Virtual reality headsets are only part of the equation when it comes to making people feel as if they're part of a virtual world. The way you control that world, and interact with the things in it, are crucial. Oculus has announced this morning that it will acquire Pebbles Interfaces, a company that's working on "depth sensing technology and computer vision."
"At Pebbles Interfaces, we’ve been focused on pushing the limits of digital sensing technology to accelerate the future of human-computer interaction," Nadav Grossinger, CTO of Pebbles Interfaces, stated.
"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. We’ve always believed visual computing will be the next major platform in our lifetime, and we’re excited to join the Oculus team to achieve that vision for the future."
All that is a fancy way of saying they can do this:
The idea of a seamless way to incorporate hand motions into interactions in virtual reality without holding additional hardware is certainly attractive. The retail Oculus Rift is shipping with a wired Xbox One controller and the company will later ship the Touch controller for more precise movement, so this acquisition will likely pay off in a number of years, not months.
The terms of the upcoming acquisition were not discussed.
