21st Century Fox and Osterhout Design Group today announced a preliminary agreement for 21st Century Fox to acquire a minority stake in ODG, a leading augmented virtual reality and smart glasses designer.
Pending the completion of final agreements, 21st Century Fox will become the principal outside investor in ODG. In addition, the two companies plan to enter into a strategic partnership that brings together ODG’s revolutionary technologies with 21st Century Fox’s industry leading content and storytelling.
ODG is further cementing its leadership in the Smartglasses arena as it moves into immersive experiences for entertainment with the introduction of its high-definition, cinema-wide field of view technology which it is demonstrating at CES 2016.
“The power of virtual and augmented reality enables us to deliver on our longstanding commitment to bring audiences exciting new creative experiences fueled by next generation technologies,” Jim Gianopulos, Chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox Film said.
“Our agreement with ODG underscores the innovation we are bringing to market through our Fox Innovation Lab, most recently with VR experiences for ‘The Martian’ and ‘Wild,’” he added. “We look forward to partnering with ODG and serving as its lead outside investor as the ODG team pushes the film experience into the future with its high-definition, cinema-wide field of view technology.”
“We’re excited to have 21st Century Fox join our family and help extend our considerable leadership in AR head-worn computing,” Ralph Osterhout, CEO of ODG said. “This space is ultimately heading towards widespread consumer adoption and by having 21st Century Fox onboard, we’ll be able to deliver immersive and interactive entertainment experiences that transform how users consume content.”
ODG’s current smartglasses, the R-7, feature ultra-transparent 3D stereoscopic displays and offer innovative technologies in a small, light and sleek design. The R-7 requires no external computing and delivers a quality user experience of display clarity, on-board processing power and system accuracy.