenues by 2018.
The successful Kickstarter also allowed Fove to add Valve’s Lighthouse tech, a sub-millimeter accurate position tracker. This allows a the device to know where it is in a real 3D space. Valve is also working with smartphone company HTC on its own virtual reality headset, SteamVR.