Oculus VR acquires hand-tracking startup Nimble VR

[Shawn Knight]

The Oculus Rift has proven that the technology now exists to create a compelling virtual reality experience but it’s far from perfect. The visuals are pretty much set; it’s the rest of the puzzle that still needs putting together.

Figuring out things like in-game movement and developing a practical controller are no doubt at the top of Oculus VR’s list but if you talk to anyone that has spent time using a Rift, you’ll no doubt hear of another common complaint: you can’t see your hands in the virtual world.

To help solve this dilemma, the Facebook-owned virtual reality company has acquired hand-tracking startup Nimble VR (formerly 3Gear Systems).

Nimble VR was founded in 2012 by Rob Wang, Chris Twigg and Kenrick Kin. They’ve been developing machine learning and computer vision capabilities ever since and even had a successful Kickstarter campaign that was live just yesterday for a depth-sensing camera to track hands in the virtual world called Nimble Sense.

Given the acquisition, however, the Kickstarter campaign was canceled. The Nimble VR team will be joining Oculus VR and although not explicitly expressed, one would assume that their hand tracking technology will become part of the Oculus Rift.

A commercial version of the Oculus Rift is still in the works although the company hasn’t provided a release date yet. Until then, the developer kit will have to suffice.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/59149-oculus-vr-acquires-hand-tracking-startup-nimble-vr.html

 

[stewi0001]

I loled when I saw minecraft in the video. You would wear your arms out in that! But hey, it's the next step to reality (besides having diamonds and what not IRL)

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Cool. Another good step I think. Although I think most of the effort should be going into bringing our big gaming software companies onboard, rather than just providing a "dev kit". The gaming software companies really need to be interacting with the developers of the Oculus Rift, to get the best possible integration of this new technology in our future games.

While I certainly agree having your hands in your VR world is important, so is having a controller similar to what you will be controlling in the VR world. So a rifle controller, for example is still important and hopefully will continue to get developed.

I'm excited and hope to be fully immersed in FPS, racing, and flight sim games in 3-5 years time.

 

[Puiu]

It looks good, but I'm sure that Carmack, when he first saw this, said: "The input latency sucks, I can make it better!"
It may seem like a joke, but it's exactly what he will do. That sub 40ms response time

 

[SirGCal]

I loled when I saw minecraft in the video. You would wear your arms out in that! But hey, it's the next step to reality (besides having diamonds and what not IRL)

Probably the biggest reason people need stuff like this... getting fat behind a controller/keyboard. At least this will move SOMETHING...

 

[Guest]

Very impressive !
looks and feels like the real deal
cant wait for AAA gaming titles using this to come out

 

[9Nails]

I keep seeing Minority Report UI when ever I see hand gestures. Even if MR looks unrealistic and cumbersome to use.

 

[Guest]

Not too interested in the hand tracking but I could see it being useful. Am interested in Oculus rift though when the consumer version hits. Imagine this with the next fallout or elder scrolls game! You listening Bethesda?