Paul Yost, Head of R&D at YEI Technology
Paul Yost, Head of R&D at YEI Technology

After having checked out the first PrioVR prototype the other week, I had a chance to sit down with YEI Technology’s Head of R&D, Paul Yost, to learn more about the VR motion tracking system. Yost talks VR gloves, vests, and Post-Kickstarter plans.

The PrioVR Kickstarter didn’t reach its goal, but the team is committed to making PrioVR a reality (11:51). Yost told me that the end of the Kickstarter is “…certainly not the end of the road for [PrioVR]….” This was YEI Technology’s first attempt at a crowd-funding project and that they learned much from the experience, Yost said. The latest Kickstarter update from the project tells us that they’ll be relaunching:

We also want to assure you that we’re not done. We’re going to take these comments, questions, suggestions, advice, jokes, and criticisms, combine with some beer and pizza, and regroup, reevaluate, and relaunch an even better PrioVR.

Yost told me (13:04) that development on the system is continuing regardless of the Kickstarter’s success and that “…the technology and the idea is too good for us to give up on….” He also mentioned that they were looking to relaunch their PrioVR funding campaign sometime in the Spring of 2014.

PrioVR Prototype Suit
PrioVR Prototype Suit

Yost also talked about using the PrioVR technology for an oft-requested ‘VR glove’ with full finger tracking (15:13).

Actually that’s in our formal development plan as we’re planning on adding a PrioVR-compatible glove; as soon as we get this project up and running, we want to start working on those accessory items, like the glove, and it would be relatively easy. We’ve actually done some finger-tracking with our sensors previously…

There was some confusion regarding what the final PrioVR system would be, likely because YEI demonstrated their prior wireless 3-Space sensor system in their Kickstarter video rather than showing the more suit-like design that PrioVR is aiming for. Yost talks about this at 10:28 and clears up what the final system will look like. I got to see the first prototype PrioVR vest which allows players to get the bulk of the sensors on quickly, rather than strapping them on one-by-one as with 3-Space.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Mageoftheyear

    I’ll admit that there were things about the campaign that confused me. I wasn’t sure if this was meant for devs or gamers (as the demos were not in a chair or Omni I felt that to gamers this would be a disconnect seeing as you most likely don’t want to run into a wall.) Seeing implementations of motion tracking being applied to game mechanics or character animation in an indie dev project would have gone a long way to clearing that up for me.
    It may have also been a rough time to launch, considering the STEM Controller ks started just a week later (nothing to be done about that though, just bad luck.)

    I am very glad YEI is not giving up though, kudos to them.

  • Ryan

    I think something like this will eventually be great. They may be too early. They also need an Oculus demo that trusted people can try and say “this is awesome”. That is how you get people to pledge.

    I think latency is pronounce lay-ten-c.

  • Rob

    Ah, great they proceed !

    About the gloves and some sort of haptic feedback
    To me these seems very important, in combination with the nice vests

    It would help the second KS campaign if these are combined from the start
    Maybe as 2 stretch goals

    These combinations will generate a lot of interests

    Yes, I understand it’s a lot of extra work
    For sure it would give instant traction to the KS campaign

    Very glad you don’t gave up, succes