HTC has announced a new set of trackers for its Vive virtual reality headsets, including one that captures facial expressions and mouth movements. The $ 129.99 Vive Face Tracker is attached to the Vive Pro headset. It uses two cameras and an infrared illuminator to record lip, cheek and jaw movements and then translate them into virtual facial expressions. HTC says the product is coming soon.
HTC unveiled an experimental VR face tracker in 2019, and it teased the product on Twitter earlier this week. A few developers, such as the creators of the social space Neos VR, worked with the tool. To date, however, HTC has not confirmed a wide commercial release. The Facial Tracker supports 38 different facial movements, and users can also pair it with the Vive Pro Eye, a Vive Pro variant with built-in eye tracking. It can effectively translate most of the user’s face into an avatar or into a motion capture system.
There’s also a new third generation version of HTC’s VR tracker for general purpose. The Palm’s trackers are 33 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter than the previous generation, and HTC promises a 75 percent increase in battery life. They will also be released soon for $ 129.99. Depending on the exact date, they could eventually compete with the upcoming Tundra Tracker – a smaller, SteamVR-based alternative that is expected to be released this summer.
These HTC modules provide accurate, precise body parts tracking that does not capture standard VR headphone sensors. Various VR social experiences, for example, estimate all people’s lip movement based on the sound of their voice. But the new face tracker can directly capture how their faces move, reflecting expressions such as smiles and frowns. Similarly, the VR trackers can be attached to personal controllers or strapped to people’s legs or feet – which often get rudimentary animation or are not displayed in VR at all.
Unfortunately, the face tracker apparently has limited compatibility. It is listed as working with the professional Vive Pro range, but not the newer, consumer-oriented Vive Cosmos. As a VR developer Olivier JT comments on Twitter, it also does not appear to support Valve’s Index, a high-end headset whose hardware setup overlaps with the Vive Pro’s.
Despite this, facial recognition may become an increasingly important part of the current generation of VR. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said earlier this week that Facebook’s VR division, Oculus, should give preference to eye movement and facial expressions in future hardware, as well as releasing more realistic virtual avatars.