News Bits: Palmer Luckey Wins at the 2014 World Technology Awards

Oculus has caused a stir in the technology world, a statement riddled with understatement perhaps. The company and it’s founder Palmer Luckey have walked away with countless industry awards since the appearance of it’s Oculus Rift DK1 in late 2012. Now, the company can add one more to it’s trophy cabinet, the World Technology Awards for Entertainment.

The WTAs were established almost 15 years ago with the aim of recognising pioneering achievements in the world of technology. Run by the World Technology Network consortium, the awards’ sphere of interest encompasses everything from Bio-engineering to Industrial Design and has become a prestigious event in the technology world. The organisation comprises more than 1000 members and aims to provide a platform for technologists to “amplify” their achievements.

Palmer Luckey was awarded the World Technology Award for Entertainment as recognition for his work inventing the Oculus Rift and founding the company that has arguably caused the seismic shift in interest in virtual reality that we’re now seeing. The company shipped more than 60,000 DK1 before winding down production in March in preparation for shipping it’s most recent publicly available headset the DK2.

Past winners includes Bram Cohen of BitTorrent fame in 2005, founders of YouTube Chad Hurley and Steve Chen in 2006, Kati London, Director of Zynga in 2011.