Arr, ye scurvy Meta's Quest Pro can spy on yer gob, but 'tis not the update the blasted headset needs the most.
2023-12-19
Arr, me hearties! The Meta Quest Pro be havin' the power to track yer tongue's every move. But alas, the face tracking needs a wee bit o' coin reduction to truly make it a treasure worth plunderin'!
The Meta Quest Pro has received a new update that allows it to track tongue movements, adding to its already impressive face and eye tracking capabilities. The inbuilt cameras in the headset can now mimic your mouth, nose, and eye movements, making the virtual avatar feel more lifelike. However, the previous lack of tongue tracking was a downside for many users, as they couldn't stick out their tongue or lick virtual objects.Fortunately, Meta has released a new version of the face-tracking extension in its v60 SDK, which includes support for tongue tracking. While this support hasn't been added to Meta avatars yet, third-party developers have already started incorporating it into their apps. One such developer is Korejan, who has created a VR Face Tracking module for ALXR, an alternative to apps like Virtual Desktop and Quest Link.
Despite this exciting update, the article argues that face tracking needs to reach more users, and there needs to be more software that utilizes it. The Meta Quest 3, for example, offers higher quality passthrough and has more software with mixed reality support. The lack of support for face and eye tracking on Meta hardware suggests that the Quest Pro may not be selling well, leading to a lack of incentive for developers to create apps that utilize these features.
In order for face tracking to become more mainstream, the article suggests that it should be brought to Meta's budget Quest line to increase accessibility and incentivize developers. Until then, face tracking may remain a niche tool.