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It’s been a big week for virtual reality (VR) hardware announcements thanks to HTC Vive’s very first ViveCon 2021 event. The all-in-one Vive Focus 3 was finally unveiled after much teasing whilst the big surprise was the Vive Pro 2, HTC new flagship PC headset. While both devices have plenty of tech built-in one thing they don’t have is eye-tracking which will be made available later in the year as an addon.
Eye-tracking will come by way of Chinese company 7invensun whose technology
V
RFocus has previously come across in Pimax and other headsets. 7invensun’s involvement wasn’t part of the main ViveCon Keynote yesterday, instead revealed by HTC China President Alvin Wang Graylin who confirmed that the Droolon F2 eye-tracking module would be available for customers in Q3 2021, priced at $299 USD.
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HTC’s ViveCon 2021 event takes place next week. It’s set to feature hardware announcements including a new virtual reality (VR) headset, with plenty of teasing going on beforehand. If you’ve signed up for the show then you should’ve gotten a few emails by now detailing developer sessions as well as a several interesting gifs. These look to provide new angles of the aforementioned headset.
As you can see these are tightly cropped images providing just a brief glimpse at the new all-in-one (AIO) headset HTC Vive plans to show off during ViveCon 2021’s keynote address. HTC China President Alvin Wang Graylin has previously confirmed: “that we will release a new AIO this year [2021]” so what you can see here are tracking cameras and what looks to be a vent to dissipate heat from the processor.
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At the beginning of March HTC Vive went through a teasing phase over on Twitter as it prepared to announced the latest Vive Tracker and Face Tracker. Well, the company is back at it again today with another tweet which could well be its biggest tease yet, a brand new headset.
Now that the accessories are out of the way, let s get down to business. pic.twitter.com/OxIVCVQYk5 HTC VIVE (@htcvive) April 9, 2021
HTC Vive has made no secret of the fact that a new all-in-one (AIO) headset would be released this year and now this could be the first glimpse. Why? Considering the tweet says: “Now that the accessories are out of the way, let’s get down to business,” is a fairly strong indicator plus the fact that the image clears showcases what looks to be a corner lens, kind of important for standalone headset tracking.
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When virtual reality (VR) started to become a consumer product in 2016 it was really a two-horse race between Oculus and HTC, both with PC-powered headsets. The landscape has dramatically changed since then with the rise of standalone headsets, Facebook’s dominance and HTC Vive struggling when it comes to the consumer market. But that could very well change with a new Vive all-in-one (AIO) device said to be on its way in 2021.
As the years have progressed HTC Vive has concentrated more and more on the enterprise market, as demonstrated by software services like Vive XR Suite and Vive Focus Plus, its AIO that was never sold to the general public. If you wanted to buy the company’s gaming headset then it was the Vive Cosmos (or Cosmos Elite) which never really gained traction after a bumpy launch in 2019.