Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson Reveal They Left Valve to Create Augmented Reality Technology

[ríomhaire]

Back in February we posted about a large number of staff departures from Valve that started off when Jeri Ellsworth tweeted about her leaving the company. The Verge have revealed Jeri's reason for leaving Valve: She and fellow ex-Valve employee Rick Johnson left to found their own company called Technical Illusions which aims to create augmented reality technology.

There was internal debate in Valve about whether to pursue augmented reality or virtual reality and the virtual reality supporters won out in the end. Jeri and Rick wanted to stay on the augmented reality project and so they left to create their own company. There are no hard feelings though and Gabe Newell had the Valve lawyers sign off all rights to Valve's augmented reality projects to the new company. Jeri said "I talked to Gabe, and he talked to the lawyers, and he's like, 'It's theirs, make it happen.'"​

The technology itself is being called CastAR and it is quite different to the Google Glasses method of[box="right"]
Prototype CastAR glasses[/box]augmented reality. A miniature projector is mounted on a pair of glasses which bounces an image off special retroreflecting panels. The panel also has infrared LEDs that a camera on the glasses can detect which the system uses to determine the user's position so that it can project the correct image as if the the user was moving in 3D space. An interesting aspect of the device is that multiple users can use the same screen to see different images as the light from each pair of glasses is reflected back at them.

More information, and a video showing CastAR in action, can be seen at the Verge.

 

[trunk_slamchest]

we do what we must...because...we can.

 

[Pikminiman]

Looks like very cool stuff. Though, from what I've seen, I still prefer full-on virtual reality as with the Oculus Rift.

 

[Vegeta897]

I still prefer full-on virtual reality as with the Oculus Rift.

I wouldn't really call that "full-on virtual reality". It's only 2 (or 3? can it do roll?) axes of head tracking with a dual display for 3D. A low res one at that.

 

[ríomhaire]

I think positional tracking is planned for the consumer version.

 

[Vegeta897]

I still think mere head tracking and a 3d display are only 2 aspects of what we should consider full virtual reality. Haptic feedback would be way more immersive than either of those, I think.

 

[Mythos]

Oh, yeah, I remember all the drama and rumors surrounding this. "Oh my God Valve is firing people and/or people are leaving, this is bad." Turns out, maybe not so much.

 

[Barnz]

Oh, yeah, I remember all the drama and rumors surrounding this. "Oh my God Valve is firing people and/or people are leaving, this is bad." Turns out, maybe not so much.

You know Valve fired about 28 people, right? This is only Ellsworth and Johnson.

 

[Mythos]

You know Valve fired about 28 people, right? This is only Ellsworth and Johnson.

Fair enough, although I supposed they might've joined the new company.