Oculus Acquires InfiniLED

Oculus, the virtual-reality company owned by Facebook, acquired Irish startup InfiniLED, according to a report (October 14) by The Irish Times. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

InfiniLED specializes in a technology called Inorganic LED Display, a variant of traditional LED technology that displays light when it absorbs an electrical current. An MIT Technology Review article describes the display technology as being “bright and longlasting” but costly to manufacture, thus it’s used in only a few products like the electronic billboard displays in sports stadiums.

According to InfiniLED’s website, ILED Displays (Inorganic LED Display) is the next generation of energy efficient display technology for applications ranging from wearables to TVs.  Specifically optimized for wearable and portable devices, these low power ILED Displays provide unrivaled performance and product possibilities for designers. Built using arrays of tiny micro LED chips, the energy efficient ILED Display offers 20 – 40X reduction in power consumption.

InfiniLED was originally spun out from the Irish technology research lab Tyndall National Institute in 2011.  Tyndall National Institute is a leading European research center in integrated ICT (Information and Communications Technology) hardware and systems. Specializing in both electronics and photonics – materials, devices, circuits and systems – they are globally leading in their core research areas of:

• Smart sensors and systems
• Optical communication systems
• Mixed signal and analog circuit design
• Microelectronic and photonic integration
• Semiconductor wafer fabrication
• Nano materials and device processing

According to Dr. Kieran Drain, chief executive of Tyndall, “it is exciting to see that Oculus, a vibrant and leading-edge company, appreciates both the technology and the strength of the ecosystem that the InfiniLED team sits in,” told The Irish Times.

Considering the startup has less than 20 employees, according to the news website Silicon Republic, it’s likely that Facebook’s Oculus unit is acquiring the company for its engineering staff rather than trying to commercialize the startup’s existing technology.

The Oculus Rift (virtual-reality headset product) plugs into your computer's DVI and USB ports and tracks your head movements to provide 3D imagery on its stereo screens. The consumer edition Rift uses a 2160 x 1200 resolution, working at 233 million pixels per second, with a 90Hz refresh rate.

In October (2016), Facebook held its annual Oculus developer conference at which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social network would give $250 million to companies and developers that build VR software in order to spur the creation of more compelling VR content. Facebook has previously given $250 million to organizations focusing on VR software.