Positron, a Los Angeles-based VR technology studio, announced at Sundance that it closed a $1.4 million seed funding deal to further develop the next generation of the company’s VR motion chair, Voyager. Funding was provided by Lazar Ventures co-founders Cathleen Ihasz and Nicole Ihasz, and OWC.

Voyager was used at Sundance 2018 to debut the world premiere of Felix & Paul Studios’ space-themed VR experience made in collaboration with NASA, Space Explorers: A New Dawn. An earlier prototype of the chair premiered at last year’s Sundance, and was later used in The Mummy Zero Gravity Stunt Experience with Tom Cruise.

the 2017 prototype of Voyager, image courtesy Positron

Positron says on their website that the Voyager VR chair platform has a full range of yaw motion (360 degree turning) with 35 degrees of pitch motion (reclining). The chair also contains a built-in PC with GTX 1070 GPU to drive the experience. As seen at Sundance, the viewing experience can be synchronized across a number of Voyager chairs for ‘communal’ viewing.

Jennifer Rundell, Positron COO and co-founder, says the investment will allow the company to further develop their  Voyager platform “to include state-of-the-art features such as interactivity, 6 DoF tracking, scent, wind, and AI motion tracking.”

The company says Voyager VR chairs will be coming to cinemas, VR centers, hotels, museums and airports later this year as part of the launch of the Voyager Network, an out-of-home distribution network for premium VR.

 

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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.
  • Xron

    Now we need Vr capsule, like in a Lit Rpg book, AlterWorld (Play to Live, #1) by D. Rus

  • NooYawker

    I saw something like this in a mall in NJ. Kids sit in it and put on VR headset and there’s two controls and the chair spins and moves around.

  • Matias Nassi

    I’m wondering what is he referring with 6DOF… Are not these types of chairs supposed to just rotate (yaw and a little pitch)?

    • Luke Miller

      I’m guessing tracking sensors on the chair so the headset can be tracked without having to place external sensors.

      • Yeah maybe, at least makes more sense. In that case they will have a lot of work to do to synchronize the chair movements with the varying position of the sensor and headset with an acceptable latency I guess…

    • Jean-Sebastien Perron

      6DOF motion is Yaw, Pitch, Roll, Up/Down, Left/Right and Forward/Backward.

  • gothicvillas

    i am not sure about the chair design.. i have similar racing chair from Next Level and the weird enclosure of the chair limits my head movements. I keep bumping headset when i lean on either side. I am now shopping for a new chair which has only back rest but not the silly side enclosure. Looking at the image above, i cant help but think of the same issue.