What They Say
Campfire is a new company that has come out of stealth, although the firm is reported to have had its roots in the Meta AR firm which dissolved in 2019. The assets were acquired by a firm that employed Jay Wright, ex-Qualcomm, and reported to have overseen the development of the Vuforia software. It has $8m of backing.
The company has a new headset (created by Frog Design) that has a 92° field of view and weighs 500 gms. A pre-briefed journalist from Forbes.com said “The clarity is equal to that of expensive, high-end industrial HMDS from Varjo and Xtal”. It has developed an ecosystem for engineering design collaboration and can support ‘unlimited’ user numbers.
The system includes a tabletop accessory that is described as ‘acts like a holographic projector’ by Forbes. However, digging a bit deeper revealed that it is actually a kind of centre piece for objects viewed in AR, providing a consistent reference point. An add-on pack for a smartphone converts it to be a controller. A cover can be fitted to the headset for VR use.
You can find a short video here. Some of the shots are said to have been shot through the display. If that’s true, it looks quite impressive.
What We Think
It’s always difficult to judge headsets without trying them. I tried the Meta one in the US. At the time, I was very unimpressed by the attitude of Meta and the way it tried to hype its technology, which looked OK, but not worth the hype. There’s a fair amount of hype still, but Wright seems to have a solid background in the technology and Frog Design has had some high profile clients, so maybe there is something substantial here. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve had a chance to see it myself. (BR)
