Category: CES 2022

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Mojo Vision Raises Additional $45M to Put Smart Contacts in the Eyes of Athletes

Mojo Vision announced it’s raised an additional $45 million in its Series B-1 investment round, something the company says will support further development of Mojo Lens, its early stage smart contact lens.

Mojo Lens is ostensibly years away for commercialization, however the company announced at CES 2022 that it’s taking a step forward by partnering with a number of fitness brands to explore how to better integrate its smart contact lenses into sports and training. Mojo Vision has partnered with Adidas Running, Trailforks, Wearable X, Slopes and 18Birdies.

“We are making important progress in developing our smart contact lens technology, and we continue to research and identify new market potential for this groundbreaking platform,” said Steve Sinclair, SVP of product and marketing of Mojo Vision. “Our partnerships with these leading brands will give us valuable insights into user behavior in the sports and fitness market. The goal is for these collaborations to deliver athletes an entirely new form factor with performance data that is more accessible and useful in the moment.”

The company is also currently working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through its Breakthrough Devices Program, a voluntary program for certain medical devices that provide for more effective treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions.

Much like Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface (BCI) startup Neuralink, Mojo Vision sees early applications first targeting those afflicted with bodily impairments; in Mojo’s case, it aims to use Mojo Lens to create enhanced image overlays to alleviate certain visual impairments.

The fresh Series B-1 includes investments from Amazon Alexa Fund, PTC, Edge Investments, HiJoJo Partners, and others. Mojo Vision’s existing investors include NEA, Liberty Global Ventures, Advantech Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, Motorola Solutions, and Open Field Capital. This brings the company’s total lifetime investment to $205 million.

The post Mojo Vision Raises Additional $45M to Put Smart Contacts in the Eyes of Athletes appeared first on Road to VR.

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Horizon Call of the Mountain Coming Exclusively to PlayStation VR2

Horizon VR: Call of the Mountain

CES 2022 was feeling a bit muted when it came to virtual reality (VR) announcements. That was until Sony held its press event which quickly drew a lot of interest thanks to its mention of PlayStation VR2. Alongside the official name reveal as well as the specs, one videogame was also mentioned, Horizon Call of the Mountain.

Horizon Call of the Mountain

The announcement finally confirms a rumour that surfaced last year when the Xbox Era podcast suggested that Firesprite Games is “working on a Horizon VR game.” That was very much on point, as Firesprite and Guerilla are both working on the project, an entirely new adventure set within the Horizon universe. Horizon Call of the Mountain is being made specifically for PlayStation VR2, with Guerilla’s Studio Director and Studio Art & Animation Director Jan-Bart van Beek saying in a blog post that: “this unique experience has been designed to push hardware technology, innovation, and gameplay.”

To go along with the confirmation the teams released the first teasing footage of Horizon Call of the Mountain, showcasing a lush forest and one of the giant mechanical animals the Horizon franchise is known for. While no gameplay has been shown just yet, van Beek has said the narrative: “will be told through the eyes of an entirely new character.” There will be other new characters of course, but for fans of Horizon, some familiar faces are set to return.

Not much else is known at the moment with Guerilla currently focused on the upcoming launch of Horizon Forbidden West which is due out on 18th February.

Horizon Call of the Mountain

Most of the excitement though is firmly focused on PlayStation VR2, the long-awaited successor to the 2016 headset that’s managed to hold up quite well alongside modern VR advancements. But PlayStation VR2 not only has big shoes to fill it also needs to excel in a far more competitive market, one that’s dominated by Meta Quest 2.

While the Quest 2 is standalone, PlayStation VR2 will be tethered to the PlayStation 5, which could work in its favour when it comes to visuals but not when it comes to flexibility due to the cable. On the other hand, PlayStation VR2 will sport in-built haptics, eye tracking, and those nifty looking Sense controllers.

As more details on Horizon Call of the Mountain come to light, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Sony Announces PlayStation VR 2 Specs Including Eye-tracking, HDR, & 110° Field-of-view

Today during Sony’s CES 2022 press conference the company revealed the first details on PlayStation VR 2, including eye-tracking, a “4K” HDR display, and a 110° Field-of-view.

For the first time today, Sony confirmed that its next-gen VR headset for PS5 will be called… *drumroll*… PlayStation VR 2. Although it’s not really much of a surprise, it’s the first time the company has officially revealed the headset’s name.

During the company’s CES 2022 press conference today Sony also confirmed a range of features and specs for PSVR 2. Here’s what we know so far:

PlayStation VR 2 Specs
Resolution 2,000 x 2,040 (4.1MP) per-eye, OLED, HDR
Refresh Rate 90Hz, 120Hz
Field-of-view (claimed) 110° (diagonal presumed)
Optical Adjustments IPD
Connectors USB-C
Tracking Inside-out (no external beacons)
On-board cameras 4x IR
Input Motion controllers (rechargable battery), eye-tracking
Audio 3.5mm aux output
Microphone Yes
Haptics Controllers, headset

Sony said that the headset will include foveated rendering. This is a rendering technique which uses eye-tracking to render high detail only at the center of the user’s field-of-view (where the eye sees most of its detail), while reducing detail in the periphery. This allows for more detailed virtual scenes without giving up much performance.

Eye-tracking and foveated rendering tech has been available in high-end enterprise VR headsets for some time now, but so far no major consumer-class headset has adopted the technology. Unless another headset beats Sony to the punch, PSVR 2 will be the first in its category to adopt the technology.

Similarly, PSVR 2 will include HDR (high dynamic range) technology which has yet to be seen in commercial headsets, even among high-end enterprise devices. HDR allows for a much wider range of brightness which more closely mimics what your eye can see in the real world. Sony hasn’t specified exactly how bright the display can get, so it’s tough to know at this point how impressive the feature could be. Luckily the underlying display in PSVR 2 is based on OLED, which is generally a good sign for quality HDR capabilities.

Eye-tracking and HDR aren’t the only new technologies that Sony is embracing for PlayStation VR 2. The device will also be the first to include on-board haptic feedback on the headset itself. Sony says haptics on the headset will allow for greater immersion (and it could even combat motion sickness).

According to Sony, PSVR 2 will go a long way toward simplifying the VR setup compared to its predecessor. The new headset is ditching the PS camera (which was previously used to track the headset and controllers) in favor of inside-out tracking via cameras mounted on the headset itself. Four infrared cameras will look out at the real world to track the movement of the headset and also track the controllers when they are in view.

And beyond inside-out tracking, PlayStation VR 2 will connect to PS5 with a single USB-C cable. We don’t have the full details yet, but it sounds like there will be no breakout box between the headset and the console. That’s going to get a cheer from fans of the original headset who were used to dealing with a big VHS-sized breakout box which had multiple cables running in and out of it, and needed its own power supply.

Generally the specs on PSVR 2 seem very impressive except for one area… from the specs provided, it appears that the headset will not have on-board audio, instead expecting users to either use their TV speakers or attach their own headphones with a 3.5mm jack. Like the original headset, it’s possible that PSVR 2 will come with a pair of earbuds, though this isn’t an ideal solution for VR headset audio. These details are still early so we’re hoping there might be something we’re missing about audio on the headset that will be revealed once the company releases more info on the hardware.

Although Sony shared a decent set of specs and features today, the price and release date for PSVR 2 is still unannounced, and we still don’t actually know what the headset itself looks like.

The post Sony Announces PlayStation VR 2 Specs Including Eye-tracking, HDR, & 110° Field-of-view appeared first on Road to VR.

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PSVR 2 is Getting a Made-for-VR Game in the ‘Horizon Zero Dawn’ Universe

Today during Sony’s CES 2022 press conference the company not only confirmed a bunch of PSVR 2 specs, but also announced Horizon Call of the Mountain, a new made-for-VR game that will take players inside the world of Horizon, one of the company’s most popular PlayStation exclusive franchises.

More than five years after the launch of its original PSVR headset, Sony is just starting to ramp up marketing ahead of its next-gen VR headset, PSVR 2.

Today the company gave players something to look forward to, a made-for-VR game based on one of the most popular PlayStation exclusive franchises.

Horizon Call of the Mountain is in development by PlayStation studios Guerrilla Games and Firesprite, and is said to be designed from the ground-up to show what’s possible with PSVR 2. Today the studios released a brief teaser:

The only details we have on the game for now are what’s in the teaser, and some brief comments from Guerrilla Games which has confirmed that although players will meet Aloy  (the main character of the Horizon games) and “other familiar faces,” they will play as a completely new character.

There’s no word on a release date, but it seems likely that Horizon Call of the Mountain will be released as a launch title for PSVR 2 (unfortunately we also don’t know when that’s happening, but expect it will be sometime this year).

The post PSVR 2 is Getting a Made-for-VR Game in the ‘Horizon Zero Dawn’ Universe appeared first on Road to VR.

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Sony Officially Confirms PlayStation VR2 Name at CES 2022

PlayStation VR2 CES2022

Sony’s CES 2022 press conference today has finally delivered a few more teasing details regarding its next virtual reality (VR) headset, crucially, what it’s actually called. It comes as no surprise that the follow-up to PlayStation VR will be called PlayStation VR2, much in the same way the company brands its consoles.

PlayStation VR2 CES2022

Making the announcement was PlayStation President and CEO Jim Ryan who didn’t simply step onstage to reveal the headset’s name, he also confirmed a few more exciting details. Rumours have persisted regarding some of the tech PlayStation VR2 will contain, this will include responsive feedback so you’ll actually get tactile haptic sensations. So hit your head on a virtual branch or get shot in the head and you’ll know about it by the sounds of it.

Ryan continued with a few more details, most interestingly of which was eye tracking. The tech has come to more high-end, enterprise-focused VR devices with PlayStation VR2 becoming the first – depending on when it arrives – consumer headset to actually feature eye tracking. This will offer a range of benefits for both gamers and developers, one of which will be foveated rendering ensuring the image where you’re actually looking offers the best visuals, with the quality reducing towards your peripheral vision.

When it comes to those visuals, the PlayStation VR2 will provide 4K, HDR gaming with 2000×2040 per eye resolution at 90/120Hz and a 110-degree field of view (FoV). It’ll also include inside-out tracking, 3D audio and a simplified single-cord setup.

PlayStation 5 VR Controller

PlayStation VR2 Specifications

Display method​ OLED
Panel resolution​ 2000 x 2040 per eye
Panel refresh rate​ 90Hz, 120Hz
Lens separation​ Adjustable
Field of View​ Approx. 110 degrees
Sensors​ Motion Sensor: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer)​
Attachment Sensor: IR Proximity sensor
Cameras​ 4 cameras for headset and controller tracking​IR camera for eye tracking per eye
Feedback​ Vibration on headset
Communication​ with PS5 USB Type-C®
Audio​ Input: Built-in microphone​Output: Stereo headphone jack

Alas, the press conference didn’t reveal what PlayStation VR2 will actually look like, when it’ll launch or how much it’ll cost, so there’s still plenty of info to come. At least Sony did mention something, making it one of the early VR highlights of CES 2022.

All that’s been shown so far are the controllers which Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is now calling PlayStation VR2 Sense Controllers, with a lot of the tech including the adaptive triggered coming from the PlayStation 5 controllers. For further updates on PlayStation VR2, keep reading VRFocus.

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Qualcomm and Microsoft Partner on Custom Chips for Next-Gen AR Glasses

Qualcomm XR1 AR Reference Design

Qualcomm held its CES 2022 press conference earlier today and as part of the event revealed that it’s partnered with Microsoft to help push the future of augmented reality (AR). Qualcomm announced that the collaboration will see the pair develop custom AR chips for both consumer and enterprise devices.

Qualcomm XR1 Lifestyle

These custom AR chips will focus on ushering in an era of AR glasses that are lightweight and power-efficient as well as integrating into Microsoft’s ecosystem. That’ll mean support for software like Microsoft Mesh – Microsoft’s shared mixed-reality (MR) platform – and the Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform.

What this could mean is a more lightweight, consumer-friendly version of Microsoft’s HoloLens 2. A consumer edition was in fact confirmed last year by Microsoft’s Alex Kipman who said: “we are absolutely working on a consumer journey for HoloLens.” And then there was that Pokémon GO demo by Niantic Labs using the MR headset.

“This collaboration reflects the next step in both companies’ shared commitment to XR and the metaverse,” said Hugo Swart, vice president and general manager of XR, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. in a statement. “Qualcomm Technologies’ core XR strategy has always been delivering the most cutting-edge technology, purpose-built XR chipsets and enabling the ecosystem with our software platforms and hardware reference designs. We are thrilled to work with Microsoft to help expand and scale the adoption of AR hardware and software across the entire industry.”

Microsoft Mesh

“Our goal is to inspire and empower others to collectively work to develop the metaverse future – a future that is grounded in trust and innovation,” adds Rubén Caballero, corporate vice president Mixed Reality, Microsoft. “With services like Microsoft Mesh, we are committed to delivering the safest and most comprehensive set of capabilities to power metaverses that blend the physical and digital worlds, ultimately delivering a shared sense of presence across devices. We look forward to working with Qualcomm Technologies to help the entire ecosystem unlock the promise of the metaverse.”

Qualcomm is heavily invested in the XR space with chipsets like its Snapdragon XR2 platform being used in devices like Meta Quest 2. And then there’s the XR1 AR Smart Viewer Reference Design which OEM’s can utilise to enter the AR glasses market. This, of course, all leads towards a metaverse vision that most tech companies seem to be scrambling towards. As further details arise, keep reading VRFocus.