AN EDINBURGH virtual reality start-up has been snapped up by Facebook in the latest move by the social media giant to create an "immersive" internet experience.
Two Big Ears, founded in 2013 by two Edinburgh University graduates from India, has been sold to the US company for an undisclosed sum in a deal brokered by Scottish law firm, Shepherd and Wedderburn.
Co-founder Abesh Thakur said: “It’s very exciting. We’ve been in the industry for quite some time and everybody pretty much knows us.
"It hasn’t happened out of the blue in the sense that our technology has been quite popular and has been used on Oculus and other devices."
Mr Thakur and his co-founder, Varun Nair, developed spatial audio applications and tools for mobile devices which they say enables users to "see through your ears".
Describing the application to the Herald in an interview shortly before Christmas last year, Mr Thakur, 28, said: “The simplest way to explain it is that we can digitally create how humans hear.
"If I blindfolded you and spoke to you from any point in space, you’d be able to point out where I might be standing or which room I was in.
"These are natural things the human brain can do. What we do is create all that using software and algorithms.”
The deal comes as Facebook continues to invest in the latest virtual reality technology, which chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is betting on as the next big trend for the internet and social media experience.
A spokesman for Facebook said: “Two Big Ears has revolutionized how humans hear sound with software. We’re excited to welcome them to the Facebook team and give even more people access to their incredible work through our platform.”
Born in Kolkata, India, Mr Thakur completed an undergraduate degree in electronic engineering and worked for an IT consultancy in Chennai before coming to Edinburgh University in 2011 to study a masters in acoustics and music technology.
Mr Nair, from Bangalore, worked for nine years in the music and post-production industries before taking a masters in sound design at Edinburgh College of Art, which became part of Edinburgh University in 2011.
The pair identified audio virtual reality as a major emerging market and went on to develop the fastest algorithm in the market, at between four to 12 times the speed of competitor products.
By the end of 2015, some 1,800 content developers are using the company’s software in products or demonstrations.
The immersive audio technology created by Two Big Ears will be decisive in driving forward increasingly lifelike experiences for the next generation of virtual reality devices.
The latest purchase comes after Facebook bought Oculus for $2bn (£1.4bn) in 2014 and British 3D mapping company, Surreal Vision, in 2015.
Facebook is currently building up its first Oculous division outside of the United States with team of virtual reality experts headquartered in London.
Google and Sony are also cashing in on the technology, with Apple also rumoured to be seeking out footholds in the virtual reality market.
The industry is expected to be worth $30 billion (£21bn) in the next five years, while the market for augmented reality - also known as hyper reality - is forecast to be worth $120 billion (£83bn).
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