FOVE 0 VR headsets begin shipping out to customers

If you’re one of the nearly 1,500 people who backed the eye-tracking FOVE 0 VR headset on Kickstarter last year, then good news: FOVE has announced that the headset will begin shipping out to its first customers later this month. FOVE made the announcement at CES today, where it had the FOVE 0 on display along with some new software. FOVE 0’s Kickstarter campaign was a smashing success, with pledges from backers coming in at $480,650 and nearly doubling the $250,000 amount FOVE was originally asking for.

It was only in November that FOVE opened up pre-orders for folks who didn’t participate in the Kickstarter but still wanted to be among the first to get the headset. The FOVE 0 will also be shipping out to folks who pre-ordered it, so FOVE will begin fulfillment on all of the early orders this month.

In an ever-growing virtual reality market, one thing that makes the FOVE 0 stand out from its competitors is its use of eye-tracking technology. Being able to track a user’s eye movement obviously brings a higher degree of accuracy in VR and AR applications, and at CES this year, FOVE is showing off that technology in a new VR app called LUMEN.

In LUMEN, players will “procedurally grow a forest with your headset gaze.” Referred to as “nonlinear VR meditation,” LUMEN was created by a partnership between FOVE and creative studio Framestore. It’s on display this week at CES too, so if you find yourself in Vegas, you can give it a try for yourself.

FOVE also has CognitiveVR on hand to display its eye tracking technology. These eye-tracking tools created by CognitiveVR allow for tracking user behavior in VR spaces. The tech demo that previews these tools allows user to explore a VR space, showing them heatmaps and product placement statistics about their session afterward.

The idea is that enterprise customers can use applications like this to track how customers would presumably act within real-word retail spaces, helping them figure out things like product placement and layout.

It should be noted that from here on out, the FOVE 0 headset will only be available in white. While it was introduced to the world in black, FOVE is ending production of that variant once these pre-order and backer headsets have been fulfilled. Therefore, FOVE backers and early adopters will find that they own a headset that’s just a little bit rarer than the rest.

Be sure to browse our CES 2017 hub to see all of our coverage from the show, and stay tuned for a lot more over the course of the week!