Oculus
Oculus VR was an American virtual reality company. Oculus VR created the Oculus Rift.
Oculus VR was founded by Palmer Luckey in July, 2012. The company was later acquired by Facebook for 2 billion dollars in cash and stock.
It was founded in Irvine, California, United States.
Notable personnel included Hugo Barra (CEO), John Carmack (CTO), Michael Abrash (CSO).
Oculus' main office location was previously in Irvine, California and Menlo Park.[1]
Oculus Rift[edit]
- Main article: Oculus Rift
Versions:
History[edit]
2009: Palmer Luckey creates first Oculus Rift prototype.
The Rift was originally called the RIFT.[2]
In 2012, the Oculus Rift gained publicity. In January 2012, Palmer Luckey showcased an Oculus Rift prototype at Sundance Film Festival. In May 2012, Palmer Luckey reached out to John Carmack of id Software and sent him a prototype. In June 2012, an Oculus Rift Prototype was showcased in E3.
In July 2012, the entity Oculus VR was founded by Palmer Luckey and others. In August 2012, a crowd funding campaign for Oculus Rift began on Kickstarter. A DK1 was promised to all backers who contributed at least 300 dollars.
September 1, 2012: Kickstarter campaign for Oculus Rift ended. It raised $2,437,429 out of the initial goal of $250,000 for the company.
September 26, 2012: Oculus Rift DK1 became available for pre-order on Oculus Rift's website.
March 29, 2013: Development Kit 1 (DK1) was released.
July 17, 2013: Oculus VR raised 16 million dollars through Series A round of venture funding led by Sparks Capital and Matrix Partners.
August 7, 2013: John Carmack joined Oculus VR.
December 12, 2013: Oculus VR raised 75 million dollars through Series B round of venture funding led by Andressen Horowitz.
March 19, 2014: Development Kit 2 was announced.
March 25, 2014: Facebook acquired Oculus VR for 2 billion dollars. The deal includes 400 million dollars in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock, valued at 1.6 billion dollars. An additional 300 million dollars are allocated when Facebook reach certain goals.
June 24, 2014: Oculus VR acquired Carbon Design, the company behind the design of Xbox 360 Controller and Kinect.[3]
July, 2014: Development Kit 2 (DK2) was released.
July 7, 2014: Oculus VR acquired RakNet, a cross-platform C++ and C# game networking engine.
December 11, 2014: Oculus VR acquired Nimble VR, the company that developed Nimble Sense, a camera and software combination that accurately tracks hand movements and gestures. It also acquired 13th Lab, a 3D mapping and modeling company.
May 6, 2015: CV1's shipping date is announced as Q1 2016.
May 25, 2015: Oculus VR acquired Surreal Vision, a computer vision startup that focuses on real-time 3D scene reconstruction. One of the startup's main projects is the real-time importation of the 3D environment of the real world into the virtual world.
June 11, 2015: Oculus Touch was revealed in a Pre-E3 press conference.
July 16, 2015: Oculus VR acquired Pebbles Interfaces, a leader in depth sensing technology and computer vision.
September 24, 2015: First consumer version of Samsung Gear VR will be released in November 2015 for $99.
November 20, 2015: First consumer version of Samsung Gear VR is released.
January 6, 2016: Pre-orders for Oculus Rift CV1 begin for $599.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Reality Labs". 2014-03-26. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Labs.
- ↑ The Official Website of Oculus VR, https://web.archive.org/web/20121001060652/http://oculusvr.com/, retrieved 2026-03-08
- ↑ Oculus Acquires Carbon Design, The Team That Designed The Xbox 360 Controller. TechCrunch. June 24, 2014. https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/24/oculus-acquires-carbon-design-the-team-that-designed-the-xbox-360-controller/