The FOVE headset lets users focus on specific areas of a scene and aim computer game weapons using just their eyes. The device reached its crowdfunding target back in May, just 72 hours after its campaign was launched. Fove said it would use the extra investment from Samsung Ventures to add extra functionality to the product.
Samsung has worked to release virtual reality products of its own, but that's not stopping the company from investing in FOVE, a startup behind an eye-tracking headset. The FOVE headset has almost doubled its $250,000 goal on Kickstarter with more than a week left to run, but now the company also has backing from Samsung Ventures, Samsung's investment arm. "With this new investment and from our Kickstarter community, we will work diligently in making FOVE development possible on a large scale. Our goal is to further advance the virtual reality market," said Yuka Kojima, co-founder and CEO of FOVE.
The idea behind FOVE is that it integrates eye tracking into its headset with the goal of making virtual reality more realistic for the user of the headset. While other VR devices rely simply on the direction that the wearer is facing, FOVE users simply have to look at a different part of the scene for the headset to know what the wearer is paying attention to.
While Samsung takes the time to invest in it's other "opportunities," there have been complaints against the company that they aren't interested in the well-being of their customers. The apparent disregard of providing an immediate patch/update has people turning their heads. It's going to be some time before we see any real progress. It is not known exactly how much money Samsung offered to the company, although FOVE has said the extra funding will be used to "enhance the completion of the hardware production." The company can also now add support for Valve's Lighthouse positional tracking, as well as its OpenVR headset.
