Tilt Five Pricing and Kickstarter AnnouncedIn the wake of GenCon, the folks at Tilt Five have announ

Tilt Five Pricing and Kickstarter AnnouncedIn the wake of GenCon, the folks at Tilt Five have announced more details on their Augmented Reality headset including pricing and capability information as well as announcing an impending Kickstarter launch of the gear. If you haven’t heard, Tilt Five is focusing on building an AR headset system that focuses on tabletop experiences. The company was founded by Valve and CastAR alum Jeri Ellsworth. The system consists of a headset and retroreflective mat along with a wand that acts as a controller. Ultimately this means you end up with a personal holographic system that also supports multiplayer (with multiple headsets).Now that you’re a “4cr Certified Tilt Five Expert*” you’re ready for the big news:Tilt Five will be launching a Kickstarter some time in September for the base consumer package which will include glasses, a wand, and the game board. The price will be $299, however there will be discounts available if you’re a member of their newsletter or take advantage of the early bird launch on the Kickstarter. There will likely be a group pack available, but the number of glasses, wands, and full package contents are finalized. In terms of more technical specs, at launch the system will support Android and PC with iOS support on the roadmap for after launch. Unity and Unreal Engine support will be handled through an SDK plug-in for those engines and the team is focusing on ensuring that indie devs who port their games to the Tilt5 system receive fair compensation for their work. The system will connect to mobile, tablet, or PC via a single USB 3.0 connection.The glasses themselves weigh just 90 grams and will ship with multiple nose pieces to support different shaped noses and people who wear corrective lenses. The system uses “inside out” tracking and the glasses have stereo speakers built in which support positional audio. There is also a built in microphone and the system supports long-distance play. The wand is support six degrees of motion and has several buttons, a joystick and a trigger. it can be used as a pointing device, interacting with the game play space and as a simple game controller. The game board is retroreflective. This means that light bounces back to its source, not away at angles relative to the surface of the board. This is the same tech you see in safety stripes on running shoes, motorcycle jackets, and other personal reflective gear. Because the board is a passive surface and reflects back to the source, multiple players can use the same board simultaneously and have completely individual experiences. This could mean playing totally different games, or having a Dungeon Master with a different view of a digital dungeon than players, and each player having a different view of the game world depending on their stats for things like distance of vision or special effects. The game surface also handles occlusion so adding real world objects to the table doesn’t break the holographic display - when the surface is blocked, the visuals aren’t reflected. The board also works with the glasses to support a wide range of focal points to reduce eye strain and allow for longer play sessions without eyestrain. The surface is also very energy efficient in terms of how it handles light reflection so the system can be used anywhere from a dark room to a brightly lit area. Also, retroreflective surfaces aren’t new tech and the materials are broadly available, which has helped keep overall costs down.According to the team, manufacturing is nearly lined up at this point and if you’ve been following Tilt Five on social media you’ve seen the iterations they’ve gone through to keep the weight of the glasses down while designing them to be pretty stylish compared to other wearable tech. After seeing reactions to the system from GenCon attendees I’m really looking forward to what Tilt Five can do. The team will also be at PAX West, so if you’d like to check out the system in person look for them there. Until then keep an eye out here for more details as they become available. -- source link

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