Oculus VR Inc on Thursday announced a deal to buy an Israel-based startup specializing in technology that can track hand movements.
Oculus expects the purchase of Pebbles Interfaces to add momentum to its development of virtual-reality (VR) technology and boost its Rift VR head gear.
Pebbles has spent five years developing technology that uses optics, sensors and software to detect and track hand movements, according to Oculus.
“At Pebbles Interfaces, we’ve been focused on pushing the limits of digital sensing technology to accelerate the future of human-computer interaction,” Pebbles chief technology officer Nadav Grossinger said in an Oculus blog post.
“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,” he said.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Oculus, which is owned by Facebook Inc, said that over time, technology breakthroughs “will unlock new human interaction methods in VR and revolutionize the way people communicate in virtual worlds.”
Oculus has aimed squarely at gamers with Rift headsets that it plans to begin selling early next year.
Last month at the world’s premier gaming trade show, the company also showed its prototype Touch Half Moon controllers that gave virtual-world hands to people wearing Rift head gear.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) was said to be seeking cooperation with Israel-based Replay Technologies Inc for new VR technologies used in the HTC Vive headset, the Chinese-language magazine Business Next reported on Saturday last week.
The company plans to sell the new virtual-reality headset, developed jointly with US video game developer Valve Corp, in the second half of this year, the report said.
HTC declined to comment on the magazine’s story.
Additional reporting by CNA
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