HTC may be teasing new modules and attachments for its Vive virtual reality headsets, including a lip tracker, UploadVR reports.
HTC has built up to some sort of announcement of that Vive Twitter account the past week. Yesterday, it posted an image of a hinge, which linked smart Twitter users to an experimental lip-tracking module that HTC announced at the 2019 Game Developers Conference. You can see a photo of the hinge product that teases HTC and a matching photo of its lip. detection device below.
The company said at the time that it was using the module for research and experimentation, according to Road to VR. Combined with the eye tracking of HTCs already integrated into the Vive Pro Eye, it provides an early picture of what full-face tracking looks like in VR. Some developers got their hands on the previous version of the lip tracker and integrated it into social VR apps like NeosVR.
Hand, face and eye tracking features play a big role in getting avatars moving and being ‘natural’ in VR. The HTC Vive and Oculus Rift and Quest headphones already offer hand detection as a control method, but face detection (powered by an attachment or eventually new headphone designs) can be a boon in social VR settings.
Facebook already experimented with face tracking for Oculus headsets in 2019, UploadVR reports. In a recent interview, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also reiterated the importance of realistic avatars – animated with face and eye tracking – for his vision of the future of VR.
HTC has not actually confirmed that it is introducing a version of its lip tracking module to the public. Either way, getting comfortable with the headphones that make you feel just like in your area seems like it’s in the map for VR enthusiasts.