Products castAR Founded 2013 | Website castar.com Number of employees 70 | |
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Key people Jeri Ellsworth, president and co-founderRick Johnson, co-founderDarrell Rodriguez, CEOSteve Parkis, President and COO CEO Darrell Rodriguez (Aug 2016–) Founders Jeri Ellsworth, Rick Johnson | ||
Castar 3d gaming technology that doesn t suck
castAR (formerly Technical Illusions) is a Palo Alto-based technology startup company founded in March 2013 by Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson. Its first product, still in development, is the castAR, a pair of augmented reality and virtual reality glasses. castAR is a founding member of the nonprofit Immersive Technology Alliance.
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History
castAR was founded by two former Valve Corporation employees; the castAR glasses were born out of work that started inside Valve. While still at Valve, their team had spent over a year working on the project. They obtained legal ownership of their work after their departure.
In August 2015, Playground Global funded $15M into castAR to build its product and create mixed-reality experiences. In August 2016, Darrell Rodriguez, former President of LucasArts, joined as the new CEO. In addition, Steve Parkis, became President and COO, after leading teams at The Walt Disney Company and Zynga. In September 2016, they opened castAR Salt Lake City, a new development studio formed from a team hired out of the former Avalanche Software, which worked on the Disney Infinity series. In October, they announced the acquisition of Eat Sleep Play, the developer best known for Twisted Metal, also in Salt Lake City UT.
castAR
The castAR glasses combine elements of augmented reality and virtual reality. After winning Educator's and Editor's Choice ribbons at the 2013 Bay Area Maker Faire, the castAR project was successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter. castAR surpassed its funding goal two days after the project went live and raised over $1 million on a $400,000 goal. castAR creates hologram-like images unique to each user by projecting an image into the user's surroundings using a technology that Technical Illusions calls "Projected Reality". The image bounces off a retro-reflective surface back to the wearer's eyes. castAR can also be used for virtual reality purposes, using its VR clip-on.