Ever since 2014 when Facebook acquired Oculus VR for 2 Billion dollars, the company has bought more than 15 other companies of special interest for its operations and technology. Some of them were purchased to improve or enhance the Virtual Reality experience developed by Oculus.

oculus vr

Facebook’s Shopping List for the Oculus VR

We made a full list of all Facebook acquisitions destined to serve the Virtual Reality division of the company. It’s hard to know the exact purpose of each purchase but we can make an idea of the company’s vision by assembling this puzzle of acquired companies.

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Surreal Vision

  • Date: 05/26/2015
  • Technology: Computer vision, augmented reality.
  • Amount: Undisclosed

surreal vision

Surreal Vision was the first company acquired by Oculus. The company focuses on real-time 3D scene reconstruction, so it generates accurate representations of the real world in Virtual Reality. Great scene reconstruction enables a whole new level of presence and telepresence, allowing players to move freely around the real world and interact with real objects from within the Virtual Reality.

“At Surreal Vision, we are overhauling state-of-the-art 3D scene reconstruction algorithms to provide a rich, up-to-date model of everything in the environment including people and their interactions with each other. We’re developing breakthrough techniques to capture, interpret, manage, analyze, and finally re-project in real-time a model of reality back to the user in a way that feels real, creating a new, mixed reality that brings together the virtual and real worlds.”

The ability to apply virtual physics to real space is essential to AR projects like the Microsoft HoloLens. In this field, the Oculus has still limited real-world interactions in its own virtual worlds but it can overcome these limitations with the help of Surreal Vision.

Pebbles

  • Date: 07/16/2015
  • Technology: Computer vision, augmented reality.
  • Amount: $60,000,000.

Oculus also acquired Pebbles. This company develops technology that uses sensor systems, custom optics, and algorithms to detect and track hand movements. Pebbles aims to modernize the way people communicate in virtual reality, by further developing sensor technology in order to unlock new interaction methods in Virtual Reality.

“At Pebbles Interfaces, we’ve been focused on pushing the limits of digital sensing technology to accelerate the future of human-computer interaction. Through micro-optics and computer vision, we hope to improve the information that can be extracted from optical sensors, which will help take virtual reality to the next level. We’ve always believed visual computing will be the next major platform in our lifetime, and we’re excited to join the Oculus team to achieve that vision for the future.”

Pebbles Interfaces joined the computer vision and hardware engineering teams at Oculus to help develop VR, tracking, and human-computer interactions.

Two Big Ears

  • Date: 05/23/2016
  • Technology: Spatial Audio
  • Amount: Undisclosed

Two Big Ears’ technology focuses on how sound plays in three-dimensional spaces and the way it interacts with the surfaces that surround the user.

“At Two Big Ears, we’ve been hard at work creating technology and tools that have defined how immersive audio is crafted and experienced in VR and AR both now and in the future.”

The Eye Tribe

  • Date: 12/28/2016
  • Technology: Eye tracking
  • Amount: Undisclosed

The Eye Tribe developed a $99 eye-tracking device developer kit for computers, and it also made a software that brings gaze-based interfaces to smartphones and VR headsets.

The most recent company purchased by Facebook’s Oculus also developed avant-garde rendering technology, which allows Virtual Reality systems save computational work by generating seamless graphics only where users are looking. The technology essentially generates a focal point that moves with people’s eyes. This could allow VR headsets to display complex scenes at higher frame rates in spite of the limited rendering power.

It’s uncertain what exactly will Oculus do with this technology, but it certainly has potential applications for identity verification, more immersive video games, and a range of apps that would let you navigate by looking rather than using the Oculus Touch.

https://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Oculus_White-600x338.jpghttps://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Oculus_White-150x90.jpgPierre PitaOculusEver since 2014 when Facebook acquired Oculus VR for 2 Billion dollars, the company has bought more than 15 other companies of special interest for its operations and technology. Some of them were purchased to improve or enhance the Virtual Reality experience developed by Oculus. Facebook’s Shopping List for the...VR, Oculus Rift, and Metaverse News - Cryptocurrency, Adult, Sex, Porn, XXX