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NOLO VR

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NOLO VR
Information
Type Private company
Industry Virtual reality, Consumer electronics
Founded April 2015
Founder Zhang Daoning
Headquarters Beijing, China
Notable Personnel Zhang Daoning (Founder and CEO), Zhang Jianing (CTO), Dong Zhihua (COO)
Products NOLO CV1, NOLO CV1 Air, NOLO CV1 Pro, NOLO X1, NOLO Sonic, NOLO Sonic 2, NOLO VR GLASS, NOLO HOME, NOLO EgoCapture
Website https://www.nolovr.com


NOLO VR (usually styled simply NOLO) is a Chinese Virtual Reality hardware company based in Beijing that develops motion tracking systems, controllers and standalone headsets. Its legal name is Beijing Lingyu Intelligent Control Technology Co., Ltd. (北京凌宇智控科技有限公司); its early products were sold under the name LYRobotix Co., Ltd.[1][2][3] The company was founded in April 2015 by Zhang Daoning, who was 25 at the time and remains its chief executive.[4][5] According to the company, the brand name comes from the four middle letters of "technology".[6]

The company is best known for the NOLO CV1, a kit announced in December 2016 and crowdfunded on Kickstarter in early 2017 that added six degrees of freedom (6DoF) positional tracking and two tracked controllers to phone-based headsets such as Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream and Google Cardboard, and let them play SteamVR games streamed from a PC.[7][8][9] Its tracking is built on proprietary positioning technologies marketed as PolarTraq, SodarTraq and StarTraq.[4] NOLO later supplied 6DoF kits for headsets from other brands, including Huawei VR Glass, made its own standalone headsets (the NOLO X1, NOLO Sonic and NOLO Sonic 2), and worked with China Mobile on cloud VR and with the carmaker NIO on in-car VR glasses.[4][5] In 2026 its website describes the company as a provider of "embodied intelligence data infrastructure" and leads with a head-worn data capture device for training robot AI models, alongside AI smart glasses.[1][10]

Reviewed 12 October 2026. Merge with the former NOLO page checked; founding, management, legal names, timeline, funding rounds, Kickstarter terms and totals, CV1 contents and specifications, NOLO HOME, CES 2019, 2020 and 2023 announcements, Huawei, China Mobile and NIO work, headset specs and the 2026 product pages verified against the official site, archived 2016-2017 NOLO, Kickstarter and press pages, Steam and the cited articles. About review dates.

History

Origins

According to the NOLO CV1 Kickstarter page, LYRobotix began by researching indoor positioning so that drones could fly safely and autonomously where GPS signals were weak or missing. After comparing several inside-out and outside-in methods, the team chose to develop the approach that became PolarTraq. A team member had bought an Oculus Rift DK2, and after trying the PolarTraq prototype with it, the company decided to turn the technology into a VR product.[11] The company's official timeline gives April 2015 as its founding, September 2015 for the successful verification of PolarTraq, and August 2016 for the public debut of its first product, called Cobb.[4][12] A 2023 VRAR星球 interview profile says that while most companies entered VR in 2015 and 2016 by making headsets, NOLO chose to start from interaction; Zhang said the company wanted to innovate in 3D human-computer interaction.[5]

NOLO CV1 and the Kickstarter campaign

LYRobotix opened pre-orders for the NOLO motion tracking system in December 2016, offering the first 100 kits for 89 US dollars.[7] On 2 January 2017 Road to VR reported an expected launch price of 99 US dollars, and later that month NOLO showed the kit at CES in Las Vegas.[8][4] The Kickstarter campaign, created by Lisa Zhao and based in Beijing, ran from 30 January to 11 March 2017 with a goal of 50,000 US dollars. It passed that goal within a day, and it closed with 231,491 US dollars pledged by 1,683 backers.[11][9] SiteProNews described Zhao as the company's co-founder and chief operating officer.[13] Reward tiers listed a manufacturer's suggested retail price of 149 US dollars, with "Super Early Bird" kits at 89 US dollars and "Early Bird" kits at 99 US dollars, and gave May 2017 as the estimated delivery date.[11]

The CV1 went on general sale in July 2017 at 200 US dollars. By May 2018 NOLO said more than 10,000 people had bought one, with its core users in North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China.[14] Road to VR also reported that headset makers including Deepoon, Pimax, Pico, Nibiru, ANTVR and Carl Zeiss supported or used the CV1 for 6DoF tracking.[14]

Streaming software and carrier partnerships (2018-2020)

In May 2018 NOLO completed a 10 million US dollar Series A round led by BlueRun Ventures, with Lotus Capital also investing.[14] The company said it would soon release NOLO Home, its own 6DoF mobile VR app platform, and Zhang said it would focus on global VR developers, such as SteamVR and PSVR developers, to build a mobile VR content ecosystem.[14] By January 2019 NOLO was using NOLO HOME in its CES demonstrations, and the software is distributed free on Steam.[15] It streams PC VR games to standalone headsets and Gear VR, lists support for Oculus Go, Gear VR, Pico G2, iQiYi QIYU2, Skyworth S8000 and Huawei VR2, and has built-in support for the CV1 tracking kit.[2]

At CES 2019 NOLO demonstrated a model of 5G cloud VR in which a PC acted as the remote GPU, a router stood in for the 5G network, a standalone headset served as the display, and the CV1 provided tracking and input. NOLO said it was working with China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom to commercialize 5G cloud VR. It also showed Survive: VR Battle Royale, a 6DoF mobile game by Raptor Lab ported to NOLO HOME with the NOLO SDK, and the CV1 appeared at the booths of Huawei, Skyworth, Emdoor and Dreamworld. The same release said NOLO had partnered with more than 20 VR and AR headset brands, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Skyworth and iQiYi.[15]

In July 2019 the company raised a Series A+ round led by Joy Capital. Road to VR reported it as 15 million US dollars with BlueRun Ventures and Peakview Capital also taking part, and said the money would go mainly to the research and commercialization of NOLO's tracking technology. Citing Crunchbase, Road to VR put the company's total funding after the round at 24.5 million US dollars.[16] In December 2019 China Mobile took a shareholding in the company, and NOLO released the NOLO CV1 Air, a version of the kit for short-focus VR glasses.[4] NOLO was selected to supply the 6DoF solution for Huawei VR Glass, and Huawei's support site names the NOLO CV1 Air 6DoF kit as the accessory needed to use that headset in 6DoF.[5][17]

At CES 2020 NOLO presented a 6DoF cloud VR bundle priced under 200 US dollars, made up of the NOLO N2, a cardboard-type headset, and the NOLO CV1 Pro, which the company said improved positioning precision, refresh rate and latency over the CV1.[18] The NOLO X1 standalone headset kit launched in June 2020, followed by the NOLO X1 4K in September 2020.[4]

Standalone headsets and automotive VR (2021-2023)

In February 2021 NOLO completed a 20 million US dollar Series B round led by Nio Capital, with BlueRun Ventures and Joy Capital following. The money was earmarked for next-generation interaction technology, mass production of new products and content.[4][19] At a launch event in Beijing in May 2021 it introduced the NOLO Sonic, an all-in-one headset with inside-out 6DoF tracking and controllers tracked with its SodarTraq technology. The Sonic cost 1,999 yuan, opened for pre-order immediately and went on sale on 1 June 2021. At the event Zhang said more than 100,000 people were using NOLO's mobile 6DoF products.[20][4]

On 18 December 2021, at NIO Day in Suzhou, the electric carmaker NIO presented the NIO VR Glasses, which it said it had developed jointly with NOLO and which use ultra-thin pancake lenses.[21][4] According to Zhang in the 2023 interview, NOLO, China Mobile and Qualcomm jointly launched a co-branded cloud VR all-in-one headset supporting the Chinese GSXR standard in 2021, with NOLO responsible for building its core functions. NOLO's website lists a China Mobile and NOLO co-branded cloud VR headset supporting GSXR, the NOLO CM1.[5][1]

At CES 2023 NOLO announced two headsets, both with stated availability in February 2023: the NOLO VR GLASS, a glasses-style headset with no battery or processor of its own that runs from a connected Android phone, and the NOLO Sonic 2, a 6DoF standalone headset with gesture tracking.[6] In February 2023 NOLO announced in-house gesture tracking supporting actions such as pinch, drag and swipe, used on the Sonic 2. The same interview says NOLO worked with NIO on the NIO Air Ring, a smart ring sold with NIO's Air AR glasses.[5]

Embodied AI data capture and AI glasses

By 2026 NOLO's website had changed its tagline to "Embodied Intelligence Data Infrastructure". It leads with NOLO EgoCapture, a first-person data capture kit for training embodied AI models, and an AI smart glasses series, while still listing the Sonic, Sonic 2, X1 and CV1-family products.[1] The company's about page says it holds more than 280 technical patents, with international patents granted in 12 countries and regions, and that it works closely with Huawei, China Mobile and NIO.[4]

Funding

Disclosed investors include BlueRun Ventures, Lotus Capital, Joy Capital, Peakview Capital, Nio Capital and China Mobile.[14][16][4] Lotus Capital and Galileo Capital had invested before the 2018 Series A.[14] A 2023 interview put the company's disclosed funding at more than 200 million yuan.[5]

Round Date Amount Investors
Series A May 2018 10 million US dollars Led by BlueRun Ventures, with Lotus Capital[14]
Series A+ July 2019 15 million US dollars (Road to VR); "100 million yuan level" (NOLO) Led by Joy Capital, with BlueRun Ventures and Peakview Capital[16][12]
Shareholding December 2019 Not disclosed China Mobile[4]
Series B February 2021 20 million US dollars Led by Nio Capital, with BlueRun Ventures and Joy Capital[19][4]

In 2019 NOLO reported 125 patents authorized or accepted, with international patents filed in 12 countries; in 2021 it reported more than 200 patents across 12 countries; and its 2026 about page gives more than 280.[16][19][4]

Technology

NOLO markets three positioning technologies. The company describes PolarTraq as acoustic, optical and electronic hybrid positioning, SodarTraq as ultrasonic and visual fusion positioning, and StarTraq as visual-inertial fusion positioning, and claims sub-millimeter accuracy for them.[4][12]

PolarTraq, used in the CV1, fuses optical, acoustic and radio signals.[8] In the Kickstarter description, the base station transmits all three kinds of signal into the play area, and each tracked marker calculates its own position relative to the base station on board. Because the markers do the calculation, one base station can serve any number of markers, but each needs line of sight to it.[11] Road to VR described the CV1 as combining onboard IMU data, Lighthouse-like tracking from a single base station and ultrasonic sensing.[8] SodarTraq was introduced with the Sonic, whose headset tracks itself with cameras while its controllers are tracked with ultrasound.[4][20][22] NOLO says EgoCapture uses PolarTraq and StarTraq.[10]

Products

NOLO CV1

The NOLO CV1 (sold during the Kickstarter campaign simply as NOLO) is a 6DoF motion tracking kit made up of a palm-sized base station, a headset marker that attaches to a phone-based VR headset, and two wireless controllers with triggers, buttons and trackpads.[11][8] The Kickstarter reward package also contained a 3-in-1 charging cable, a 25 cm USB cable for mobile VR, a 4 m USB cable for SteamVR, a charger and two headset marker mounts, and the campaign said a grip button would be added to each controller for the shipping version.[11] The controllers were designed to mirror the functions of the HTC Vive's SteamVR controllers.[8]

Specification Value (manufacturer figures)
Tracking 6DoF (position and rotation) for headset marker and two controllers[11]
Positioning latency Under 20 ms[11][9]
Tracking accuracy Less than 2 mm[11]
Tracking area 13 x 13 feet (4 x 4 meters) from one base station[11]
Base station field of view 100 degrees[9][23]
Controller battery life Up to 7 hours[15]

The CV1 had two modes. In mobile VR mode it fed tracking data to native mobile VR apps on the phone, which needed to add support through NOLO's SDK; an SDK for Unity and Unreal Engine was reported to be in preparation at the time of the Kickstarter, and the campaign also promised an iOS SDK for mobile mode.[8][9][11] In SteamVR mode the games ran on a gaming PC and were streamed to an Android phone by Riftcat's VRidge software, while the headset marker connected to the PC over USB and relayed head and controller poses.[11][24] The campaign named Tilt Brush, Job Simulator and Space Pirate Trainer as examples of motion-tracked games that could be played this way.[11] NOLO's 2017 FAQ said the kit also worked with some all-in-one headsets running NibiruOS and with the PC headsets OSVR and Pimax, that Gear VR models with a USB port were supported in mobile mode, and that iOS streaming would go through TrinusVR.[24] Road to VR expected the PC-to-phone streaming to bring a significant quality compromise, and UploadVR noted that using a single base station could raise occlusion problems.[8][9] NOLO later released the CV1 Air for short-focus VR glasses and the CV1 Pro with improved tracking.[4][18]

Product overview

Product Year Type Notes
NOLO CV1 2017 6DoF tracking kit Base station, headset marker and two tracked controllers for phone-based headsets; Kickstarter tiers from 89 US dollars, about 200 US dollars at retail from July 2017[11][14]
NOLO HOME By January 2019 PC VR streaming software Streams SteamVR games to standalone headsets and Gear VR; free on Steam[2][15]
NOLO CV1 Air 2019 6DoF tracking kit Version of the kit for short-focus VR glasses; the 6DoF accessory for Huawei VR Glass[4][17]
NOLO CV1 Pro 2020 6DoF tracking kit Shown at CES 2020 with the NOLO N2 cardboard-type headset in a cloud VR bundle priced under 200 US dollars[18]
NOLO X1 and X1 4K 2020 Standalone headset X1 kit launched June 2020, X1 4K September 2020; the X1 4K uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 with a 3840 x 2160 display and a 96 degree field of view[4][25]
NOLO Sonic 2021 Standalone headset Inside-out 6DoF headset with ultrasonically tracked 6DoF controllers; 4K display, 101 degree field of view, 72 Hz, two tracking cameras; 1,999 yuan in China[20][22]
NIO VR Glasses 2021 VR glasses Developed jointly with NIO; ultra-thin pancake lenses[21]
NOLO CM1 Undated listing Cloud VR headset China Mobile and NOLO co-branded headset supporting the GSXR standard[1][5]
NOLO VR GLASS Announced January 2023 Phone-powered headset Glasses-style headset powered by a connected Android phone; 1,512 PPI, 92 degree field of view, 3DoF finger-ring controllers; not on NOLO's 2026 product list[6][1]
NOLO Sonic 2 Announced January 2023 Standalone headset LCD with a maximum resolution of 3664 x 1920, up to 120 Hz, 92 degree field of view, gesture tracking[6]
NOLO EgoCapture 2026 listing Data capture device Head unit of about 210 g with six cameras and a 1000 Hz IMU; handheld unit with a 22,000 mAh battery and 512 GB storage; outputs five synchronized data streams at 30 Hz with 6DoF pose for each frame; pairs with the OmniGlove smart glove[10]
NOLO AI glasses 2026 listing AI glasses Audio glasses of about 38 g, and display glasses of about 49 g with a monocular green MicroLED and a diffractive waveguide rated at up to 1,500 nits[26]

VR/AR relevance

NOLO's main contribution to VR was bringing 6DoF tracking, and with it room-scale SteamVR content, to hardware that otherwise tracked only three degrees of freedom. Phone-based headsets of the mid-2010s such as Gear VR, Daydream and Cardboard tracked head rotation but not position and had no positionally tracked controllers. The CV1 added a base station, a head marker and two tracked motion controllers, turning those headsets into 6DoF systems.[8][9]

Because mobile chips of the time could not render PC-class VR, NOLO paired the CV1 with streaming, first through Riftcat's VRidge and later through its own NOLO HOME, so that SteamVR games could be played on phones and on standalone headsets such as the Oculus Go.[8][2] The same tracking and input role placed NOLO inside early Chinese cloud VR efforts, where rendering happens remotely and the headset side supplies the display, tracking and controller input.[15][18] Writing about the Sonic in 2021, The Ghost Howls said NOLO had begun making standalone headsets of its own as 3DoF mobile VR declined.[22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "NOLO - Embodied Intelligence Data Infrastructure". NOLO. Beijing Lingyu Intelligent Control Technology Co., Ltd.. https://www.nolovr.com/En. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "NOLO HOME on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/954350/NOLO_HOME/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  3. ↑ "NOLO - Motion Tracking for VR". NOLO. LYRobotix Co., Ltd.. 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-06-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20170603212108/https://www.nolovr.com/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 "About Us". NOLO. https://www.nolovr.com/En/Culture. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Vivi (2023-08-29). "对话 NOLO CEO 张道宁：坚持自主研发，创新要"敢为天下先"" (in Chinese). VRAR星球. https://www.vrarworld.cn/renwuzhuanfang/2537.html. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "NOLO Unveils Two Game-changing VR Headset Models- HMD That Wears Like Glasses, 6DoF VR Headset With Hand and Finger Tracking". Yahoo Finance. ACCESSWIRE (NOLO press release). 2023-01-06. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nolo-unveils-two-game-changing-190000782.html. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kyle Melnick (2016-12-24). "Affordable Room-Scale Mobile VR Arrives with NOLO Motion Tracking System". VRScout. Archived from the original on 2016-12-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20161225032418/https://vrscout.com/news/room-scale-mobile-vr-nolo-motion-tracking/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 Paul James (2017-01-02). "NOLO VR Promises $99 Positional Tracking and SteamVR Gaming on Any Mobile VR Headset". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/nolo-mobile-vr-positional-tracking-system-compatible-steamvr-ces-2017/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 Jamie Feltham (2017-01-31). "NOLO Phone-based SteamVR Project Fully Funded on Kickstarter". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/nolo-turns-phone-steamvr-device-funded-kickstarter/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "NOLO EgoCapture - First-Person Multimodal Data Capture Device". NOLO. https://www.nolovr.com/ego-page/index-en.html. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  11. ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 Lisa Zhao (2017). "NOLO: VR Motion Tracking for Mobile and SteamVR Play". Kickstarter. Archived from the original on 2017-09-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20170923033426/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/243372678/nolo-affordable-motion-tracking-for-mobile-and-ste. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "关于我们" (in Chinese). NOLO. https://www.nolovr.com/Culture. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  13. ↑ Jennifer Cowan (2017-02-02). "Nolo Motion Tracking System Makes Active VR Experience More Affordable". SiteProNews. Archived from the original on 2017-02-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20170205022229/http://www.sitepronews.com/2017/02/02/nolo-motion-tracking-system-makes-active-vr-experience-more-affordable/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7 Scott Hayden (2018-05-24). "NOLO VR Completes $10 Million Series A Financing Led by BlueRun Ventures". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/nolo-vr-completes-10-million-series-financing-led-bluerun-ventures/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 "NOLO VR Introduces a Model of 5G Cloud VR and a 6DoF Mobile VR Battle Royale Game at CES 2019". PR Newswire. NOLO VR. 2019-01-10. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nolo-vr-introduces-a-model-of-5g-cloud-vr-and-a-6dof-mobile-vr-battle-royale-game-at-ces-2019-300776312.html. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Scott Hayden (2019-07-29). "NOLO VR Raises $15M to Further Develop 6DOF Tracking Tech". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/nolo-vr-15-m-funding/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "HUAWEI VR Glass是3Dof还是6Dof?" (in Chinese). Huawei Consumer Support. Huawei. https://consumer.huawei.com/cn/support/content/zh-cn00757275/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 AIT News Desk (2020-01-09). "NOLO VR Exhibits the Most Cost-Effective 6DoF Cloud VR Device for Mobile". AiThority. https://aithority.com/technology/augmented-reality/nolo-vr-exhibits-the-most-cost-effective-6dof-cloud-vr-device-for-mobile/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Tom Kang (2021-02-25). "Nio Capital leads $20 million funding for VR firm NOLO VR". CnEVPost. https://cnevpost.com/2021/02/25/nio-capital-leads-20-million-funding-for-vr-firm-nolo-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Sun Yue (2021-05-25). "仅1999元！NOLO Sonic推VR一体机，手柄能检测心率" (in Chinese). Zhidx. https://zhidx.com/p/272896.html. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "For (Virtual/Augmented) Real? NIO's Vision of Enjoyment". NIO. 2022-02-07. https://www.nio.com/blog/virtualaugmented-real-nios-vision-enjoyment. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Skarredghost (2021-06-07). "The XR Week Peek (2021.06.07): Facebook working on Quest 2 Pro, Nolo and Arpara announce new VR headsets, and more!". The Ghost Howls. https://skarredghost.com/2021/06/07/quest-2-pro-nolo-sonic-arpara/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  23. ↑ Lulu Chang (2017-02-17). "Nolo is a phone-based SteamVR Project that Kickstarter backers love". Digital Trends. Archived from the original on 2017-02-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20170219133057/https://www.digitaltrends.com/virtual-reality/nolo-vr-gaming-solution/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "FAQ". NOLO. LYRobotix Co., Ltd.. 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-07-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20170707023609/https://www.nolovr.com/faq. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  25. ↑ "NOLO X1 4K" (in Chinese). NOLO. https://www.nolovr.com/Hardware/Info/350. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
  26. ↑ "NOLO AI Glasses - Audio Glasses and Display Glasses". NOLO. https://www.nolovr.com/aiglasses-page/index-en.html. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
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