Joystiq

Engadget goes hands-on with ex-Valve engineer's AR glasses

Mike Suszek — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:30:00 EST

When Valve let up to 25 hardware development staff go in February, Jeri Ellsworth was one of them, and she was working on a pair of 3D augmented-reality glasses at the time called Cast AR. Ellsworth continued work on them with her new company, Technical Illusions, and recently let our friends at Engadget take them out for a spin at the Maker Faire 2013 event in San Mateo, CA.

Cast AR is described as a "projected augmented reality system" on the company's site. Ellsworth said she plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign later in the year to fund the project, with the goal of each kit adding up to less than $200 for buyers. The site notes plans to include a development kit with each pair.

Engadget goes hands-on with ex-Valve engineer's AR glasses originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 19 May 2013 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Valve fires dozens of hardware, Android staff [Update 2]

Jessica Conditt — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:20:00 EST

Valve let go "several" employees on Tuesday, Gamasutra reported, following a tweet from hardware designer Jeri Ellsworth that read, "Yup. Got fired today. Time for new exciting projects."

Initial reports from employees included the phrases "great cleansing" and "large decisions," and a few claimed as many as 25 people were affected, though this number is unconfirmed, Gamasutra reported. The layoffs hit more than one department, including Android and hardware staff.

Ellsworth, at least, confirmed her own firing. She began working on next-gen gaming hardware at Valve, specifically living room PC controllers, in 2012. Ellsworth was concerned with transforming keyboard and mouse controls to a gamepad in a way that wouldn't interfere with current Steam game designs, or turn off those more comfortable with a traditional controller.

Valve's recent focus has been on the Steam Box, a hardware system that allows PC streaming and gaming on living room TVs. Ellsworth worked on controller prototypes alongside the launch of Big Picture Mode, a Steam interface designed for controller navigation.

We've contacted Valve for more information about the layoffs.

Update: Develop reports that Valve's Director of Business Development, Jason Holtman, left the company. Valve has yet to respond to requests for comment.

Update 2: Valve's employee page changed significantly sometime in the past month, as demonstrated by this comparison from Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman. There are eight names gone in the latest version: TF2 art lead Moby Francke, former Weta man Keith Huggins, Half-Life 2 programmer Tom Leonard, Portal team member Realm Lovejoy, Half-Life man Marc Nagel, ex-Lord of the Rings animator Bay Raitt, engine programmer Elan Ruskin, and Jason Holtman, mentioned above.

Report: Valve fires dozens of hardware, Android staff [Update 2] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Valve hardware to go into beta next year

JC Fletcher — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:30:00 EST

Valve in-house hardware hacker Jeri Ellsworth told Engadget that she hopes to hold an external beta test, tied to Steam, for the company's first hardware product next year. Internal beta tests within Valve are already ongoing.

She wasn't clear on what the device would be, but the stated goal is "to make Steam games more fun to play in your living room." The new hardware is some kind of input method to improve playability of PC games using Big Picture Mode. It could be a controller, or it could be some kind of keyboard/mouse combination.

Or it could be maracas. Maracas have proven perfect for every game we've tried them with, including Samba De Amigo, and ...

First Valve hardware to go into beta next year originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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