While no figure has officially been put on this acquisition, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that Facebook will pay in the region of $60 million, citing “people familiar with the matter”. Founded in 2010, Pebbles is based in Kfar Saba, Israel.
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Thomson ReutersThe sign outside the Oculus VR booth is seen at the global Consumer Electronics show (CES) in Las VegasTEL AVIV (Reuters) – Facebook’s Oculus unit said on Thursday it has agreed to buy Israeli gesture recognition technology developer Pebbles Interfaces for an undisclosed amount.
Pebbles has recently integrated its technology into the virtual-reality headset developed by Facebook’s Oculus VR, enabling users to interact with the device via hand and finger gestures.
Take a look at some of Pebbles’ astonishing work in the video below.
Pebbles Interfaces is joining the Oculus team in order to help further hardware engineering and advance virtual reality, tracking, and human to computer interactions in the virtual world.
“At Pebbles Interfaces, we’ve been focused on pushing the limits of digital sensing technology to accelerate the future of human-computer interaction”, said Nadav Grossinger, CTO of Pebbles Interfaces.
Following a $450,000 seed round raised in 2011, Pebbles Interfaces closed a chunky $11 million round in 2013, which included big-name investors such as SanDisk. That’s when much-buzzed VR systems like Facebook’s Oculus Rift, Sony’s Project Morpheus and Microsoft’s Hololens are set to reach store shelves.
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This would allow people who are using the Oculus Rift to see an image of their own hands in the display of the virtual reality headset.
