Bold claims are being made against Meta by someone claiming to represent PhaseSpace Motion Capture. Did Meta's AR glasses design breach an NDA?
by Augmentl, February 21st 2016
Someone claiming to represent a company called PhaseSpace Motion Capture has accused AR manufacturer Meta of breaching an NDA and stealing the design for their AR Head Mounted Display.
UPDATE: Someone from PhaseSpace.com has contacted us with further details, at the bottom of the post.
The accusation was, somewhat unusually, made in a Facebook comment linked to an article covering Meta's recent unveiling at TED of their latest AR development kit. The comment appears to have been posted by PhaseSpace Motion Capture's official Facebook account.
"The Design was done by PhaseSpace MotionCapture and has up to 110 degree FOV with 75 degree horizontal and 45 degree vertical. It uses a beam splitter designed for the US Navy. Meta does not have permission to use the design and is violating a NDA." - PhaseSpace Motion Capture
The comment was followed by a promise to showcase the original design that Meta supposedly appropriated at an SVFR event in San Francisco, but since the event took place yesterday we have so far been unable to track down news or discussions of any such demonstration.
"We will be showing the technology that Meta has stolen at SFVR tomorrow in San Francisco for anyone who's already signed up." - PhaseSpace Motion Capture
PhaseSpace was indeed present at the event, but ostensibly only to demo a motion capture technology for VR and multiplayer GearVR experiences.
PhaseSpace Motion Capture went further to describe some of the specifications of the supposed stolen design, a detail which Meta themselves have so far kept under wraps:
"The design that they stole this from has an FOV that can be 110 for both eyes or 75 x 45" - PhaseSpace Motion Capture
There is currently no evidence to support PhaseSpace's accusations, and the method and venue of said accusations raise some questions as to their seriousness. If Indeed Meta did breach an NDA as PhaseSpace claim, the company could be in no small amount of legal trouble - and a potential lawsuit could threaten the company's thus far successful funding run.
Conversely, by making their accusations public PhaseSpace Motion Capture have put themselves in a precarious legal position - they may now be forced to provide evidence of their claims, or risk more than just their reputation.
UPDATE FOLLOWS
We received an email from a Phasespace.com email address, shown here in full (the name has been redacted):
--- email begins
Fwd: Re: SFVR - UploadVR comment request
at 4:30 PM From xxxxx@phasespace.com:
We have pictures of several other Meta employees testing it out. They later purchased a PhaseSpace system and we were lead to believe they interested in licensing our technology. Obviously we were mistaken.
Until they sell units there are no damages, and we've shown the system at many public venues such as
We were talking to Meta and they even purchased a PhaseSpace system, and discussed the HMD design. So feel free to send someone over to try it out.
Claiming to have invented something is a crime only publishable by embarrassment.
[Name redacted]
--- email ends
The image included in the email (name StanfordDemo) purports to show Meta CEO Meron Gribetz at the Stanford VR conference in February 2015 year testing the SmokeVR HMD, which PhaseSpace Motion Capture claim to be the basis for Meta's own hardware design. More images from the conference can be found here.
If PhaseSpace Motion Capture's claims are to be taken literally, it would mean that Meta pivoted away from their earlier, Aviator-style design after testing the SmokeVR HMD. It would also appear that PhaseSpace Motion Capture is reserving the right to pursue damages once Meta starts selling the devices.
We will continue to update this story as and if it develops. If anyone from the companies involved would like to respond, please feel free to get in touch.