Varjo

Last updated
Varjo Technologies Oy
Type Private – Oy
Founded2016;7 years ago (2016)
Headquarters
Helsinki
,
Finland
Area served
Worldwide
Website varjo.com

Varjo Technologies Oy, commonly referred to as Varjo, is a Finnish manufacturer of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality headsets. The company was founded in 2016 by former Nokia and Microsoft executives. [1] [2] Varjo specializes in developing high-resolution devices that offer clarity comparable to the human eye. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

The company's first head-mounted display, Varjo VR-1, was launched in February 2019, and it was followed by Varjo VR-2 and VR-2 Pro models in October 2019. [6] [7] Varjo's first mixed reality device, Varjo XR-1 Developer Edition, was released to market in December 2019. [8] The third-generation products, Varjo XR-3 and VR-3, were launched in December 2020. [9] [10] The fourth-generation consumer product Varjo Aero, was released to market in 2021. [11]

Varjo has raised over $100 million in venture capital funding to date. [12]

History

Varjo was founded by four people in 2016 at Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland

Founders

Niko Eiden, a co-founder and Board Member at Varjo. Also, a CEO of Pixieray, Computers and Electronics Manufacturing company that specializes in optics. He studied at Helsinki University of Technology.

Klaus Melakari, co-founder and CTO. He has 20 years of experience in R&D, system design and technology. Previously Head of Computational Vision Systems at Microsoft Mobile, Distinguished architect at Nokia. Klaus holds a M.Sc. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at University of Oulu.

Roope Rainisto, co-founder and Chief Design Officer. He has 15 years of experience in concepting and UX design. He is the Previous principal designer at Microsoft and Nokia, Head of computational vision UX at Microsoft Mobile. He is also an Inventor in 40+ patents. He has a M.Sc. in Technology, Information networks.

Urho Konttori, founder of Varjo. He is a product innovator and program manager who has over 15 years of experience in designing, engineering and managing large-scale hardware and software projects at Microsoft and Nokia. He has been responsible for scouting, evaluating and defining high consumer value innovations such as novel cameras, see-through touch-screen fingerprint and VR headset technologies in more than a dozen mobile products, resulting in over 10 patents. He has also led the development of multiple operating systems, including the Linux-based Nokia N9 and N900 OS. Urho holds a B.Sc. degree in Algorithms.

Funding

Varjo has raised a total of $162.5M in funding over 9 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Sep 6, 2022, from a Series D round. Those who invested in Varjo are Foxconn, EQT Ventures, Volvo, Atomico, Mirabaud, Tesi, Lifeline Ventures, European Bank, Nordic Fund, etc. Varjo's customers include industry leaders such as Aston Martin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Audi, Volvo Cars, Siemens.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual reality</span> Computer-simulated experience

Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment, education and business. Other distinct types of VR-style technology include augmented reality and mixed reality, sometimes referred to as extended reality or XR, although definitions are currently changing due to the nascence of the industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Head-mounted display</span> Type of display device

A head-mounted display (HMD) is a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet, that has a small display optic in front of one or each eye. An HMD has many uses including gaming, aviation, engineering, and medicine. Virtual reality headsets are HMDs combined with IMUs. There is also an optical head-mounted display (OHMD), which is a wearable display that can reflect projected images and allows a user to see through it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metaverse</span> Collective three-dimensional virtual shared space

In science fiction, the "metaverse" is a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal, and immersive virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets. In colloquial usage, a "metaverse" is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social and economic connection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oculus Rift</span> Virtual reality headsets by Oculus VR

Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality industry. It was the first virtual reality headset to provide a realistic experience at an accessible price, utilizing novel technology to increase quality and reduce cost by orders of magnitude compared to earlier systems. The first headset in the line was the Oculus Rift DK1, released on March 28, 2013. The last was the Oculus Rift S, discontinued in April of 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sketchfab</span> 3D modeling platform website

Sketchfab is a 3D modeling platform website to publish, share, discover, buy and sell 3D, VR and AR content. It provides a viewer based on the WebGL and WebXR technologies that allows users to display 3D models on the web, to be viewed on any mobile browser, desktop browser or Virtual Reality headset.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reality Labs</span> Virtual and augmented reality products company

Reality Labs is a business and research unit of Meta Platforms that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon Worlds. In June 2022, several artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives that were previously a part of Meta AI were transitioned to Reality Labs. This also includes Meta's fundamental AI Research laboratory FAIR which is now part of the Reality Labs - Research (RLR) division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magic Leap</span> American augmented reality hardware manufacturer

Magic Leap, Inc. is an American technology company that released a head-mounted augmented reality display, called Magic Leap One, which superimposes 3D computer-generated imagery over real world objects. It is attempting to construct a light-field chip using silicon photonics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meta (augmented reality company)</span> Defunct Silicon Valley company (2012–2019)

Meta was a company that designed augmented reality products. The company was founded by Meron Gribetz in 2012, based on the "Extramissive spatial imaging digital eye glass" technology invented by Gribetz and Mann originally filed with the US Patent and Trademark office Jan 3, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Mixed Reality</span> Mixed reality platform

Windows Mixed Reality is a platform introduced as part of the Windows 10 and 11 operating system, which provides augmented reality and virtual reality experiences with compatible head-mounted displays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HTC Vive</span> Virtual reality headset

VIVE, sometimes referred to as HTC Vive, is a virtual reality brand of HTC Corporation. It consists of hardware like its titular virtual reality headsets and accessories, virtual reality software and services, and initiatives that promote applications of virtual reality in sectors like business, arts, and video gaming.

uSens, Inc. is a Silicon Valley startup founded in 2014 in San Jose, California. The company's core team includes researchers and developers building interactive and immersive computer-vision tracking solutions. The team has extensive experience in artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision, 3D Human–computer interaction (HCI) technology and augmented reality and virtual reality. uSens has been applying computer vision and AI technologies in AR/VR, Automotive and smartphones. 

WebXR Device API is a Web application programming interface (API) that describes support for accessing augmented reality and virtual reality devices, such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Google Cardboard, HoloLens, Magic Leap or Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR), in a web browser. The WebXR Device API and related APIs are standards defined by W3C groups, the Immersive Web Community Group and Immersive Web Working Group. While the Community Group works on the proposals in the incubation period, the Working Group defines the final web specifications to be implemented by the browsers.

A virtual reality headset is a head-mounted device that provides virtual reality for the wearer. VR headsets are widely used with VR video games but they are also used in other applications, including simulators and trainers. VR headsets typically include a stereoscopic display, stereo sound, and sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes for tracking the pose of the user's head to match the orientation of the virtual camera with the user's eye positions in the real world.

OpenXR is an open-source, royalty-free standard for access to virtual reality and augmented reality platforms and devices. It is developed by a working group managed by the Khronos Group consortium. OpenXR was announced by the Khronos Group on February 27, 2017, during GDC 2017. A provisional version of the standard was released on March 18, 2019, to enable developers and implementers to provide feedback on it. On July 29, 2019, OpenXR 1.0 was released to the public by Khronos Group at SIGGRAPH 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual reality game</span> Video game played in virtual reality

A virtual reality game or VR games is a video game played on virtual reality (VR) hardware. Most VR games are based on player immersion, typically through head-mounted display unit or headset with stereoscopic displays and one or more controllers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pimax</span> Chinese virtual reality company

Pimax is a technology company specializing in virtual reality hardware products.

vTime XR Virtual reality and augmented reality social network

vTime XR is a free-to-play virtual reality and augmented reality social network created by British virtual and augmented reality innovation company vTime Limited, developed in Liverpool in the UK. Cross platform, the app allows groups of up to four users to "jump into VR or AR and talk in what is essentially a private chat room. Users can customize an avatar and select a 3D environment to host the chat inside".

The Meta Quest Pro is a mixed reality (MR) headset developed by Reality Labs, a division of Meta Platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Vision Pro</span> Upcoming mixed reality headset by Apple Inc.

Apple Vision Pro is an upcoming mixed-reality headset developed by Apple Inc. It was announced on June 5, 2023, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, with availability scheduled for early 2024 in the United States and later that year internationally. It is Apple's first product in another major category since the Apple Watch in 2015.

References

  1. ↑ Ray, Tiernan (12 August 2019). "Varjo's technology is like a magic leap forward in augmented reality". ZDNet. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  2. ↑ Scott, Stein (19 February 2019). "The best VR display I've ever seen costs only $6,000". CNET. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  3. ↑ Turk, Victoria (18 June 2018). "This virtual reality headset runs at human-eye resolution". Wired UK. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  4. ↑ Sawers, Paul (12 August 2020). "Varjo raises $54 million to bring VR with 'human eye' resolution to more industries". VentureBeat. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  5. ↑ Metz, Rachel (June 19, 2017). "This Startup Is Making Virtual and Augmented Reality So Crisp It Looks Real". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  6. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (15 October 2019). "Varjo unveils high-resolution enterprise VR headsets". VentureBeat. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  7. ↑ Lang, Ben (15 October 2019). "Varjo Launches VR-2 Headset with SteamVR Support, Improved 'Bionic Display', and Hand-tracking Option". Road to VR. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  8. ↑ Stein, Scott (16 December 2019). "Varjo's VR headset could finally be ready to replace TVs and monitors". CNET. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  9. ↑ Robertson, Adi (1 December 2020). "Varjo's dual-resolution VR and AR headsets just got crisper and cheaper". The Verge. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  10. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (1 December 2020). "Varjo launches new generation of human-eye resolution VR headsets". VentureBeat. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  11. ↑ Carbotte, Kevin (21 October 2021). "Varjo Aero Review: What the Future Looks Like". Tom’s Hardware.
  12. ↑ Billing, Mimi (12 August 2020). "Going against the current – VR company Varjo raises $54m". Sifted. Retrieved 4 March 2021.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.