Wireless VR headset Impression Pi showcases improved features including AR position tracking and 3D gesture recognition as its Kickstarter campaign soars past funding goal
San Jose and Beijing – April 29, 2015 – Silicon Valley-based startup uSens has unveiled the next milestone in the Kickstarter-funded development of its consumer-level virtual reality/augmented reality product, Impression Pi. The tech company has unveiled new proof-of-concept video showing the technical progress of the product’s latest version, showing off the product’s rendering of a fully 3D augmented reality (AR) environment with position tracking support, 3D gesture recognition, and completely wireless, smart-phone-powered hand recognition for virtual reality (VR).
Impression Pi will be a consumer-level product that will offer VR combined with AR in compact, portable and totally wireless form. The company’s new video shows hi-resolution demonstrations of the product running a live, wide-angle 3D field of butterflies (creating a hologram-like viewing effect) in their own augmented reality environment with full position tracking. It also shows a hi-res demo of 3D gesture recognition in “moon walk” setting that demonstrates the precision and responsiveness of the hardware’s ability to recognize hand movements. The video also includes a demo of the product’s completely wireless hand-tracking, powered by a smartphone; an updated look at the latest hardware design and an inside-out “dancing man” position-tracking demo displaying a VR scene from multiple angles.
With technology enthusiasts and developers from around the globe in attendance, uSens also impressed crowds during Unity3D’s annual conference Unite in Beijing last weekend, with its newest product in development, Impression Pi. During the conference, the Impression Pi team showcased the product to executives such as Criffin CEO and Founder Peeter Nieler, who stated “Your position tracking is very good… it’s cool. It’s amazing,” and 7 Sense Lab CEO Raj Sodhi, who said, “…Very interesting AR capabilities. We are focusing on STEM learning… I can see ways where kids can get more description, more ideas of a specific planet’s surface by using the AR capabilities that Impression Pi has incorporated.”
In addition to its presence at Unite in Beijing, Impression Pi also was in attendance at several notable industry tradeshows and conferences this year, such as the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and Inno 3D Expo in Shenzhen, China, where uSens demonstrated the product to such luminaries as China’s vice premiere Ma Kai. uSens will also be participating on a panel at Digital Hollywood on Thursday, April 30 in Marina Del Rey, Calif. to discuss virtual reality in gaming and beyond.
“As a part of our mission to bring virtual and augmented reality to a broader consumer market, attending tradeshows and industry events is crucial for us to gain important consumer feedback and improve our final product,” said uSens CEO and Co-Founder Anli He. “Our presence in the event space for virtual reality and technology speaks to our hands-on approach for Impression Pi and gives us the opportunity to put our exciting tech into the hands of real people worldwide.”
Impression Pi’s Kickstarter campaign will close funding at 11:58 p.m. PDT, Wednesday, May 6. The crowd funding campaign has already surpassed its goal by more than 300 percent. Interested backers for Impression Pi can visit the official Kickstarter page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/impressionpi/impression-mobile-vr-ar-with-gesture-position-trac
Impression Pi is scheduled to be released to market for the 2015 Holiday season. For additional information on Impression Pi and uSens, visit: www.usens.com.
About uSens Inc.
Since its founding in 2013, uSens has been dedicated to changing the way people interact with the virtual world. With our Fingo and Fingo Virtual Touch products, we’ve developed considerable expertise in gesture recognition technology. We’ve applied this expertise and our team’s considerable experience in computer vision technology to create significant advancements in the virtual reality field with Impression Pi. uSens currently operates from locations in California and Hangzhou, China.