Last year, HTC released its Vive Pro VR headset. At CES 2019, the company is upping its game with the Vive Pro Eye. The Vive Pro brought dual OLED displays with high-end headphones built-in, which is something that hadn’t been done in mass market VR headsets prior to its release. The Vive Pro Eye broadens virtual reality horizons by introducing native eye tracking.
HTC Vive Pro Eye brings native eye tracking to virtual reality
Virtual reality is a great tool, though there are some areas where it’s lacking. Your headset could track your body’s position in a room, and your head’s position when looking around, but the display you saw was fixed and if you moved your eyes, you just saw the same screen from a different angle. Native eye tracking will broaden the possibilities for virtual reality, as you’ll be able to get a new view without having to even move your head.
This new technique is called “foveated rendering” and it focuses on what your eye is actually looking at in the virtual scene. This will let the headset reduce the image quality of things in your peripheral vision, and focus on just what you’re actually looking at.
The other major benefit here is for those who can’t move freely, like the physically disabled. With eye tracking, they can dive into the wonderful world of virtual reality without having to be able to move their heads or body. Since the technology tracks where your eye is looking, it could be used to open and navigate menus, walk around a world, or pick up objects as you travel around.
HTC Vive Cosmos works wherever you are
Though most virtual reality headsets, like the Vive Pro or Vive Pro Eye, require a dedicated gaming PC, the Vive Pro Cosmos is different. It works with your smartphone or desktop for a tether-free virtual reality experience.
The Vive Cosmos features two front-facing cameras, two side-facing cameras, and a pair of handheld controllers. This allows it to work independently of any tracking hardware and lets you enjoy even more freedom when gaming. The biggest thing here is that if you want to use the Vive Cosmos on the go, you can run it off your smartphone, but for those who want a better gaming experience, you can easily hook it up to your dedicated PC for a higher-end gaming session.
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