HTC could tease the release of its VR lip tracker for Vive headsets

HTC could tease new mods and accessories for its Vive virtual reality headsets, including a lip tracker, UploadVR reports.

HTC is preparing some kind of announcement on its Vive Twitter account over the past week. He posted an image of a hinge yesterday, which savvy Twitter users paired with an experimental lip-tracking module that HTC announced at the Game Developers Conference in 2019. You can see a photo of the hinged product. that HTC teases and a corresponding photo of its lip tracking device below.

At the time, the company said it was using the module for research and experimentation, according to Road to virtual reality. Combined with the HTC eye tracking already built into the Vive Pro Eye, it offers a first image of what full face tracking in VR looks like. Some developers got their hands on this earlier version of the lip tracker and integrated into social virtual reality apps like NeosVR.

Hand, face and eye tracking functions play a big part in making avatars move and look “natural” in VR. The HTC Vive and Oculus Rift and Quest headsets already offer hand tracking as a method of control, but face tracking (enabled by an attachment or possibly new headset designs) could prove to be a boon in the settings. social virtual reality.

Facebook was already experimenting 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 by face and eye tracking – to his vision for the future of virtual reality.

HTC has not actually confirmed that it is releasing any version of its lip tracking module to the public. But either way, getting familiar with headsets that sense you as much as they do with your surroundings seems to be in the cards for VR enthusiasts.