Foveated Rendering almost here: Fove has a New Headset

Foveated rendering now closer to reality with Fove's latest ergonomic redesign

Although both Oculus VR and HTC have released consumer versions of their VR headsets, there are still a number of other firms beavering away to bring their piggies to market. One such solution is Fove’s eye-tracking headset, which has just passed a new ergonomic milestone, looking much more like a consumer headset every time we see it.

Although still not quite ready to begin shipping it out to eager VR viewers around the world, Fove will be showing off its latest headset at Comic-Con and SIGGRAPH 2016, giving gamers their first taste of what the newly designed headset is like.

Although the Fove doesn’t look too dissimilar to its last iteration, the newest version does away with the hard plastic shell, side-grips, and rear head mount, and replaces them with a strap system that’s much more like the Rift and the Vive.

Of course the major feature of this headset is still that it can track the user’s eye movements. That means that content can be better focused for the user, expanding the traditional “sweet spot” seen in other headsets. It also opens up game development for more empathetic-seeming non-player characters and better online communication in social apps.

“Eye-tracking is going to change the way we play games, watch interactive stories, and socially communicate online,” said company co-founder and CEO Yuka Kojima in a chat with RoadtoVR. “I’m excited to demo our new headset design to fans, peers, and our growing base of development partners.”

Although we still don’t have much of an idea of when the Fove VR headset will be released, what it will cost, or even what its final specifications will be, we do know that its maker shouldn’t have much trouble funding further development. Although it isn’t sitting on quite the same cash stockpiles as the likes of HTC, Valve, or Oculus/Facebook, it did generate some $11 million in a recent round of funding, which we’re told will help it enter mass production before the end of 2016.

If you held off on buying a VR headset so far, would eye tracking on the Fove convince you to get onboard?

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