Virtual gaming company Oculus will get tech, team from Pebbles Interfaces acquisition Credit: Thinkstock Facebook, owner of virtual reality gaming company Oculus, has inked a deal to buy gesture-control and computer-vision company Pebbles Interfaces. Facebook announced that it will add the Israel-based company, its technology and its team to its Oculus team. Pebbles, a five-year-old company, stated on its website that joining Oculus should help the combined team advance immersive user experiences and computer-human interactions. “Through micro-optics and computer vision, we hope to improve the information that can be extracted from optical sensors, which will help take virtual reality to the next level,” said Nadav Grossinger, CTO of Pebbles Interfaces, in a written statement. “We’ve always believed visual computing will be the next major platform in our lifetime, and we’re excited to join the Oculus team to achieve that vision for the future.” Facebook, which has kept a large section of its user base entertained with social games like Farmville and Candy Crush, dove deeper into the gaming world in March 2014 when it bought Oculus. Even though Oculus hadn’t released Rift, its virtual reality headset, yet, Facebook still paid $2 billion for the company. Oculus Rift is designed to give gamers a 100-degree 3D field of view. This past May, Facebook and Oculus bought image recognition company Surreal Vision, which had been focused on recreating real-life scenes inside 3D environments. Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, said he’s intrigued by the Pebbles purchase because the company is known to have some strong gesture-control technology. “This technology appears to offer finite finger control, meaning that it is possible be more precise than using other types of gaming controllers,” he added. “If it does what it says it will, then it would help advance the state of virtual reality. With this, virtual reality users can work with virtual objects with their hands and fingers.” And that goes beyond gaming. “If you had an architect who wanted to work on a house, instead of using a mouse and keyboard, he could use his hands to move in and out of the virtual house, add features and move features,” said Moorhead. “This could help Oculus gain greater levels of acceptance, given it works well and naturally.” Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, said Pebbles’ gesture-control technology fits well with what Oculus is working on. “With hand gestures, they’re much more natural movements,” he added. “Facebook has announced it would sell [gaming] controllers so now users would have a choice. Those who like controllers can use that, or when gesturing makes more sense, now they’ll have that option too.” Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe