Fove’s Eye Tracking VR headset is on pre-order

FOVE just announced that they will be opening their FOVE 0, their first eye-tracking VR headset, for pre-orders on November 2. With this, they also given the public a final sheet of the virtual reality headset’s specifications.

Get to know FOVE

FOVE started with Kickstarter, much like Oculus. They initially raised around $480 thousand, double the amount they are targeting last 2015. In 2016, FOVE continued to raise more than $11 million Series A investment. The pre-orders of the FOVE 0 is the next step for their initial release.

FOVE 0 features

Being a virtual reality headset, the FOVE 0 have a feature no other OEMs have: its built-in eye tracking. This can accurately follow eye motion to within 1 degree of motion and very fast to process. Faster processing is mainly for foveated rendering, a technique which improves rendering performance by only drawing the scene sharply where the eye can detect high detail.

What’s the big deal with eye tracking?

The following list is what FOVE promises eye tracking can do:

• The FOVE 0 VR headset can detect player’s eye movements and reflect it in their virtual reality avatars to make multi player even more realistic.
• Players can just look or stare to make UI selections, target enemies, create depth of field, or trigger context-sensitive content.

FOVE is expecting to produce the world’s first VR headset on the market with eye-tracking. Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR will then follow this innovation on their future product versions.

You’ll of course note the zero in the headset’s name. This denotes the FOVE 0 as a sort of precursor headset, which the company tells us is “primarily designed to be for VR hobbiest and developers.” Launching a developer-focused version of the headset first is similar in approach to Oculus who launched two development kit headsets (DK1 and DK2) prior to their consumer VR headset.

FOVE 0 Specifications

• Display: WQHD OLED (2560×1440)
• Display Refresh Rate: 70Hz
• Field of View: 90 ~ 100 degrees
• Tracking:
  • Head Tracking
    • Rotational
    • Positional
  • Eye Tracking
    • 120FPS infrared x2 (accuracy
• Audio: 3.5mm audio jack
• Connections: HDMI 1.4, USB 3.0, USB 2.0
• Accessories: Positional tracking camera, face cushion

How does FOVE 0 compare to other VR headsets?

FOVE have 42% more pixels (2560×1440) compared to HTC Vive and Oculus Rift’s 2160×1200 displays. It’s tied up with Samsung’s Gear VR headset resolution. However, refresh rate is capped at 70Hz. Both the Vive and Rift sport a 90Hz refresh rate. Playstation VR even has 120Hz. Higher refresh rate means smoother motion and less latency in the animations and movements. This is something FOVE 0 should improve upon on the next version.

FOVE encourages those interested to register for the email list on their website to be notified the moment that pre-orders launch on November 2nd. So far the company hasn’t announced a price or final release date for FOVE 0.