A startup says it will sell 6DoF tracked VR controllers for Apple Vision Pro called Surreal Touch.
Surreal Interactive was founded by Zhenfei Yang, who has eight years of experience with SLAM computer vision technology and tells UploadVR he formerly led DJI’s entire robot computer vision group. Yang says his team at Surreal includes former Alphabet engineers who worked on Google Glass, Google Maps, and the Waymo self-driving car project.
Apple Vision Pro’s gaze-and-pinch interaction system can feel like telekinesis at times, and makes watching media and simple interactivity a breeze. But the lack of tracked controllers makes it unsuitable for many kinds of games and experiences playable on other headsets.
Surreal Touch is a self-tracking controller designed to solve this problem. The startup claims less than 10mm accuracy in positioning. It describes this as “unparalleled tracking”, an odd claim given Meta and Valve targeted less than 1mm for their VR controllers.Touch Pro controllersvisionOS simulator screenshot of Surreal Link
Surreal Touch is designed to be used either standalone on Apple Vision Pro using the startup’s upcoming SDK or for PC VR via the startup’s visionOS app Surreal Link, a fork of the
port. This is interesting, since Apple Vision Pro displays do not support 120Hz. Surreal has posted two demonstration videos on their YouTube channel showing the controllers being used with Apple Vision Pro for Beat Saber and open-source ALVR via a local gaming PC.Open Brushhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrnUIIdrMqE
Yang tells UploadVR that Surreal plans to open preorders next month, August, at which time the price will be revealed. He says that his team “is confident in our abilities” to deliver Surreal Touch quickly. It’s easy to build a prototype, but it is much harder to produce it on schedule and with the quality you want. Surreal’s success could allow Apple Vision Pro headsets and future Vision headsets to be used by PC VR users and enable new categories of visionOS applications.