HTC has announced the launch of Vive facial tracker module

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HTC has announced the launch of a device that can translate your facial expressions into virtual reality. HTC's new Vive facial tracker can read your facial expressions and portray them on a virtual avatar in real-time.

HTC teased the product on Twitter last Monday where it posted a picture of a hinge. Some of the users pointed out that it looks similar to an experimental lip tracking module HTC announced at the Game Developers Conference in 2019. The tracking device utilizes two cameras to capture your facial movements under 10 milliseconds and render them back at a 60Hz refresh rate.

 

 

HTC claims that it can recognize up to 38 facial expressions made by your lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, cheeks, and chin movement. There have been other facial trackers which recognize facial expressions by detecting the sound of the voice when you speak. But the new Vive tracker is more accurate, directly capturing facial expressions like a smile or a frown.

At the moment, the Vive facial tracker has limited compatibility and can only pair up with the Vive Pro VR headsets. The more consumer-friendly Cosmo series is unfortunately left out. There hasn't been any official statement for widespread release and HTC currently seems to be marketing it to the software developers to better their VR applications. 

A VR game developer called Frooxious has tested the tool and posted a video on youtube, given below:

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