FOVE

FOVE
Category	VR device
Developer	FOVE, Inc.
Announced	December 2014
Released	Developers: 19 May 2015 Consumers: January 2017
Price	USD 599
Operating system	Windows 8.1, Windows 10
Display	OLED
Resolution	2560x1140
Field of view	100°
Weight	520 g
Controls	positional tracking, eye-tracking
Data available	fair
Risk factor	unknown
Not Standalone
https://www.getfove.com

FOVE VR is a virtual reality head-mounted display device developed by the FOVE company. It was announced by the end of 2014 and a Kickstarter project was presented in January 2015.

The device features the head-mounted device, an infrared sensor which is monitoring not only a motion of user's eyes but also motion of a head. It differs from Oculus Rift and many other HMD VR devices because it is controlled only by eyes. Due to this specific controling, it offers a complete immersion of user. The mass production has already started however its release had to be postpone until fall 2016.

Main characteristics

Fove is a head-mounted display with total weight of 520g. Whole headset is fixed by adjustable velcro straps. Hardware of Fove suffers from classical problems connected with HMDs such as weight, differences in eye-distance, or suited-well on face structure, etc. Trying to solve this kinds problems, hardware updates are still in progress. Hardware also features high resolution WQHD OLED display with screen diagonal of 14,7cm. It offers 100 field of view (but it may vary due to distance to the lenses and face structure)and a frame rate of 70 fps. The connection with a PC is via USB. Fove requires Operating system Win 8 64-bit or Win 10 64-bit and processing unit Intel core i5-4590 to this date. Fove is differing from other HMDs by the eye-tracking that is provided by two infrared eye-tracking sensors with error rate less than one degree with frame rate 120fps. Fove is also monitoring motion of head by orientation tracking IMU and IR-based position tracking, as well.

Purpose

Although Fove was primarily created as a game tool offering users to express themselves naturally and easily in virtual world </ref>, it could help disabled people, or elderly people as it could be seen in related HUG project and Eye play the piano project. </ref>

Company & People

At the beginning Fove, Inc. was represented by three co-workers: </ref>

• Yuka Kojima – Co-founder and CEO</ref>
• Lochlainn Wilson – Co-founder and CTO </ref>
• Scott Harper – Creative director </ref>

However the team has been enlarged to 25 co-workers up today.

Important Dates

• 12^th May 2014 - Foundation
• 19^th May 2015 - Kickstarter project 19th May 2015
• July 4^th July 2015 - end of a kickstarter project
• November 2015 - cooperation with Project HUG

Enhancement/Therapy/Treatment

As was mentioned above despite not being primarily created for medical treatment, Fove can effectively help in cases of disabled people (Eye play the piano project) or elderly people (HUG project). However, according to experience and enormous possibility of using virtual reality in cases of ADHD or treatment of alcoholism, Fove could be used in that cases as well.

Ethical & Health Issues

In general, there are no ethical issues directly connected with FOVE. However, there can be applicable the ethical issues connected with head mounted displays and virtual reality. Especially, Fove, inc. promises high degree of immersion - “A full sense of presence in the virtual world” due to eye-tracking controlling but high immersion was clasified as a risk factor for addiction. Taking into consideration eye-tracking, in fact, the human eye is able to protect itself against optical radiation such as ultraviolet radiation and infrared radiation. The infrared rays used in most eye trackers are not harmful, in general. However, there can be indentified some possible radiant hazards depending on wavelength of the infrared radiation. In the context of the eye trackers it could be thermal injury of the retina (wavelengths from 400 nm to 1400 nm) and near-infrared thermal hazards to the lens (wavelengths between 800 nm and 3000 nm). The FOVE, inc. presented that they use dim light causing no discomfort, drying or damage to the eyes, even if the product is overused. Nevertheless, they also recommended to use FOVE 30 minutes and not recommended to the children younger than 13 years old. However, this recommended time sequence is not only due to infrared light but also because of well known cybersickness which is connected with head mounted displays VR wearables, in general (e.g. Oculus Rift). It must be also mentioned the weight which may cause potential problems with cervical spine.

Public & Media Impact and Presentation

There are considerably large amount of articles about FOVE. It might be said that all of the articles are positive in general. Well-marked advantage, except eye-tracking, is that FOVE is not presented only as a game tool but also as a helper for disabled persons, persons suffers from Asperger syndrome or autism. This market strategy eliminates potential negative aspects such as price. Furthermore, the company itself admitted possible negative aspects and justifying them. Another advantage is the fact that FOVE are the first HMD VR device in mass production which offers controlling strictly by eyes. Taking into consideration that FOVE still might be only pre-order and still the product is not physically available at the market, customers’ reviews are not available, as well.