immersivetechnologyalliance
Latest
castAR's vision of immersive gaming gets closer to final production
Five months ago, Technical Illusions gained over a million dollars in funding thanks to a highly successful Kickstarter campaign for castAR, a projected augmented reality project that company founders Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson brought over from Valve when they were laid off almost two years ago. Ever since the campaign's success, the company has been ramping up prototyping on a rapid scale so that the final unit can be sent off for mass production. Along the way, the company has grown from two employees to 11, and Ellsworth has since moved from Portland to Seattle to be with the team (dragging her collection of 80-plus pinball machines along with her). Ellsworth has also just hired the services of a Japanese company (she won't name which) to provide her with improved optics and thinner circuitry, which she admits is better than the homemade solutions she and her partners have cobbled together so far. This all means, sadly, that castAR is still very much in progress, which is why even though Technical Illusions is here at GDC 2014, we were unable to look at the final castAR hardware. We were, however, able to take a look at castAR's latest prototype that has never before been seen outside of Technical Illusion's office until this week.
Oculus VR exits first virtual reality collective
Just five days ago we told you about the Immersive Technology Alliance, a group of companies that are working on virtual reality coming together to support the burgeoning medium. At the time, we told you that Oculus VR -- the company behind the Oculus Rift -- was part of the group. That said, the announcement was notoriously missing any official statement from the Oculus folks. As it turns out, that's because Oculus VR isn't actually part of the group. Oculus offered Engadget this statement: "There was confusion on March 13 about whether Oculus was a member of the Immersive Technology Alliance. We've spoken with the ITA's leadership and clarified that we are not, and have not been, a member of the group. We appreciate the ITA moving so quickly to correct their website and media to reflect this." We've checked with the other members of the group, many of which responded to confirm their participation in the ITA, including EA and Technical Illusions. During the group's first meeting today at GDC 2014, ITA Executive Director Neil Schneider kicked things off with a lengthy response to Oculus dropping support, heavily tinged with passive-aggressive criticism.
Oculus VR, EA, Avegant and others join to form 'Immersive Technology Alliance'
Well, this is certainly a motley crew: a variety of companies in the virtual reality space are teaming up to create the "Immersive Technology Alliance." The group is an evolution of an earlier consortium, The Stereoscopic 3D Gaming Alliance -- apparently the world of 3D gaming no longer needs their support? Anyway, the renamed group includes major game players like EA as well as little teams like Technical Illusions (of CastAR fame), as well as the company most responsible for re-introducing VR, Oculus VR. The ITA list includes all the players you'd expect, but also has a few outliers in Epson and Panasonic; Sony isn't part of the ITA just yet, but that may change sooner than later. The group's first public appearance takes place next week at San Francisco's annual Game Developers Conference and we'll be on-hand to document the shindig. Also, to ask Panasonic what it's doing there. Head below for an example of immersive technology (an Engadget editor punching virtual sharks, obviously) and the full list of members (thus far).
