Oculus acquires Pebbles to bring hands into the mix

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Facebook-owned Oculus VR has purchased Pebbles Interfaces, an Israeli company that develops gesture-control and motion-sensor technology.

The “Wall Street Journal” reports that Facebook has agreed to pay $60 million for Pebbles Interfaces, making it the company’s fourth acquisition in Israel.

The entrepreneurs behind Pebbles Interfaces, which is based in Kfar Saba, are CEO Emil Alon and CTO Nadav Grossinger.

It also claims to have no latency, which would be a major boost for Oculus and its virtual reality (VR) headset, expected to launch to the public in 2016. At the same time, we’ve seen virtual reality make huge strides, changing the way people interact with one another.

Today Oculus has announced via their blog that Pebbles Interfaces, a company who is known for depth sensing technology and leading computer vision, is joining the Oculus team.

But perhaps I overlooked a very obvious hint, because in the foreground of the video, you can see a man using Oculus Rift goggles.

As part of the acquisition, the terms of which are being kept secret, Pebbles will join Oculus’ hardware engineering and computer visions teams to create new solutions for VR and human-computer interactions.

“At Pebbles Interfaces, we’ve been focused on pushing the limits of digital sensing technology to accelerate the future of human-computer interaction”, he said.

Recently Pebbles integrated its technology with Oculus glasses, which translate finger gestures into virtual movement through a camera mounted on the glass frame, Calcalist said. Thank you to our partners, employees and investors for your support as we’ve grown.