Pico Interactive, the Beijing-based standalone VR headset manufacturer, successfully completed a ¥167.5 million RMB (~$24.7 million) Series A funding round. To accompany the news, Pico also announced their second iteration of their Goblin standalone headset, dubbed G2.

As reported by Yivian, Pico Interactive’s financing was co-led by GF Qianhe and GF Xinde Investment, with additional participation from Jufeng S&T Venture Investment and others.

“Pico will keep focusing on all-in-one VR and will also increase its investment in 3D sensing (TOF) and AR technologies in the near future,” Pico CEO Henry Zhou said. “In the future, Pico hopes to become a portal-level AI vision company through the layout of VR+AR+TOF technology and products.”

Pico’s first standalone headset, the Neo DK, was first launched in 2016 based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 platform. The company later introduced the Snapdragon 802-based Pico Goblin last summer, which included a 3DOF controller. Near the end of 2017, the company then launched Pico Neo with both 6DOF head tracking and 6DOF controllers, accomplished by ultrasonics.

Working with HTC, the Pico provides app store access to both its own Pico Store as well as HTC’s multiplatform Vive Wave-based Viveport mobile store.

Now the company has announced the latest iteration of its Goblin headset, which includes a higher resolution display and reduced overall weight in comparison to its 2017-era forerunner.

Image courtesy Pico Interactive

According to a company statement, Pico’s G2 headset is a 3DOF headset built on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 XR platform with 4+64GB of memory with up to 256GB of micro-SD card expansion. The G2 is also said to feature dual ‘fast response’ LCD screens with a total of 2,880 × 1,600 resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a 101 degree field of view (FOV). The front of the headset includes a monocular RGB camera, allowing for pass-through viewing and hand gesture inputs for menu selections. Like many standalone headsets, G2 will come with a single 3DOF controller.

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The headset hasn’t hit Western shores yet, although China-based customers can now order the G2 at ¥2,000 RMB (~$290).

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Downvote King

    I wonder how long it will be before these entry level standalone units are 6DOF with 6DOF controllers…

    • Sponge Bob

      “entry level” ???

      Can you name a SINGLE high level standalone VR headset with 6DoF and 6DoF controller ???

      The real product on shelf at e.g. BestBuy or on Amazon, not some consumer show gimmicks for lemmings

      • Downvote King

        I mean, the same company that make this also makes the Pico Neo that’s standalone with 6DOF and 6DOF controllers; it’s sold out at the moment but Pico is usually available on Amazon.

        That’s not at all the point though. I’m sure we’ll see them coming more and more, especially after Santa Cruz or whatever it ends up being called is released. The question is how long it will be before these entry level standalone units are 6DOF with 6DOF controllers. That’s when we will see VR break into the mainstream.

        • R FC

          It’s down to the soc unit cost dropping over time. Snapdragon 845 VR has support for 6DOF controllers and SLAM. Won’t be long….

          • Downvote King

            Isn’t tracking the controllers more of an issue than the processing required to calculate position?

          • Sponge Bob

            controller tracking is much more of an issue than processing power required

          • Sponge Bob

            BS

            soc has nothing to do with controller tracking

            NOTHING

          • R FC

            Of course the SOC is relevant, what do you think is doing the compute function for tracking those controller? Mobile SOC are very budget limited and every process impact performance, especially computer vision.

            You can technically compute 6DOF controller tracking on 820 and 835 but there isn’t enough overhead for the OS, runtime, application and controller tracking; apart from simple test application, nothing that would be commercial release.

        • Sponge Bob

          “sold out at the moment” is the key

          Do you know anyone who bought this before it was “sold out” ?

          I don’t think so

          Santa Cruz….

          Another gimmick from greedy corp execs for lemming

          Just like Magic Leap

          The truth is this stuff is hard to make and no greed in the world can make it easier

          • Downvote King

            To my understanding, yes Pico shipped some Neos. There’s a number of unboxing and playtest videos on Youtube as well. They never do seem to make many of anything for very long before moving onto the next though. There’s a bit of beta testing on the general public going on perhaps. They iterate very quickly, so I suppose it’s working to an extent. This is still not my point at all. The question is when this technology will be common, not if it is now.

    • dk

      https://youtu.be/MvMMA_WaV7c here u go …..it will be entry level price when it’s second hand :P

      • Downvote King

        Looks to work well. Still interesting we’re not seeing it in many released products. This is really just duct taping two things together.

        • dk

          not quite like using a phone and nolovr and steamvr …but sort of

  • sebrk

    We had a Pico device (don’t remember which one) at work once. It was absolutely horrible in comparison to Rift and Vive. Hopefully this will be better.

    • JJ

      do you mean the go and the focus?? because its a standalone unit and compared to oculus’s and vives standalone which are the go and focus it compares pretty well. but if youre comparing this standalone experience to tethered pc experiences you”re comparing oranges to tangerines.

      • sebrk

        Actually I must be wrong here. The device we had was probably NOT Pico as I cannot find it on their site. It was tethered, it was from China and it was SteamVR with a short name (like Pico). Has Pico never released a tethered device? Somehow I remembered it to be Pico, weird.

        • Downvote King

          I think Pico did make wired headsets for a short bit when they first started releasing product.

  • Interesting, but I think that here in the west, the Oculus Go will continue be the king in the 3DOF sector

  • Kenji Fujimori

    More Chinese garbage invading the world..
    Where is the investments in US and Japanese VR??
    Why should we allow these communists to sell their junk that damages the eyes abroad? I used their shit device recently, its SHIT

  • Kenji Fujimori

    The only tracking on it, is tracking and stealing fools money

  • Kenji Fujimori

    Shito why support this communist shit hole?

  • Kenji Fujimori

    Support AMERICAN AND JAPANESE

  • Kenji Fujimori

    DONT BUY CHINESE TECH, OR THEYLL DOMINATE VR EVENTUALLY