{"id":163149,"date":"2025-06-06T14:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T14:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/163149\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T14:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T14:25:11","slug":"etsy-co-founder-is-reportedly-building-a-wild-magnifying-glass-like-xr-device","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/163149\/","title":{"rendered":"Etsy Co-founder is Reportedly Building a Wild Magnifying Glass-like XR Device"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Kalin, co-founder and former CEO of online marketplace Etsy, is reportedly building a hand-held, magnifying glass-like XR device.<\/p>\n

As discovered by\u00a0Low Pass<\/a>, Kalin\u2019s new startup\u00a0Dopple Works is developing a mixed reality device reportedly called \u2018Loop\u2019. An application for the device just passed through the FCC<\/a>, which could mean it\u2019s nearing release.<\/p>\n

As FCC applications typical go, details have been heavily redacted, noting only that Loop is \u201ca portable, battery-powered device that has Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity as well as NFC functionality,\u201d Low Pass reports, additionally noting Loop is rated IP65 for dust and light water exposure.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no telling what the alleged device looks like presently,\u00a0however\u00a0a patent from Dopple Works<\/a> was published for a \u2018Dedicated hand-held spatial computing device\u2019, which included a number of images alongside some standard boiler plate of intended use cases.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Dopple Works<\/p>\n

Notably, it appears the device could rest in a dedicated cradle in the upright position, possibly suggesting it\u2019s the main recharging method.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the patent illustrates there may\u00a0include a number of features, including a 6DOF tracking sensor, microphone, camera, speaker, and possibly also eye-tracking.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s uncertain whether the user would hold the device up to their eye, like a monocle, or farther away from them like a magnifying glass, as no mention of lens is made.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Dopple Works<\/p>\n

As for content, the patent covers nearly everything you\u2019d expect, from games to educational use cases, with the latter being the most likely target. A trademark application<\/a>\u00a0filed by Dopple Works describes the company as creating an \u2018electronic learning toy\u2019.<\/p>\n

As discovered by Low Pass,\u00a0Dopple Works\u2019 is made up of several former engineers who worked on social VR platforms Mozilla Hubs and AltspaceVR,\u00a0both of which are now defunct.\u00a0Dopple Works CTO Geoff Chatterton was previously Head of Hardware at Paypal before joining the company; Chatterton also previously worked at Apple, Dell and smartwatch startup Wimm Labs, which was acquired by Google in 2013.<\/p>\n

That said, creating a magnifying glass-style device without\u00a0a lens like a standard XR headset has some unique benefits, but also its fair share of drawbacks. It could allow kids of any age to interact with mixed reality without worry of a headset not correctly fitting. Its simple design could also encourage casual play sessions.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if Loop is a \u2018magic window\u2019 of sorts meant to be held away from the user\u2019s eye, it could be pretty similar to the type of augmented reality experiences you can already have on a smartphone\u2014making content the device\u2019s key differentiator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Kalin, co-founder and former CEO of online marketplace Etsy, is reportedly building a hand-held, magnifying glass-like XR…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3162],"tags":[53,16,15,3243,3244],"class_list":{"0":"post-163149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-virtual-reality","12":"tag-vr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114636883500863056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}