Facial Tracking VR Headsets Could Make It Even More Immersive
Recently, we just got to take a look at many of Sony’s new patents as they have released them to the public. Out of the many patents, the VR technology is especially interesting, many of them focusing on facial-tracking cameras attached to the headsets. As detailed in the patent, cameras attached to the bottom and inside of the headset will be able to track the motion of your eyes, mouth, and general facial expressions to be able to replicate them in-game. Take a read of the excerpt below:
A method for rendering a virtual reality (VR) scene viewable via a head-mounted display (HMD) is provided. The method includes detecting eye gaze of a user using one or more eye gaze sensors disposed in a display housing of the HMD. And, capturing images of a mouth of the user using one or more cameras disposed on the HMD, wherein the images of the mouth include movements of the mouth. Then, the method includes generating a virtual face of the user. The virtual face includes virtual eye movement obtained from the eye gaze of the user and virtual mouth movement obtained from said captured images of the mouth. The method includes presenting an avatar of the user in the VR scene with the virtual face. The avatar of the user is viewable by another user having access to view the VR scene from a perspective that enables viewing of the avatar having the virtual face of the user. Facial expressions and movements of the mouth of the user wearing the HMD are viewable by said other user, and the virtual face of the user is presented without the HMD.Â
This technology, if produced, could make online games like VR Chat even more realistic. I wonder if the other VR headsets are working on something similar…
Source: United State Patent