Starvr

Acer Cash Cow StarVR announced the cancellation of the current increase

July 28, 2018 04:10 Business Times Wu Yiwen / Taipei Report

The business strategy has changed. For the time being, there is not much money. Acer cash cow StarVR (6681) announced the withdrawal of the cash increase of 540 million yuan (NTD, around USD. 17.63M).

In the first year of 2016, Acer and the Swedish content developer Starbreeze jointly established VR head-mounted display hardware company StarVR Technology, focusing on high-end VR products based on LBE and enterprise vertical application. After breakeven, StarVR has registered on the over-the-counter market in April this year.

In order to meet the working capital requirements, the board of directors of StarVR passed the 6 million shares of cash increase in June. The estimated price is 90 yuan per share(NTD., around USD. 3.13). However, Acer has announced the cancellation of the cash increase case on behalf of StarVR yesterday and has been approved by the financial management committee.

StarVR said that the Location Based Entertainment solution has been adopted by many operators and will focus on the development of the virtual reality high-end commercial market in the short term, so the cash increase of 540 million yuan will be withdrawn.

In the first phase, StarVR cooperated with IMAX, Japanese game maker SEGA and other cinemas and indoor large-scale LBE to build the first IMAX virtual reality experience center in Los Angeles in the United States, and the StarVR experience area in cooperation with the Japanese SEGA game center. Opened at the end of 2017, Dubai's theme park was launched in March this year, while the second phase locked in VR commercial applications, including construction, automotive, military, aerospace, medical, retail and other fields, recently announced with the Japanese VR system The integrator BeRise has jointly launched the "Engineering Stacker VR Simulator" to enable construction workers to receive adequate occupational safety training. The "VR Dynamic Platform" provides a wide viewing angle close to the human eye and realistically presents various stimulating content, as well as the "VR walking device". VR is easy to cause dizziness and improve overall immersion and plans to launch the second generation of StarVR products in August.

(Business Times)

宏碁小金雞 宏星宣布撤銷現增案 經營策略改變，暫時不需要那麼多資金了，宏碁小金雞宏星（6681）宣布撤銷預計募資5.4億元的現金增資案。　宏碁在VR元年的2016年年底，與瑞典內容開發業者Starbreeze合資成立VR頭戴顯示硬體公司宏星科技，主打以遊樂場、企業.....

Combining soft and hardware DNA, StarVR Technology enters high-end VR commercial market

By Zhang Tingyu 2018.05.31

Taiwan's first pure VR company, StarVR, has just got listed on emerging market, as its parent companies are the local computer maker Acer and Swedish game developer Starbreeze. One side is 40 years old Taiwanese hardware company, and on the other side is the 20th European software giant. How can StarVR make use of the power to make a comeback and come out on the high-end VR commercial market?
Entering the StarVR office, apart from seeing Hollywood-authorized games such as "The Mummy" and "John Wick", there is also a 1:1 tailored pistol and orangutan, for virtual reality (VR) content. Armor and racing seats, all sorts of clues can be seen, StarVR is not a simple VR HMD company.

StarVR is a VR service provider jointly invested by Acer, a computer maker in Taiwan, and Starbreeze, a Swedish game developer. It specializes in the commercial market and provides a full set of VR solutions for high-level VR helmets, content design, after-sales service, and even operator training program.

It was established in 2016, saying that it started StarVR six years later than its rival. It is Taiwan's first purely VR business in the capital market IPO (currently listed on emerging market), and it has established the name of VR cooperation with large shopping malls. That's because of its two major stakeholders.

"The two sides have their own strengths." Jane Hsu, StarVR's global marketing director, said that Acer, the founder of hardware manufacturing, knew clearly how to communicate with the factory from design, production to shipment, and assisted in the development of StarVR technology and helmets. Lightweight plays a key role in the process.

For Jane Hsu, StarVR's global marketing director, using VR to help the industry solve problems is what makes her feel the most rewarding. She also hopes that StarVR can use a better experience and technology to bring the VR industry to a higher resolution and broader perspective.
StarVR

This also makes StarVR in the development of nearly six years, is still the only VR HMD with 210 degrees wide viewing angle and 5K high resolution on the market. "The original intention of product design is to be able to get close to the human visual experience." Jane Hsu said, so when other opponents took time to think about how to make VR helmets cheaper and more popular, StarVR focused on research and technology. it is good.

Focused on high-profile and high-customization, StarVR aims at high-end commercial markets from the beginning, and the first wave of applications focuses on entertainment. Since 2017, IMAX VR Experience Center, SEGA Recreation Center with nearly 200 locations throughout Japan, and Dubai VR Indoor Park covering over 2,000 tsubos have been successively introduced; the entire range of services ranging from content, helmets, to personal training, and even Creating a 1:1 prop and moving the game scene to the real world is all about creating an immersive VR experience. Among them, Starbreeze is also very helpful on the content side, including importing good content and giving advice on the VR overall experience and content fluency.

This is only the first step. "The SDK (Software Development Kit) is becoming more and more mature, and more and more industries can be started." Jane Hsu said that after the initial tests in the entertainment market, the outside world began to understand the technical content of StarVR. Prove that the user will pay. This year, StarVR will launch more VR applications in retail exhibitions, engineering design, and training simulations to create a more complete ecosystem.

For StarVR, the demand for high-end commercial VR market has always existed, and customers are not afraid to find customers. In the past, the only technology could not do it. For example, Jane Hsu, in the past, the VR viewing angle was not wide enough, resulting in simulated flight training that was not realistic enough to count into flight training hours. Similarly, because racing drivers rely on the eye to judge the speed, the VR helmets with limited viewing angles were not suitable for training racers.

In the application of automotive processes, StarVR helmets provide high resolution and can see details such as part shape and workmanship, which is expected to replace some of the original expensive and time-consuming model making process. There are hundreds of industrial needs, and as Jane Hsu said: "The business side is afraid that you will not be doing well enough."

On the one hand, StarVR has allowed us to enter the world of virtual worlds. It may take only one second to become a spy; it will be transformed into an orangutan in the next second. For the industry, StarVR helps the industry realize the possibility of reducing costs by replacing the original expensive. And time-consuming process.

"Helping the industry solve problems is the place where I feel most satisfied." Jane Hsu said with eyes brightened. In the face of other players who are also beginning to enter the VR commercial market, StarVR has given its own mission, that is, we hope to use a better experience and technology to take the VR industry to a higher resolution and a broader perspective. Become more valuable.” After creating a broader perspective on VR helmets, StarVR has opened up more imaginations for commercial applications of VR.

Q: The greatest challenge has been encountered since its establishment?
A: In the VR development sharing agreement, everyone started out as consumer-oriented, 110-degree views, so when we used two panels to achieve a 210-degree perspective, they did not consider this situation and could not support it. We have also spent a period of time letting everyone understand the importance of perspective, hoping that the agreement can be more and more abundant and be more wide-angle.

Q: How can helmet technology lead?
A: It took us seven years to study. The optical technology is very important. We also have our own patents on the overall architecture technology and design. Since the first day of this kind of specification, we have seen that the commercial VR market has higher gold content and value.

Q: What kind of VR entertainment experience do you want to bring to your users?
A: Regardless of storytelling or on-site situation creation, it is very important for VR. For example, SEGA will guide the players through storytelling to guide players into the game; the site layout of “Cynical Road” game in Dubai VR amusement park Is abandoned hospitals, blood, body bags and so on.

結合軟、硬大廠DNA，宏星技術進軍高階VR商用市場｜數位時代 台灣第一間純VR公司StarVR剛登錄興櫃，背後母公司為本土電腦大廠宏碁和瑞典遊戲開發商StarBreeze。一邊是40年的台灣老牌企業，一邊是20年的歐洲軟體大廠，StarVR如何借力使力，後發先至，在高階VR商用市場走出自己的路？