Occulus Acquires Surreal Vision, 3D Mapping Firm

Virtual reality company Oculus has acquired Surreal Vision, a UK company whose software can map and recreate the real world in a virtual one.

Surreal Vision, a company that focuses on real-time 3D scene reconstruction for Augmented Reality. This acquisition will help Oculus foray into mixed reality which combines live, real-world content with virtualized additions, as is perhaps most notably demonstrated by Microsoft's HoloLens project.

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"For virtual reality, the accuracy and quality of the continuously updating 3D reconstruction must be near flawless, which is a requirement almost no other modern computer vision problem faces," the statement says. "When we cross these seminal thresholds, users will perceive the virtual world as truly real-and that is the experience we're driving toward."

The Surreal Vision team includes three founders who are PhDs With the software Surreal Vision has been working with, Oculus will be able to take on groups like Microsoft's HoloLens and Google's Project Tango. Just a quick reminder that Oculus was acquired by Facebook in March last year.

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In related news, earlier this month the relatively steep Oculus Rift system requirements were revealed. The headset may run on a lower-spec system, but Oculus Rift Technical Director Atman Binstock said effective virtual reality is all about "comfortable, sustained presence," which an underperforming system won't be able to provide.