Varjo (Finland) Augmented Reality Headset for Over $11,000 Is Winning Investors
Helsinki-based Varjo Technologies Oy announced has raised $31 million in a funding round led by Atomico. Other investors in the company include EQT Ventures and Lifeline Ventures, a Helsinki venture fund whose advisers include Ilkka Paananen, the co-founder and CEO of Finnish gaming sensation Supercell Oy.
But Varjo isn’t pitching its product, currently in the prototype stage, to the mass market. It’s aimed at the auto industry, architecture, and the military, rather than the consumer. Both BMW and the U.S. Air Force are among those signed up to test the gear.
Unlike many augmented reality goggles, which have transparent lenses, Varjo’s goggles are completely opaque and look more like virtual reality headsets from companies such as HTC and Oculus. The headset is fitted with ultra high-resolution cameras to capture the outside world, and the goggles also track a user’s eye movements. This lets the headset produce images -- both of the real world and of virtual objects -- in the center of a user’s field of vision, closely mimicking the way the human eye naturally processes light.
See the full story here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-08/augmented-reality-headset-for-over-11-000-is-winning-investors