The Pico Goblin 2 is the new autonomous VR helmet from the Chinese manufacturer Pico, which specializes in all-in-one helmets. With $24 million in donations and a huge popularity in the Chinese market, Pico seems determined to make Oculus, HTC or Google tremble.
Beijing-based Chinese helmet manufacturer Pico Interactive announces that it has raised 167.5 million yuan (about $24.7 million) in a Series A fundraiser. According to the YiVian website, the two main investors are GF Qianhe and GF Xinde Investment. Other investors, including Jufeng S&T, also participated.
With these funds, Pico will continue to compete against major suppliers such as Oculus, HTC, and Google in the all-in-one motorhome helmet market. CEO Henry Zhou also said the company intends to increase its investment in the 3D capture and augmented reality technologies. One of Pico’s projects is to become a company specialized in artificial intelligence by combining VR, AR and 3D TOF technologies, and products.
A reminder: Pico launched its first autonomous helmet Neo-DK in 2016. This VR helmet is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip. In the summer of 2017, the Chinese company launched the Pico Goblin with a 3DOF motion detector. At the end of 2017, the manufacturer launched the Pico Neo: the first autonomous VR helmet that offers both 6DOF head tracking and 6DOF controllers based on ultrasound.
Knowing that the Oculus Go or HTC Vive Focus controllers only offer 3DOF freedom of movement, the Pico Neo was already one step ahead of the market for autonomous VR helmets. Parallel to this fundraiser, Pico is now announcing the Pico Goblin 2.
This new all-in-one VR helmet features higher screen resolution and lower weight than the first goblin. This is a headset with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 XR chip and 4GB of RAM. Its “highly reactive” LCD displays offer a total resolution of 2880×1600 at a refresh rate of 75Hz and an FOV of 101 degrees.
Pico Goblin 2: higher screen resolution than Oculus Go
In comparison, the first Pico Goblin was satisfied with a resolution of 2560×1440, a refresh rate of 70Hz and a field of view of 92 degrees. The Oculus Go also offers a resolution of 2560 x 1440, a frame rate of 72 Hz and a FOV of 101 degrees.
On the front is an RGB camera that allows interaction via gesture control. The internal memory is 64 GB and can be expanded to 256 GB via a microSD card. Like the previous Pico helmets, this new model will be compatible with Pico Store applications, but also with those of the HTC Vive Wave Store (thanks to a partnership with HTC).
Unlike the Pico Neo, this new device will be satisfied with 3DOF head tracking and a 3DOF controller. Like its competitors, the Chinese have probably decided to limit themselves to 3DOF for its Goblin series and reserve the 6DOF for its Neo series.
Chinese consumers can now order the Pico G2 for 2000 yuan or about 290 dollars. A price similar to that of the first goblin and significantly lower than that of Pico Neo (750 dollars). We currently do not know whether the device is marketed in our countries.