pico neo 3 – Page 3 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

April 7, 2021

Pico Neo 3 startet am 10. Mai in China

Pico Interactive hat heute mit der Pico Neo 3 eine neue Version der autarken VR-Brille vorgestellt, welche bereits am 10. Mai in China starten soll.

Pico Neo 3 startet am 10. Mai in China

Das Unternehmen gab diese Nachricht gestern über den offiziellen Weibo-Account bekannt und erklärte, dass das Headset auf einem speziellen Event am 10. Mai im Beijing National Aquatics Center, auch bekannt als “Water Cube”, vorgestellt werden wird.

Wie die chinesische VR-Webseite Yivian berichtet, scheint das Headset über vier optische Sensoren und einen neuen Oculus Touch-ähnlichen Controller zu verfügen. Ansonsten hält sich Pico mit den technischen Spezifikationen oder detaillierten Bildern noch zurück.

Während in Asien die Brille auch direkt an Konsumenten angeboten wird, wird sich Pico in Europa weiterhin auf den B2B-Markt konzentrieren. In Asien konnte Pico Interactive bereits Fuß fassen und bietet dort im eigenen Store 400 unterschiedliche Anwendungen an. Darunter auch Superhot VR, Apex Construct, Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs und Racket: Nx.

Auch wenn Pico mit der Neo 3 in Asien der Oculus Quest 2 Konkurrenz machen könnte, scheint es somit auch weiterhin in Europa keine sinnvolle Alternative in absehbarer Zukunft zu geben. Mit der Oculus Quest 2 feiert Oculus derzeit seine größten Erfolge und Zuckerberg spricht bereits offen über neue Modelle der Brille. Unseren Langzeittest zur Oculus Quest 2 findet ihr hier.

(Quelle: Road to VR)

Der Beitrag Pico Neo 3 startet am 10. Mai in China zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

April 7, 2021April 13, 2021

Pico Neo 3 Specs Revealed: Snapdragon XR2, Physical IPD Adjustments & More

Pico Interactive announced last week that Neo 3, the Beijing-based company’s next standalone VR headset, is slated to arrive to consumers in Asia starting May 10th, 2021, and to enterprise in the West sometime this summer. We had only seen a single partial rendering of Pico Neo 3, however now the company has revealed more of the headset alongside revealing a few basic specs.

Update (April 13th, 2021): Pico today released more info on its upcoming Neo 3 standalone. There’s only a short spec sheet for now. Today’s news also came with a new image of the headset, which we’ve included above.

Pico Neo 3 will include:

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset

WiFi 6 antenna

optical controllers with embedded tracking sensors

three physical IPD adjustments

four wide-angle cameras providing “millimeter-level” positioning and tracking

curved screen clocked at 90Hz refresh

Notably, the Snapdragon XR2 is the same chipset inside Oculus Quest 2. The company says its enterprise version for outside of Asia is slated to release sometime in summer 2021. The original article follows below:

Original Article (April 7th, 2021):The company released the news via its official Weibo account early yesterday, stating that the headset will be launched at a special event taking place on May 10th at the Beijing National Aquatics Center, also known as ‘Water Cube’.

As reported by Chinese VR publication Yivian, the headset appears to have four optical sensors and a new Oculus Touch-like controller.

There’s essentially nothing else to go on besides the rendering above, however Pico is making definite strides to appeal to consumers in Asia with the launch of its next standalone headset.

In late March, the company announced its was opening its own publishing division, called Pico Studios. The company says it will be partnering with global developers to bring its 6DOF VR apps and games to consumers in Asia. The company has already stocked its Pico Store with around 400 apps, which include a number of fan favorites localized for Chinese consumption such as Superhot VR, Apex Construct, Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs, and Racket: Nx.

As for the West, Pico is still focusing on serving enterprise clients and B2B with Neo 3, which makes sense since there are very few companies up to the task of undercutting the successful Oculus Quest platform vis-à-vis Facebook.

It’s important to note that China-based consumers can’t purchase Oculus devices as Facebook is banned in that country, which makes for an interesting state of affairs. Pico Interactive has been armed with a fresh B and B+ funding round though, amounting to around $67M, so there’s no telling what inroads Pico will make outside of Asia in the future.

The post Pico Neo 3 Specs Revealed: Snapdragon XR2, Physical IPD Adjustments & More appeared first on Road to VR.

March 11, 2021

Pico Neo 3 Announced After Successful $37m Funding Round

The virtual reality (VR) industry doesn’t stand still for long as it was only in May 2020 that Pico Interactive launched its standalone headsets, the Pico Neo 2 and Neo 2 Eye. This week, the company has announced the completion of a Series B+ funding round as well as confirming an updated model is coming in 2021, the Pico Neo 3.

The funding round saw Pico Interactive raise $37.4 million USD, with Co-Stone Asset Management Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Yidun Media Investment Fund, Jianyin International Capital Management (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., and CCBI Tech Venture (Suzhou) Combined Debt & Equity Private Equity Fund LLP all taking part. The funding will be used to support Pico Interactive’s B2C presence in Asia, its expansion into Western markets and product development.

“Pico is looking to provide its users with the best VR experience possible through excellent hardware, a great content ecosystem and numerous strategic partners,” said Zhou Hongwei, CEO of Pico Interactive in a statement. “This funding round will not only help us strengthen the accumulation of key technologies but also introduce high-quality VR games and applications onto our consumer Pico headsets in Asian markets. In addition to the B2C growth in Asia, the funding helps us to continue furthering our presence as a leader in B2B VR solutions in the West. We’re continuously looking for ways to better support our partners and this latest financing will help give us the tools we need to make these visions a reality.”

As for the new Pico Neo 3, the company has yet to reveal any specifications regarding how it’ll be upgrading the current models. The Neo 2 and Neo 2 Eye both feature a 4K resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, six degrees of freedom tracking (6DoF), two front-facing cameras, a 75Hz refresh rate, 128GB of storage, and a counterbalanced design to aid comfort. The Neo 2 Eye also comes fitted with Tobii’s eye tracking technology for a range of enterprise use cases.

It wasn’t just the Pico Neo 2 and Neo 2 Eye that the hardware maker launched in 2020. While companies like Facebook have abandoned 3DoF technology in favour of 6DoF, Pico is still supporting it through the G2 4K S and G2 4K Enterprise headsets. These have 4K resolution, 101° field of view, and an all-PU facial interface for easy cleaning. Plus the G2 4K Enterprise model also comes with a 16 MP single RGB camera and more storage.

When further details regarding the Pico Neo 3 are made available, VRFocus will let you know.

March 8, 2021

Pico Raises $37M Series B+ Financing, Neo 3 Standalone to Release in Q2 2021

Pico Interactive, the Beijing-based VR headset creator, announced it has secured a fresh funding round of ¥242 million RMB (~$37 million), something the company says will help launch new hardware, and better position itself as a consumer-focused company.

According to a company press release obtained by Yivian (Chinese), investors include Keystone Capital, Shenzhen Yidun Media Investment Fund, CCB International, Jianyin Suzhou Science and Technology Fund. The cumulative funding amount of its Series B and Series B+ comes to ¥435 million RMB (~$66.5 million).

The company says the funds raised will be used to acquisition of core technologies such as optics, and creating greater demand in the consumer sector.

Henry Zhou, Pico Interactive CEO and founder, says the company is also getting ready to launch its next standalone VR headset, Pico Neo 3, which is slated to arrive sometime in Q2 2021. There’s no information on headset specs yet, however it’s set to be another standalone.

Pico maintains heavy focus on both developers and enterprise, so it’s still unclear whether Pico Neo 3 will be targeted at consumers. It’s certainly the direction the company intends on heading in the future, at least insofar the Chinese market is concerned.

Zhou further states that the new funding will be used to improve the its Pico Store content platform, something which is necessary if it hopes to compete against a surprisingly long list of domestic rivals. Pico also says it will be focusing on sports fitness, casual content consumption, and social VR applications.

We were impressed with our hands-on with Pico Neo 2 back at CES 2020 (before, well, you know), with the headset respectably stacking up against the original Oculus Quest hardware. Supposing Pico Neo 3 is aiming to accomplish the same feat, but with Oculus Quest 2, it’s possible Facebook may have a modicum of competition to worry about in the enterprise sector.

Still, it’s unlikely we’ll see a consumer-focused Neo 3 outside of China simply because the company would need to attract a large amount of non-Chinese content to its store, something it plainly doesn’t have yet. It would also need to heavily subsidize Neo 3 to make it at an attractive price point, say, somewhere around $300 to raise any eyebrows. At the time of this writing, the cheapest version of Neo 2 costs a whopping 3,500 RMB (~$535), however it’s worth noting that China-based consumers can’t buy Facebook hardware.

Thanks to Antony Vitillo of Skarred Ghost for pointing us to the news.

The post Pico Raises $37M Series B+ Financing, Neo 3 Standalone to Release in Q2 2021 appeared first on Road to VR.