Categories: Tech

HTC Unveils Eye-Tracking Vive Focus Vision Standalone VR Headset

HTC’s newest Vive VR headset is its first consumer-friendly model to feature eye tracking. The Vive Focus Vision is a standalone headset with internal sensors that can track the user’s eyes, enabling sight-based controls and graphics-boosting foveation.

The Focus Vision builds on HTC’s enterprise-oriented Vive Focus 3 headset, and is the first in the Vive Focus line to be marketed to consumer enthusiasts as well as enterprise users. It’s a standalone VR headset powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor, and can also be used tethered to a PC over USB-C and DisplayPort. It has a 2,448-by-2,448 resolution for each eye, with a 120-degree field of view. The headset display has a 90Hz refresh rate when used alone, with support for 120Hz over DisplayPort planned for later this year.

Eye tracking is the Vive Focus Vision’s biggest boon. The headset can follow the user’s gaze 120 times per second with an accuracy of 0.5 to 1 degree within a 20-degree central field of view. This lets the headset employ foveation, where more processing power is dedicated to rendering what the user is looking directly at versus the periphery, enabling better performance.

Eye tracking also makes gaze-based controls possible, similar to the Apple Vision Pro’s interface. This is a secondary benefit, though, and unlike Apple’s headset, system-level eye-tracking interaction is considered experimental and not a core feature. Eye tracking uses a five-point calibration, and the headset can automatically set interpupillary distance (IPD) for the most accuracy. The display’s focus can also be manually adjusted to accommodate nearsighted users.

Besides eye tracking, the Focus Vision has another useful feature, and one we haven’t seen on other standalone headsets. The battery is hot-swappable, with a separate internal battery that can power the headset for up to 30 minutes while you change to a fresh external battery (which mounts on the back of the head strap) so you don’t lose your progress or have to restart the headset. This is a big advantage, since HTC only estimates two hours of use for each battery. In fairness, battery life of around two to three hours is common for standalone headsets.

This is HTC’s second eye-tracking VR headset, and second consumer-focused standalone headset. HTC previously released the Vive Pro Eye tethered headset, now discontinued, and currently offers the $899 Vive XR Elite standalone headset.

The XR Elite is very similar to the Focus Vision, powered by the same Snapdragon XR2 processor with the same 12GB of RAM, but with a lower 1,920-by-1,920 resolution for each eye. It lacks eye tracking, but the feature, along with full face tracking, can be added with a separate $199 Full Face Tracker accessory.

The HTC Vive Focus Vision will be available for $999 and is currently available for preorder. Those who buy the headset at launch will also receive the Vive Wired Streaming Kit for DisplayPort, an otherwise optional $149 accessory pack that enables the wired DisplayPort connection. A $1,299 Business Edition will also be available, which has identical hardware to the consumer headset but includes subscriptions to HTC’s Vive Business Warranty and Services and Vive Business+ fleet management software.

Terron Gold