castAR (formerly Technical Illusions) was a

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

–based technology

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...

founded in March 2013 by Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson. Its first product was to be the castAR, a pair of augmented reality and virtual reality glasses. castAR was a founding member of the

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

Immersive Technology Alliance.

History

castAR was founded by two former

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employees; the castAR glasses were born out of work that started inside Valve. While still at Valve, their team had spent over a year working on the project. They obtained legal

ownership Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as '' title'', which may be separated and held by dif ...

of their work after their departure. In August 2015, Playground Global funded $15 million into castAR to build its product and create augmented-reality experiences. In August 2016, Darrell Rodriguez, former President of LucasArts, joined as the new CEO. In addition, Steve Parkis became President and COO, after leading teams at The Walt Disney Company and Zynga. In September 2016, they opened castAR Salt Lake City, a new development studio formed from a team hired out of the former Avalanche Software, which worked on the Disney Infinity series. In October 2016, they announced the acquisition of Eat Sleep Play, the developer best known for Twisted Metal, also in Salt Lake City, UT. In December 2016, Parkis, who had been President and COO, was named CEO to replace Rodriguez. In June 2017, it was reported by

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

that CastAR was shutting down, laying off 70 employees. A core group of administrators was expected to remain, to sell off the company's technology. In September 2019 Jeri Ellsworth initiated a Kickstarter for a new device based on the same principles called Tilt Five. The company uses CastAR technology acquired from the former startup and is founded by CastAR alumni Jeri Ellsworth, Amy Herndon, Jamie Gennis, and Anthony Aquilio

castAR

The castAR glasses combine elements of augmented reality and virtual reality. After winning Educator's and Editor's Choice ribbons at the 2013

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Maker Faire Maker Faire is a convention of do it yourself (DIY) enthusiasts established by '' Make'' magazine in 2006. Participants come from a wide variety of interests, such as robotics, 3D printing, computers, arts and crafts, and hacker culture. Hist ...

, the castAR project was successfully crowdfunded via

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

. castAR surpassed its funding goal two days after the project went live, and raised over $1 million on a $400,000 goal. castAR creates transparent

stereoscopic Stereoscopy, also called stereoscopics or stereo imaging, is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...

images unique to each user by sending an image from tiny projectors on the glasses into the user's surroundings using a technology that Technical Illusions called "Projected Reality". The image bounces off a retro-reflective surface back to the wearer's eyes. castAR can also be used for virtual reality purposes, using its VR clip-on. Before the time of the 2017 company shutdown all

funds had been paid back to the original backers. Along with the repayment, a coupon for a free set of the production AR glasses was given to each backer. This happened at the time of the 2015 Playground Global investment.

References

External links

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Jeri Ellsworth on the demise of CastAR
{{AR and VR Augmented reality Companies based in Palo Alto, California Display technology Eyewear companies of the United States Kickstarter-funded products Video game companies based in Utah Virtual reality companies

History

castAR

See also

References

External links