Oculus sets up new research shop near Carnegie Mellon

Some notable news for VR developers this week, especially those based in Pennsylvania, as Oculus has confirmed to GamesBeat that it's opening a new research office in Pittsburgh.

While Oculus and parent company Facebook have offices around the world, the new Pittsburgh branch is expressly an expansion of Oculus Research, the Washington-based division Oculus Chief Scientist Michael Abrash described onstage at Oculus Connect 2014 as "the first well-funded VR research team in 20 years."

A report in the Pittsburgh Business Times puts the new office in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Oakland, effectively next door to Carnegie Mellon University and its Entertainment Technology Center, which has long been a place for budding developers to create interactive experiences using cutting-edge technology.

Oculus Research is already looking to fill a number of open positions in Pittsburgh, most of which deal with computer vision research and engineering. The company has acquired a number of visual tracking startups in the last two years, including British real-world visualization startup Surreal Vision and hand-tracking camera company Nimble VR.