Tokyo-based FOVE, the creators of the VR headset that you can control with just your eyes, has partnered with TechnoBlood to provide headsets for free to internet cafes in Japan and South Korea.
FOVE VR headsets combine eye tracking technology with head orientation tracking and positional tracking, letting you interact and navigate in virtual reality with just natural eye movement. Using eyes as an input device can not only help minimize motion sickness and increases comfort, but can enable non-verbal human communication like eye-contact within social settings.
FOVE and TechnoBlood will collaborate with N Media Platform Co., LTD, who provide internet cafe management solutions in South Korea. The partnership opens the doors to potentially reach about 25,000,000 users monthly, spanning over 7,000 internet cafes in Japan and Korea.
Both TechnoBlood and N Media Platform are key components to distributing not only the VR headsets into internet cafes, but all ensure a cohesive platform on computers with the most up to date content. TechnoBlood is the provider of ProVision, a content distribution software that is used on over 90% of internet cafes in Japan. The companies will also be working with a number of venture firms to actively fund content development for FOVE, which include the Colopl VR Fund, Tokyo VR Startups Inc., Cyber Agent Ventures Korea and East Gate Partners.
The VR push, being dubbed the “Virtual Gate Project,” will also have the green-light from NVIDIA and AMD to provide graphics cards, such as the GeForce GTX VR Ready and the Radeon series with Liquid VR technology, to further strengthen hardware deployment.
The challenge with rolling out a scalable VR solution to internet cafes across both countries is ensuring high spec computers with the latest VR content and support staff for headset usage is all in place. Considering all the partnerships that have been lined up, we could see more accessible VR to consumers in Japan and South Korea very soon.FOVE Bringing VR Headsets to Internet Cafes Across Japan and South Korea
