Category: Woojer

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Woojer’s Kickstarter Hits $1.7m, Joins Oculus Ready Program

Haptic feedback company Woojer launched its latest Kickstarter campaign back in August an to say it has been a success is an understatement. Originally aiming to hit $20,000 USD the campaign now sits at just over $1.7 million (£1.4 million GBP) with several days to go. With the Kickstarter drawing to an end, Woojer has just released a new update revealing new tweaks to Vest Edge and Strap Edge, as well as joining Oculus’ certification program.

Woojer Edge Vest

The team has been listening to Kickstarter backer feedback on possible updates, managing to implement several in the process. In a blog posting Woojer notes: “we are not in a position to do any hardware modifications which will require major PCB (electric circuit) layout changes. But as for small tweaks, we’re doing them…”

These small improvements include a Stereo/Mono toggle for the Vest Edge whereby users will have the options to switch between mono and stereo haptics. Another Vest Edge addition is a fast-charging port, so each Vest will come with a wall charger. “This charging method will allow charging your Vest (with its 4-cell battery pack) within less than 2 hours! You’ll still be able to charge via the USB type C port or powerbanks with the provided USB-C cable (but that will take longer),” says Woojer.

For the final Tweak Woojer has added Charge & Play functionality to both Vest Edge and Strap Edge. Simply put, users will be able to use either device whilst it charges.

Woojer STRAP

On top of all this Woojer has joined the Oculus Ready program to ensure that the Woojer Edge Series complies with the program’s requirements for certification. For those unaware of the program: “Oculus provides Oculus Ready certification to top manufacturers who provide a range of systems and components that are optimized for use with Oculus products. They’ve been designed, assembled, and tested with Oculus in mind, so you can be confident they’ll deliver a great VR experience.”

There’s still time to back the project, with the Woojer Strap Edge still available for an Early Bird price of $99 and the Vest Edge starting from $299 for the Early Bird. For further Woojer updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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Woojer’s Thumping new Edge Series Devices Blasts Past Kickstarter Target

Woojer is a company focused on bass, not in the kind that you can hear, more the kind you can feel. Having previously released a haptic feedback vest that was primarily designed for experiencing movies, Woojer launched a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign this week for two new products; the Woojer Vest Edge and Woojer Strap Edge. Both of which can be used with virtual reality (VR) headsets.

Woojer Edge Vest

The new Woojer Edge series is a refinement of the company’s patented Osci technology, helping to up that sense of immersion, whether you’re playing VR or simply listening to music. The two devices in the campaign are designed for different purposes, the Woojer Vest Edge for at home and Woojer Strap Edge when you’re on the go.

Woojer’s Vest Edge is the flagship device, weighing in at 2kg (4.5 lbs) and designed to fit a wide variety of body types. It has six silent Osci TRX52 haptic transducers set out in a stereo array (2x sides, 2x back, 2x front) and a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery (3350mAh, 14.5V) – good for around 8 hours depending on usage and volume/sensation level. Backing tiers for the  Vest Edge start from $299 USD for the Early Bird (time-limited), saving you 40 percent on the standard $499 price at retail.

If the Woojer Vest Edge is a little pricy or too bulky and you’re after something a bit more subtle then the Woojer Strap Edge is the best bet. Designed like a belt, the device can be worn in a number of places from the waist to over the shoulder. Just like its bigger brother, the Strap Edge comes supplied with CSR APTX low-latency Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and Texas Instruments built-in analogue headphone amplifier. Weighing in at 240g, the Strap Edge has one Osci TRX52 haptic transducer and a 3350mAh, 4.2V battery. As such you can spend a lot less for haptic feedback, with the time-limited Early Bird costing $99 instead of the standard retail price of $175.

Woojer Edge Strap

“We’re really excited about this launch of the Edge Series on Kickstarter,” said the Woojer CEO, Kfir Bar-Levav in a statement. ”Our efforts have made Edge as awesome as our previous products but now also affordable for EVERYONE. We hope that together with the Kickstarter community, Woojer will become the must-have addition to any multimedia experience”.

Woojer managed to complete its $20,000 funding goal in two hours, with the campaign currently sat at just over $164,000. There won’t be long to wait either as the devices are expected to ship in December. As further updates are released, VRFocus will let you know.

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E3 2019 Interview: Woojer is all About the Bass

Haptic feedback can come in all shapes and sizes when it comes to virtual reality (VR) use cases. Ultrahaptics, for example, use arrays of ultrasonic transducers to project haptic feedback into the air, while the Dexmo Enterprise Edition gloves go for a more mechanical force feedback solution. Woojer also goes for a direct approach to immersive feedback, with a couple of devices which you can strap to your body. During the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2019 last month VRFocus caught up with Woojer’s Head of Interactive, Ryan Origin, to learn more about the company’s future plans.

Woojer STRAP

Woojer has two core devices in its current lineup, the Woojer Vest and the Woojer Strap. These both vary significantly in price and design. While both are designed to provide a physical thump when it comes to listening to music, watching films or playing videogames, the Vest model is the flagship product, with eight patented transducers built in, for a surround sound experience.

The Woojer Vest, on the other hand, is very much like a belt with two transducers attached. While you won’t get the full body experience, the device is far more useful when out and about, giving that extra feedback from your music. At home playing some VR, you’ll feel that rumble from your surroundings or when the audio gets dramatic.

But Woojer wasn’t at E3 2019 to merely showcase its current projects, the company wanted to have a little discussion regarding its two upcoming designs. Part of a new Edge Series, Woojer plans on launching two Kickstarters in August 2019, one for Woojer Vest Edge and Woojer Strap Edge. These new devices will be far more consumer-focused than the previous models mentioned operating on a two-channel stereo basis rather than surround sound.

Woojer STRAP Edge

In the interview below, Origin gives a few details regarding Woojer’s technology and what to expect with the next two devices.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Woojer, reporting back when the Kickstarter campaigns go live. In the meantime take a look at VRFocus’ other interviews from E3 2019 with Oculus’ Jason Rubin, Vertigo Games, Gearbox Software, Ready at Dawn, nDreams, Digital Lode, Sensorium, Survios and Rebellion.

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Woojer ryg Haptic Vest Storms Past Kickstarter Target

Last week haptic vest company Woojer launched a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign for its first product, the Woojer ryg. The campaign has already proved to be a massive success, flying past its goal within three hours of launch.

Woojer ryg

Woojer demoed the haptic vest during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018 in June, where VRFocus demoed the device and spoke with Woojer CTO Mor Efrati about what the product could do.

The ryg vest has eight haptic zones to help users really feel part of the experience that they are playing or watching, compatible with PC, console and virtual reality (VR) headsets like PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. It can provide up to 8 hours of playtime, plus the ability to triple that with additional battery packs, for its patented Osci – Oscillating Frame Actuators which deliver polyphonic vibrations that reproduce and play frequencies up to 500Hz, including subsonic frequencies that are below the threshold of the human ear (1-20Hz).

The Kickstarter aimed to raise $50,000 USD, and at the time of writing has achieved just over $161,000. The Super Early Bird tier at $499 has already sold out – there were only 100 available – but for those still interested there’s the Early Bird tier at $549 still available. Once that tier has sold out then there’s the $599 tier available – which is still a saving as the regular price will be $799.

Woojer ryg man

“We’re really stoked about the launch of ryg on Kickstarter,” said Woojer CEO, Kfir Bar-Levav, in a statement: “We’re getting phenomenal feedback from the top creators that already have our Dev-Kits and we hope that together with the Kickstarter community, ryg will become the go-to haptics for the entertainment industry”.

To encourage more developers to the platform Woojer has a couple of developer focused tiers available. While these are more expensive, starting at $699, they do include the PC Mounting Rig and full access to ryg’s SDK (available for Unreal Engine & Unity), Documentation, Developer Forum, and Support.

Haptics can be a great way to immerse yourself in a virtual world but the industry is still fairly small at them moment. This was proved last month with the closure of Hardlight VR, another haptic vest company which had a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2017.

As the haptic industry grows, VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest announcements.

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Woojer’s Haptic Vest Garners Over $270,000 at Close of Kickstarter Campaign

Woojer, the company behind the haptic belt Strap, launched a Kickstarter campaign late last month for a new haptic vest, dubbed Ryg. Initially targeting a $50,000 funding goal, the campaign has seen strong support, not only claiming successful funding in the first three hours, but also garnering over $270,000 when the campaign closed last Friday.

Update (October 29th, 2018): Woojer has closed its Ryg campaign successfully with a total of $274,524. Since the Kickstarter was treated mostly as a pre-order campaign, there weren’t any stretch goals as such. The device is said to ship to backers between November and December of 2018. Further pre-orders are being handled on the company’s IndieGogo page.

The original article detailing the campaign follows below:

Original Article (September 28th, 2018): Using Woojer’s patented oscillating frame actuators, called Osci, the company says Ryg is three times more powerful than their earlier haptic products, which include the haptic belt Strap, and a Kickstarter funded haptic unit using the same technology.

Wading past some of the hypetastic bro-speak that permeates the Kickstarter itself, it appears Ryg, presumably like its forebears, can turn in-game sounds into body shaking haptics out-of-the-box, sort of like a ‘buttkicker’ for your entire torso. Unlike the single-actuator units that came before it however, the vest itself packs in eight actuators that are said to provide “silent, harmonic and powerful tactile sensations.” Developers can tune the vest’s actuators with both Unity and Unreal SDKs for greater immersion in VR, as the vest can hypothetically simulate things like gunshots and raindrops, so not only sound-based haptics.

Connecting via Bluetooth, Ryg is said to last up to eight hours of playtime on a single charge, although it can draw current from additional battery packs for longer play sessions. An optional mounting bracket will also allow backpack-style PCs to integrate with the vest, something that location-based facilities tend to use in larger warehouse-scale VR environments.

Early backers of the Kickstarter campaign can receive a Ryg starting at $550, something the company says is around ~35% off the suggested retail price. Ryg is slated to arrive at some Kickstarter backers’ doors as early as November 2018, although the glut of backers will receive their units a month later.

You can check out the Kickstarter campaign here.

The post Woojer’s Haptic Vest Garners Over $270,000 at Close of Kickstarter Campaign appeared first on Road to VR.

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E3 2018: All the VR Games of Day Two

The second day of 2018’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Los Angeles, has come to a close. VRFocus has scoured the show floor looking for the latest and greatest in both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), and in the recap video presented here you can find all the hits-and-misses from the show.

ARia's Legacy

Following yesterday’s bombardment from Bethesda Softworks, Ready at Dawn, Twisted Pixel, Squanch Games and more, this second day began in earnest with a deep look at Thrustmaster’s new hardware offerings; the new TPR Rudder and a HOTAS Flight Stick add-on, the Replica F/A 18 Hornet. This was followed by a look at the one and only AR experience seen so far at E3, The Pixel Crushers’ ARia’s Legacy, both located in the Los Angeles Convention Center South Hall.

The new hardware continues with Cybershoes, CaptoGlove and Woojer Ryg, in addition to a fresh look at HTC Vive’s wireless adapter, created in partnership with Display Link and Intel. Back on the videogames side, we have Rebellion and Dream Reality Interactive’s Arca’s Path VR, Multiverse Inc.’s Seeking Dawn, and finally First Contact Entertainment’s Firewall: Zero Hour.

All of these you can find in the video below, while tomorrow brings us to the final day of E3 2018. There’ll be more from Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), as well as a first look at XSEED’s Gungrave VR and a fresh update from Kite & Lightning on the team’s progress of Bebylon: Battle Royale.

Gungrave VR screenshot

What else is happening at E3 2018? In terms of AR and VR, not much. It’s a slow year for the emerging medium – and for videogames as a whole, considered to be a mid-cycle year for consoles which are not offering anything particularly new – with eyes on the recently launched Oculus Go as a head-mounted display (HMD) geared more towards the mass market than the core videogames audience and still some way from the upcoming launch of the Santa Cruz HMD. As ever though, VRFocus will be on the ground bringing you all the latest news as it happens.