Sixense today announced that games industry veteran and former head of Vive Studios Joel Breton has joined the company as president of its studios and executive VP of product development.
Breton is tasked with leading the strategy for creation and delivery of AR/VR software, which is targeting businesses in healthcare, training, and entertainment.
Joel Breton, Image courtesy Sixense
A long-time games industry veteran, Breton started his career in product development at Sega of America in the mid-90s. He’s since worked in various development roles spanning 2K Sports, Bethesda Softworks, MTV Networks, and 505 Games. Breton’s stint as Vive Studios’ head started in 2016 and ended with his appointment at Sixense Studios.
“Joining Sixense Studios is an amazing opportunity to create showcase VR and AR content that redefines how humans learn, play, and interact with the products they use every day,” said Breton. “Sixense has been a leader in immersive computing for the past decade and I am thrilled to work alongside Sixense’s talented team and their global partners as we continue advancing the industry ecosystem.”
Sixense became somewhat of an infamous name among early VR adopters after the company raised over %600,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to support the development of STEM, a VR positional tracking standard that promised to bring 6DOF controllers and room-scale tracking to early VR developer kits.
Image courtesy Sixense
While it’s been a long road filled with plenty of potholes, Sixense eventually issued refunds to backers last year as it made definite strides to pivot to the enterprise space. Ostensibly the enterprise market would prove to be a more hospitable environment for STEM, an accurate and occlusion-free—albeit somewhat obsolescent—magnetic 6DOF tracking standard.
Sixense CEO Rubin Amir maintains that Breton will help the company grow, taking advantage of their software team’s continued work on human interactions in immersive media.
In what might be the longest Kickstarter campaign conclusion to date, more than four years following estimated deliveries of the STEM VR controller, Sixense says they will fully refund all backers and pre-orders.
Sixense was once a name central to the early VR community. The company built the technology behind the magnetically tracked Razer Hydra controller which was one of the only consumer-available 6DOF controllers available when the first Oculus Rift development kit (DK1) started shipping.
Early adopters of the DK1 gravitated toward the Hydra for an early glimpse of 6DOF input for VR, back when the headset itself only tracked rotation. I recall years ago strapping a Hydra controller to the headstrap of a DK1 and using the controller in my hand for crude (but at the time revelatory) positionally tracked VR experience.Well before the announcement of the Vive, with its 6DOF wand controllers, or the Rift’s 6DOF Touch controllers, Sixense planned to build its own 6DOF controller system for VR. The ‘STEM’ (based on magnetic tracking, like the Hyrda), would include two controllers and several additional trackers which could be clipped to the head and feet for full body tracking. The company rallied the young VR community around a Kickstarter campaign, successfully raising over $600,000 back in October of 2013, well exceeding the project’s $250,000 goal.
At the time of the Kickstarter, Sixense had estimated that the earliest deliveries of STEM would reach backers by July 2014. As that date slipped past, backers were still hopeful—after all, many successful hardware Kickstarter projects end up seeing some delays. But few could have known that a years-long string of delays would follow, eventually culminating in backers throwing around the word “scam” and repeated calls for refunds and legal action against the company.
It’s been four years and three months since the first STEM deliveries were expected. And in a twist we definitely didn’t see coming, Sixense has announced plans to fully refund all backers (of all tiers) and pre-orders placed through the company’s website, including fees. The company says they’ll use a PayPal-facilitated process to issue refunds, as Kickstarter doesn’t provide a refund service. More details on the exact refund process should come shortly in an update to the STEM Kickstarter.
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It’s a bittersweet conclusion for backers—and the right thing for Sixense to do—but may not do much to mend Sixense’s broken relationship with supporters who put their faith in the company only to have it tested to the point of breaking.
From 2014 to as near back as March, 2018, Sixense’s updates to Kickstarter backers made it sound as if the completion of the STEM system was just around the corner. “We are getting close to be able to start production, so please stay with us through this final phase,” read the most recent backer update.
But as early as October 2017 the company began seriously questioning the viability of manufacturing and delivering STEM to its backers.
Speaking to Sixense CEO Amir Rubin this week, he told me that by the time that Valve/HTC and Oculus began shipping their own VR controllers—some two years after the initial STEM systems were estimated to be delivered—it became clear to Sixense that STEM would be fighting an uphill battle in the PC VR space, though the company held out hope that it would be a great match for mobile VR headsets, and refocused their efforts on the project for that use-case.
Image courtesy Oculus
But then, unable to get STEM out the door for another year later and a half, Oculus revealed VR controllers as part of its Santa Cruz II prototype (which would go on to become Oculus Quest) in October 2017, causing Sixense to reconsider whether bringing STEM to consumers made sense, Rubin told me. The final nail in the coffin was when, just last month, Oculus announced that Quest would ship next year with VR controllers at a $400 price point.
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Rubin told me that Sixense had spent all of the $600,000 Kickstarter budget by the end of 2014, but says the company continued to fund R&D to try to bring STEM to market (before deciding to kill it). I wondered then, if the company couldn’t pay to get STEM’s myriad of manufacturing issues fixed, how could it afford to refund all of its backers?
After coming to grips with STEM not being viable for the consumer VR market, Sixense has begun to focus on enterprise VR solutions. The company has been sending out hand-produced STEM development kits to potential partners with the hopes that the tech will be adopted and licensed as a component piece among non-consumer VR systems.
To that end, Sixense formed a joint venture back in early 2018 with Penumbra, a healthcare company, “for the purpose of exploring healthcare applications of virtual reality technology with Sixense Enterprises, Inc.”
It was a 50/50 partnership, Rubin told me, and just last month Penumbra bought out most of Sixense’s interest in the company for $20 million. He said there was “no question” once the deal was closed that the money should be used to refund backers before being used for other company interests, though he also said the decision to return the money was difficult considering other ventures they could use it for.
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It won’t come without a laugh from STEM backers, but Rubin says this is just another delay; STEM will eventually come to the consumer market, in some form or another.
“The fact is, that we are delaying our consumer market release plan until there is a large enough VR systems install base with some ‘killer apps’. I believe that the current optical 6DOF controller solutions represent the early days of the ‘Mechanical Mouse’. I hope that when we release our STEM technology to the consumer market it will have a similar impact as ‘Multi-Touch’ did,” he said.
Sixense, the company behind the much-belated positionally tracked STEM controller system, just released an update stating the company is “getting close to be able to start production,” which should follow an estimated 4-week retooling and finalization of production samples.
As the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign launched back in late 2013, STEM was poised to beat many manufacturers to the punch by offering the first consumer room-scale controller and positional tracking systems using a magnetic tracking technology. After more than 4 years of waiting, Sixense CEO Amir Rubin says that next week the company should receive updated 3D printed samples following a recent design update.
“Assuming that the fix works, the tool change and samples, should not take more than four weeks,” Rubin says. “We are getting close to be able to start production, so please stay with us through this final phase.”
The company’s penultimate update detailed the outstanding design issue – a critical misalignment and part warping problem that prevented STEM from entering production phase. Taking the words out of many backer’s mouths, Sixense called the effort “a long and complicated process.”
Here’s the full update below:
Update – March 2018 Posted by Sixense (Creator)
We have received an update from our manufacturer in regards to the remaining issue concerning the STEM plastics.
The fix that is proposed, and that we will be implementing, incorporates two modifications. The first mod, shown in the images below, is the addition of a screw boss near the thumb area where we were experiencing some inconsistency in the reveal gap.
The second modification includes additional alignment/interlock features around the perimeter of the two halves that will help stabilize the reveal all the way around the assembly.
We should be receiving 3D printed samples of the updated geometry next week, before we initiate the tool change to do an assembly level check fit to ensure the design update. Assuming that the fix works, the tool change and samples, should not take more than four weeks. We are getting close to be able to start production, so please stay with us through this final phase.
Also, we are exhibiting our latest VR products at GDC again this year. If you plan on attending, we welcome you to come visit us in Booth #1201 in the South Hall of Moscone Center.
Thanks, Amir
Sixense originally posted their first delay back in April 2014, citing the need for unspecified “hardware improvements.” Similar delays thereafter lead up to one of the greatest setbacks to the project in late March 2015: failure to pass FCC/CE testing, something that was chalked up to difficulties surrounding the basestation’s inability to both provide grounding for its radio frequency (RF) dongles without disturbing the magnetic tracking. Traversing more failed tests and manufacturing difficulties, a July 2017 update revealed a manufacturers letter to Sixense that detailed the company was still having part stability issues.
While many might wonder exactly why a company would sally forth to produce a product largely thought surpassed by modern VR systems such as Valve’s SteamVR tracking standard or Oculus’ optical tracking sensors, STEM at very least boasts a function that other positional tracking systems can’t claim: no need for direct line-of-sight from the basestation. Whether that’s enough of a draw, we can’t say for sure.
So here we are again – on the hypothetical cusp of Sixense STEM finally materializing into an honest-to-goodness product.
Breaking six months of silence since their last update, Sixense, the company behind the much-belated positionally tracked controller system STEM, recently detailed “one last issue that needs to be addressed” before the company can start shipping to Kickstarter backers.
With its Kickstarter campaign launched back in late 2013, STEM was supposed to provide one of the world’s first consumer room-scale controller and tracker systems, something made possible by a magnetic tracking technology that can accommodate several tracked objects. Now, more than 4 years since the conclusion of the Kickstarter, backers are still waiting for their STEM Systems amidst what Sixense calls in their latest update “a long and complicated mess.”
The last remaining issue? Parts are still warping, making for a critical misalignment when assembled.
“Our manufacturer has recently completed a tool mod to address gate relocation in order to eliminate warping of the controller halves. Following this, they produced 40 sets of controller halves (in 2 different runs) for us to perform an assembly build evaluation. In doing so, we found assembly level issues that were causing variability with the size of the reveal gap on the controllers. The proposed fix is to add a screw boss per the images below. It was also proposed that since we are doing a tool mod anyway, we should explore opportunities to add additional (steel safe) alignment features (bayonets, etc.).”
image courtesy Sixense
Sixense originally posted their first delay back in April 2014, citing the need for unspecified “hardware improvements.” Similar delays thereafter lead up to one of the greatest setbacks to the project in late March 2015: failure to pass FCC/CE testing, something that was chalked up to difficulties surrounding the basestation’s inability to both provide grounding for its radio frequency (RF) dongles without disturbing the magnetic tracking. Traversing more failed tests and manufacturing difficulties, the penultimate update, posted in July 2017, revealed a manufacturers letter to Sixense that detailed the company was still having fitting issues fixing dubious part stability.
Still, the update holds no definite answers to when backers will see the final product—something that many now consider to be surpassed by both Vive and Rift’s respective positional tracking systems. Sixense says they’re now “really close and hope to have better news regarding this matter in the near future.”
The system does provide one boon over all others: absolute positional tracking without the need for line-of-sight from basestations or tracking sensors, but as far as consumer-level headsets go, it’s a solution to a problem that no one really has. Notwithstanding the potential applications as a way to add 6DOF positional tracking to 3DOF mobile headsets like Gear VR, the system, if mass-produced after shipping to backers, aims to live on in the enterprise sector, adding positional tracking to custom VR systems.
“Please believe us when we say that we’re far more frustrated with having to tell you about our plastics difficulties than you are with hearing them,” the company writes. “All we can say is that we’re really close and hope to have better news regarding this matter in the near future. Having said that (again) we want to most emphatically assure you that while we’ve been dealing with our injection molding madness, we have continued to develop the tracking technology, both on the hardware and software sides of things.”
Es ist fast schon ein Running Gag, doch vielleicht werden die Unterstützer der Kickstarter-Kampagne von Sixense STEM doch irgendwann beliefert. In einem Update auf Kickstarter sagt das Unternehmen, dass sie mit der Herstellung begonnen haben. Leider gibt Sixense gleichzeitig bekannt, dass es eine weitere Verzögerung geben wird und die Controller ab Dezember ausgeliefert werden sollen.
Sixense STEM VR Controller
Als Sixense seine Kickstarter-Kampagne im Jahr 2013 gestartet hatte, war das Produkt eine absolute Neuheit. Ein VR-Controller der ohne Kabel auskommt und ein besseres Tracking als PlayStation Move und die Razer Hydra versprochen hatte. Im Juli 2014 sollten die Unterstützer mit dem Controller beliefert werden. Leider lässt die Auslieferung der Controller aber bis heute auf sich warten.
Mittlerweile ist der Controller keine Besonderheit mehr. Zwar funktioniert der Controller nach einem anderen Prinzip als die Oculus Touch Controller oder HTC Vive Controller, doch präzise getrackte Controller sind keine Neuheit mehr. Außerdem wird es wohl kaum Spiele geben, die das System direkt unterstützen. Somit können die Controller eventuell auf Steam verwendet werden, aber sie werden nicht so gut in die Spiele integriert sein.
Ob Sixense die Controller wirklich im Dezember ausliefern wird, können wir leider fast nicht mehr glauben. Wir werden sehen, ob es im Dezember eine erneute Verschiebung geben wird.
