Category: VR Tracking

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Tundra Tracker Bundles Sold Out in Just 3 Minutes Yesterday

Tundra Tracker, a SteamVR Tracking puck born out of a successful Kickstarter last year, was sold to the general public for the first time yesterday, March 10th. Tundra Labs says that all available stock was sold out in only three minutes after launch.

Update (March 11th, 2022)

Tundra Labs announced in a tweet that their “very limited inventory” of trackers sold out in just three minutes yesterday.

Like many companies, Tundra Labs says it’s suffering from key component shortages, and as such has been forced to buy some parts from third-party brokerages instead of directly from the supplier, which it says is due to larger companies getting priority.

Tundra Labs says its first wave of orders will ship “approximately 8 weeks after purchase,” with inventory tentatively scheduled for May 10th, 2022. The company hasn’t mentioned when it plans to open up orders again for its pint-sized SteamVR tracker, however in a previous update a 4-6 week lead time was quoted, which would put the next availability window sometime in April.

Update (March 4th, 2022)

Tundra Labs says it’s opening up sale of a limited number of Trackers starting March 10th. The company hopes to pace availability every 4-6 weeks thereafter.

Here’s the initial March 10th release schedule below:

Bundles have changed somewhat from the original Kickstarter. Now a three tracker bundle costs $360 and a four tracker bundle $480. Read more on Tundra Labs blogpost for additional details on pricing and availability.

Original Article (October 27th, 2021): The Tundra Tracker Kickstarter raised nearly $1.4 million earlier this year to bring to life a VR tracking puck for the SteamVR Tracking ecosystem which is the first direct alternative to the longstanding Vive Tracker. The device can be used to track arbitrary items inside of VR, with many aiming to use the tracker for full-body tracking to enhance social VR experiences.

Tundra Tracker (left), Vive Tracker 2.0 (right) | Image courtesy Tundra Labs

Though shipments for the Tundra Tracker have slipped from their initial estimate of September, the campaign has seen an incredibly quick turnaround compared to most hardware-based crowdfunding projects which often take years to complete; the latest estimate from Tundra Labs is that the first shipments should begin in early November, which would be just over five months from the completion of the Kickstarter campaign. Here’s the current shipping estimates from the company:

  • November 10th: Early Bird Shipments begin for Americas Region
  • November 22nd: Early Bird Shipments begin for Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand & SE Asia
  • November 29th through December 31st: Regular Backer Shipments

Tundra Labs says the delay from the original September estimate was in part caused by electricity shortages in China which impacted manufacturing. However, the company says that a “very small” number of Tundra Trackers have already been shipped to some ‘early bird’ backers in China.

For those receiving their Tundra Tracker after today, the device should be ready to go right out of the box thanks to a SteamVR update which has added official support for the tracking puck to the main branch of the software in SteamVR version 1.20.4.

Additional reporting by Scott Hayden.

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Tundra Tracker Pricing Revealed, Here’s How it Compares to Vive Tracker

Tundra Labs, the company developing the Tundra Tracker SteamVR Tracking accessory, has revealed pricing for the device starting at $95. Previously planned for earlier in the year, a Kickstarter campaign for the tracker is set to launch on March 29th with the first deliveries expected in July.

Tundra Tracker is an upcoming SteamVR Tracking tracker designed as an alternative to HTC’s Vive Tracker; we previously revealed many details of the tracker here.

Compared to the new Vive Tracker 3.0 revealed this week, Tundra Labs says the Tundra Tracker is still the smaller of the two, though it isn’t clear yet how the improved battery life of the Vive Tracker 3.0 will compare to the Tundra Tracker (Tundra Labs previously said its tracker would have better battery life than the Vive Tracker 2.0).

This week has brought the first look at the official pricing for the Tundra Tracker. Pricing is slightly confusing because the company is actually selling three different dongles, all of which connect via one USB connection, but are capable of connecting a different number of devices. We’ve labeled them A, B, and C for clarity:

Tracker Dongle Price
1x – $95
1x Dongle A (up to 3 devices) $130
3x Dongle A (up to 3 devices) $300
5x Dongle B (up to 5 devices) $460
7x Dongle C (up to 7 devices) $630
– Dongle A (up to 3 devices) $43
– Dongle B (up to 5 devices) $60
– Dongle C (up to 7 devices) $80

Tundra Labs is positioning its multi-device dongles as a unique advantage over the Vive Tracker dongles.

Vive Trackers need one dongle per tracker, so if you want to use 5x Vive Trackers for body tracking, you’d need connect 5x Vive Tracker dongles to your computer (each on their own USB port, or with a third-party USB hub).

All of the Tundra Tracker dongles, on the other hand, use a single USB port but can connect multiple devices. Tundra Labs says its dongles are also capable of connecting Vive Trackers, controllers, and other peripherals which use SteamVR Tracking (including the ability to mix and match), and its dongles are designed to fit inside the ‘frunk’ USB accessory port on the Valve Index. (Vive Tracker dongles can also connect any SteamVR Tracking peripherals, but only one device per dongle.)

Tundra Tracker prototype next to Vive Tracker 2.0 | Image courtesy Tundra Labs

Tundra Labs told us at the outset that it was aiming for “slightly cheaper” pricing than the Vive Tracker 2.0; here’s how pricing compares between Tundra Tracker, Vive Tracker 2.0, and the new Vive Tracker 3.0:

Tracker Count Tundra Tracker Vive Tracker 2.0 Vive Tracker 3.0
1x $130 (Dongle A) $100 $130
3x $300 (Dongle A) $300 $390
5x $460 (Dongle B) $500 $650
7x $630 (Dongle C) $700 $910

Tundra Labs said this week that it’s still on track for a March 29th Kickstarter. Assuming the campaign succeeds, initial delivers are expected to begin in July.

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HTC Announces Face-tracker for Vive Pro and Vive Tracker 3.0, Launching This Month for $130

HTC today announced two new VR accessories: a consumer version of its face-tracker and a new version of the Vive Tracker which is said to bring a large jump in battery life alongside being smaller. Both accessories are priced at $130 and will launch in the US starting on March 24th.

Vive Facial Tracker

Image courtesy HTC

HTC’s new Vive Facial Tracker is a face-tracking add-on for the Vive Pro headset. While the company had announced a development kit of the Facial Tracker back in 2019, now the company is selling a version of the device straight to consumers.

The company says the Vive Facial Tracker uses dual cameras running at 60Hz to track “38 facial movements across the lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, chin, and cheeks.” The unit includes an IR illuminator to ensure the area around the user’s mouth stays well lit for the computer-vision tracking to stay at peak performance in any lighting conditions. HTC claims 6ms of latency for the Facial Tracker.

Image courtesy HTC

The company revealed two videos of the Vive Facial Tracker in action, though admittedly they don’t do a great job of showing off the unit’s accuracy—granted, it looks like this may be the result of poor 3D model rigging more than the Facial Tracker itself.

We won’t have to wait for long to see for ourselves how the unit performs: the Vive Facial Tracker is set to launch on March 24th for $130.

Vive Tracker 3.0

Image courtesy HTC

HTC is also announcing a new version of the Vive Tracker. The company says it is 33% smaller than its predecessor and has 75% more battery life, offering up to seven hours on a single charge.

Functionally, the Vive Tracker 3.0 is the same as the previous model, supporting SteamVR Tracking 1.0 and 2.0. It is also backwards compatible with the same pogo pin and mounting layout, which uses a standard 1/4 tripod screw.

As the only commercially available SteamVR Tracking tracker available, the Vive Tracker has become the de facto standard over the years for tracking additional accessories or limbs inside of VR; some users are even using them to breakdance in VR. However, the Vive Tracker is expected to see some competition later this year.

While weight and size have gone down, unfortunately price is going up. The Vive Tracker 3.0 is priced at $130 (compared to $100 for the 2.0 version) and due to launch on March 24th.

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Exclusive: Tundra Tracker Aims for Smaller, Cheaper Alternative to Vive Tracker for SteamVR Tracking

Tundra Labs, which makes chips and development kits for devices which use SteamVR Tracking, is building its own tracking accessory for the tracking ecosystem. The company is positioning its Tundra Tracker as a smaller, cheaper, and better alternative to HTC’s Vive Tracker. A Kickstarter campaign to fund the project and gather feedback is planned for next month.

The Open SteamVR Tracking Ecosystem

SteamVR Tracking Base Stations

Valve’s SteamVR Tracking is an open tracking system which allows any third party to build devices which are tracked by SteamVR Base Stations. Valve’s own Index headset, along with third-party headsets from companies like HTC and Pimax, make use of the shared system for high quality room-scale tracking. The flexible system allows users to mix and match devices (like being able to use an Index headset with Vive wand controllers), and also allows additional devices to be added into the mix—like HTC’s Vive Tracker, which is a general-purpose SteamVR Tracking device that can be attached to things like props or limbs to track those objects in VR.

As the only consumer-available device of its kind, the Vive Tracker has become the defacto general purpose tracker for the SteamVR Tracking ecosystem. It’s commonly used to augment VR motion capture by attaching to a user’s feet and hips, thus providing six points of body tracking (head, hands, waist, and feet) rather than the usual three (head and hands). This allows the movements of players to be captured and represented more accurately, giving VR avatars an impressively wide range of motion.

Friendly Competition

Image courtesy Tundra Labs

As the defacto choice, comparisons to the Vive Tracker are inevitable; Tundra Labs founder Luke Beno says the Tundra Tracker will best the incumbent in several ways.

Specifically the device is expected to be “60% smaller, consume about 50% less power, weight 50% less, and have twice the battery life,” compared to the Vive Tracker, he tells Road to VR. Beno also plans to deliver the Tundra Tracker at a slightly lower cost than the $100 Vive Tracker, along with additional discounts for tracker bundles.

But the Tundra Tracker isn’t purely a competitor, it can also work in tandem with the Vive Tracker, allowing users who have already invested in Vive Trackers to augment their tracking setup without needing to completely switch from one tracker to the other.

In fact, users will be able to pair Vive Trackers, Tundra Trackers, and even Index controllers to the Tundra Tracker’s USB dongle. “It’s the beautiful nature of SteamVR’s open ecosystem,” Beno says.

Placement & Mounting Options

Image courtesy Tundra Labs

With its reduced size and weight, Beno says the Tundra Tracker will also offer more flexible placement options.

“The tracker shape is also designed to fit in places that Vive Tracker cannot. The default baseplate has two loops where a user can thread though a strap or shoe laces. I’m also considering integrating magnets into the base so that it can snap onto a metal plate that can be embedded or sewn into clothing.”

Image courtesy Tundra Labs

Tundra Labs is also considering other base plates for different applications, but is waiting to lock down the options until gathering feedback from potential customers. “I’d like to sort of ‘crowd source’ ideas [for the tracker’s mounting options] such that it is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution like Vive Tracker,” he says.

Tundra Tracker Kickstarter

Image courtesy Tundra Labs

To that end, Tundra Labs will run a Kickstarter campaign for the Tundra Tracker, which is planned to start in January with units shipping later in the year.

While the Kickstarter details are still being finalized, Beno tells Road to VR that Tundra Labs will also offer ‘multi-port dongles’ through the Kickstarter, which will allow users to pair multiple trackers (Tundra Trackers or Vive Trackers) using a single USB connection.

The plan is to offer multi-port dongles capable of pairing up to three, five, or seven trackers, respectively. They will also be small enough to fit into the opening in the front of the Valve Index headset (AKA the ‘frunk’), which would ensure the dongles stay close to the trackers for a strong connection.

Beyond the consumer Tundra Tracker and the multi-port dongle, Beno says the Kickstarter will also offer a ‘Dev Edition’ tracker which includes a “very comprehensive expansion connector,” which could be used by other companies to build functional, tracked accessories like VR guns, gloves, and more.

– – — – –

The Tundra Tracker represents a growing list of devices and use-cases enabled by Valve’s open SteamVR Tracking system, from high-end headsets and third-party controllers to styli and programming of industrial robots.

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Stanford Research Shows VR Users Can Be Identified Using Only 5 Minutes of Motion Data

Privacy in VR is an ever growing issue, especially now that all new Oculus accounts must login to Facebook with their real identity, which includes anyone who wants to use a Quest 2. Now researchers at Stanford University have shown they’re able to reliably identify individuals after only a five minute session in a standard consumer VR headset.

As reported by MIXED (German), researchers at Stanford devised a system that identifies users under “typical VR viewing circumstances, with no specially designed identifying task,” the team says in the research paper.

Using a pool of 511 participants, their system is said to be capable of identifying 95% of users correctly “when trained on less than 5 min of tracking data per person.”

Wearing an HTC Vive headset and given two Vive wand controllers, participants watched five 20-second clips from a randomized set of 360-degree videos, and then answered questionnaires in VR.

Image courtesy Stanford University

Notably, the answers to the questionnaires weren’t figured into the researchers’ dataset, but rather investigated in a separate paper examining head movements, arousal, presence, simulator sickness, and individual preferences.

Instead, VR videos were designed to see how users would react and move, with some including strong focal points such as animals, and others with no discernible focal point at all like the middle of a forest.

All of this nonverbal tracking data (both head and hands) was then plugged into three machine learning algorithms, which created a profile of a participant’s height, posture, head rotation speed, distance from VR content, position of controllers at rest, and how they move—a treasure trove of data points from just wearing a standard consumer VR headset.

“In both the privacy policy of Oculus and HTC, makers of two of the most popular VR headsets in 2020, the companies are permitted to share any de-identified data,” the paper notes. “If the tracking data is shared according to rules for de-identified data, then regardless of what is promised in principle, in practice taking one’s name off a dataset accomplishes very little.”

So whether you login to a platform holder’s account or not may already be a fairly minor issue in contrast to the wealth of information. Companies could harvest that de-identified biometrical data not only to figure out who you are, but predict your habits, understand your vulnerabilities, and create marketing profiles intent on grabbing your attention with a new level of granularity. We’re still not there yet, but as the number of VR consumers grows, so do the rewards for companies looking to buy data they simply never had access to before.

“With the rise of virtual reality, body tracking data has never been more accurate and more plentiful. There are many good uses of this tracking data, but it can also be abused,” the research paper concludes. “This work suggests that tracking data during an everyday VR experience is an effective identifier even in large samples. We encourage the research community to explore methods to protect VR tracking data.”

Granted, 500 users is a relatively small dataset in the face of what may soon be multiple millions of VR users. And when that number grows, it will undoubtedly become more difficult based on the data points alone the researchers were able to capture. The study however didn’t include a load of other burgeoning VR technologies that could be used to fill out personal profiles in the near future. Eye-tracking, optical mouth tracking, and integrated wearables such as fitness bands and smartwatches may be a part of the next step to filling out that remaining 5 percent—and all of those technologies are on the horizon for the next generation of consumer VR headsets.

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PlayStation 5 Revealed with HD Stereo Camera, May Support Upgraded Tracking for PSVR & PSVR 2

Sony today revealed its newest console, PlayStation 5. Though the company has previously confirmed that PS5 will support the current PSVR headset, it remained quiet about the prospect of PSVR 2 during today’s reveal. But there may be one good hint, a new stereo camera accessory which could bring upgraded tracking to PSVR and PSVR 2.

PlayStation 5 was finally revealed in full today. It’s a sleek, upright console that can stand upright or lay on its side, and will come in two variations: one with a disk drive and one without. The price and exact release date weren’t announced today, but the system is set to ship this holiday season.

Image courtesy Sony

Of most interest to us, of course, is the console’s VR capabilities and PSVR 2. Sony didn’t talk about that today, but it’s already been confirmed that PS5 will support the current PSVR headset.

And that makes today’s reveal of a stereo ‘HD Camera’ accessory for PlayStation 5 quiet intriguing.

PSVR Tracking is Largely Limited by the PS4 Camera

The current PSVR headset uses the PS4’s stereo PlayStation Camera to track the position of the headset by detecting its array of glowing lights. The camera also tracks the PlayStation Move controllers the same way.

The limited resolution of the PlayStation camera (up to 1280 × 800 @ 60Hz) is one reason why PSVR tracking is worst-in-class, showing more jitter and less accuracy than other major headsets (but still clearly good enough for Sony to be leading in headset sales).

Enhanced specs on the PlayStation 5 stereo HD Camera could potentially mean upgraded tracking for PSVR and PSVR 2.

How the PS5 Camera Could Upgrade PSVR Tracking

Image courtesy Sony

We’re still waiting for full specs on the camera, but The Verge reports that the HD Camera’s dual sensors are 1920 × 1080. More pixels means more precision when detecting the glowing tracking markers on PSVR and the PS Move controllers. This is especially important for detecting the markers at a distance, because precision falls off at an exponential rate as distance increases.

Beyond higher resolution, modern higher quality sensors could make a big difference too. PSVR’s current tracking can be fussy if the environment is too bright, or if there’s high contrast in the scene (like a bright window or ray of sun behind the player). Sensors with better light sensitivity and dynamic range could improve tracking in these difficult scenarios. Other upgrades like global shutter would be better still.

Higher frame rates could help too. The existing PS4 camera can go up to 240Hz, but only at a resolution of 320 × 192. Higher frame rates can reduce the need for tracking prediction, but sacrificing that much resolution wouldn’t be worth it.

We don’t know the frame rate modes on the PS5 camera yet, but if it can do 1080p @ 120Hz, that would be even better for tracking than 1080p @ 60Hz. Higher framerates would mean more up-to-date data for the tracking algorithms, which could reduce the need for tracking prediction (which helps mask latency).

A Big Hint

The big hint that the PS5 HD Camera will likely work for PSVR tracking is that it’s stereo instead of mono. Having two cameras means the tracking algorithms can compare the difference between the images to enhance the tracking estimate, just like our own eyes work together to give us a visual sensation of 3D depth.

The PS5 controller has some lights on it, but none that seem obvious for tracking usage | Image courtesy Sony

Sony might have just made the camera for streamers who want to capture themselves along with their gameplay, but then why make it stereo?

The camera will likely track the PS5 DualSense controller (just like the PS4 camera tracks the PS4 controllers) though it isn’t clear exactly how that will work, because the PS5 controller doesn’t have obvious glowing markers on it like the PS4 controller.

What the Camera Could Mean for PSVR 2 Tracking on PS5

Image courtesy Sony

Sony has heavily teased an upcoming PSVR 2 headset, but where would it fit into this scheme?

It seems obvious for Sony to use the PS5 HD Camera to track PSVR 2. This would increase the demand for the camera while cutting costs on the headset by not shelling out for an inside-out tracking system.

“But but but!”—I hear commenters already typing—”that would mean PSVR 2 still has front-facing tracking which is so last-gen!” Ah, but this is a misconception.

PSVR supports 360 tracking fairly well. The reason it’s restricted mostly to front-facing tracking is that the Move controllers are easily occluded when the player turns around. For 360 tracking on PSVR 2, Sony could continue to use the HD Camera to track the headset, as long as it uses a different tracking solution for the controllers.

Headset-based electromagnetic controller tracking—as seen in Magic Leap and Pico Neo 2—is one option. We’ve also seen the likes of headset-based ultrasonic tracking on headsets like Vive Focus Plus. There’s other possibilities too, like putting cameras on the controllers themselves which look for the headset’s glowing markers.

Another possibility is that PSVR 2 will use full-blown inside-out tracking, but could still fuse data from the HD camera for additional precision and robustness.

– – — – –

We’ve reached out to Sony for more information about the PS5 HD camera and the company’s plans for PlayStation VR and PlayStation VR 2 on Playstation 5.

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Manus Polygon Available Now, Offering Full VR Body And Hand Tracking

As announced back in March, orders and licenses for Polygon, the VR body and tracking system from Manus, can now be placed online. Prices for the full Polygon system are not listed, but quotes can be requested on the Manus site.

Manus Polygon is a tracking system that combines Vive Tracker pucks in addition to hand-tracking via a separate glove in order to provide a full-body solution for enterprise VR. To achieve this, the system uses 5 Vive Trackers in total — one on each foot, one on your waist and one of the back of each hand — in combination with Manus’ fully-body inverse kinematics solver and its Prime II Series gloves.

The idea is that the system is easy to set up and eliminates the need for any kind of full body suit to achieve full body tracking. The system also supports multiple users for multiplayer and can produce synchronized and accurately proportioned human avatars from the data. There is a 45 second calibration process, and the finger tracking from the gloves can measure 2 joints per finger and with 11DoF tracking.

Obviously this is an enterprise-focused project, so don’t expect to see any of this integration in your favorite VR games.

While we haven’t tried Polygon ourselves, we did try Manus gloves on one of our episodes of the VR Culture Show in November last year, which you can watch below.

Purchasing the Polygon pack also includes plugins to implement the system in Unity and Unreal. One year licenses for the Polygon system are available to order via a quote on the Manus site now.

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Watch: Antilatency’s 10-Person, Full-Body Tracking System

A new video from Antilatency shows a system that uses full-body tracking in VR on 10 users simultaneously, allowing them to interact with virtual representations of each other. The system positionally tracks each person’s feet, head and hands.

The system uses Antilatency’s ‘Bracer’ and ‘Tag’ tracking devices, which are small radio sockets that can be added onto existing HMDs to provide additional tracking capability. At CES 2019, these devices were used to turn the Oculus Go, a 3DoF headset, into a 6DoF headset with increased tracking capabilities and multi-user support.

In January, Antilatency expanded support for these custom tracking peripherals to include the Oculus Quest, providing new tracking options for location-based VR experiences using the mobile headset.

In this new video, Antilatency uses two Bracers on user’s hands and two Tags on user’s feet to provide a total of five tracking points, when including positional data of the headset.

The video shows an experience where 10 users are all interacting at once, with five points of tracking each, allowing for a deeper sense of immersion and realism for the user’s VR avatars. Antilatency says the session used Pico G2 headsets, with the trackers using a proprietary low-latency radio protocol. To avoid confusion and interference, each user has their own radio channel in the 2.4Ghz range to communicate between the tracking peripherals and the headset.

After receiving and processing the user’s tracking data locally, each headset then shares this information with all of the other headsets across a 5Ghz WiFi network to sync up each user. A PC was added into the system to create the demonstration video and visualise the whole experience, but otherwise would not be needed.

You can read more about Antilatency’s tracking peripherals here. 

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Antilatency Announces Oculus Quest Support, SDK, Custom 6DoF Controller

VR tracking company Antilatency has announced a slew of new hardware and updates to their tracking systems, including support for the Oculus Quest and a new software development kit (SDK) for easy implementation. The company’s custom tracking solutions now offer a ceiling set up, alongside a custom six degrees of freedom (6DOF) controller, ideal for enterprise solutions and implementation at location-based VR experiences.

Tag antilatency Vr

We previously tried Antilatency’s technology at CES 2019, where the tracking system turned the Oculus Go into a 6DoF, multi-user VR experience. This tracking technology operates via a small external “Tag” device, pictured above, which is mounted to the headset. Support for the Tag peripheral has expanded to include the Oculus Quest, which provides “full-body tracking, where head and foot tracking is performed by Antilatency trackers, and hand tracking is done by the native controller tracking of Oculus Quest.” The custom tracker device, which works with the Antilatency system, would likely connect to the Oculus Quest’s USB-C port.

Quest support comes alongside the addition of the new Antilatency SDK, which allows for “more flexible configuration of the system for various use cases” and improves upon previous iterations of the technology. This works hand-in-hand with the new ceiling set up option for tracking, which uses the same technology as the previous floor-based system with infrared lights, except it now uses markers and wires placed on a suspended ceiling rig. Antilatency admitted that the ceiling option is not as mobile or flexible as the floor mat option, but will allow for situations where objects are placed on the floor in the playspace, or when real walls are present that also co-exist in the virtual world.

Bracer 6dof tracker antilatency

Antilatency is also introducing a 6DoF controller called ‘The Bracer’, pictured above, which is “ultra-light” and mounted to the user’s wrist, allowing your hands to be used to grab objects without having to hold a controller of any kind. This would work in situations where the user wants to hold an external peripheral, such as a gun, without compromising tracking.

All of these new software and hardware updates position Antilatency to be implemented at an enterprise level, both in training situations and location-based experiences. You can read more on the Antilatency website.

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Oculus Quest & Rift S Controller Tracking Patched To Work Near Christmas Trees

The controller tracking of the Oculus Quest and Rift S needed to be patched to work properly near Christmas trees and other holiday lights.

Oculus Touch controllers are built with a constellation of infrared LEDs under the plastic of the tracking ring. These lights are tracked by the cameras on the headset in order to determine the position of the controller.

Holiday lights like those on Christmas trees can look a lot like these LEDs to the cameras. This means the algorithm has more sources of light in each frame to analyze, and sometimes it can’t tell the difference between the controller LEDs and the irrelevant LEDs at all. This could make the controller tracking work poorly, showing the wrong position for the controller.

The solution works because the headset tracking algorithm already remembers static landmarks seen by the cameras in the room — that’s how it works without external sensors. By keeping a track of these landmarks the system can reject blobs of light which stay in the same position and don’t move.

This process on its own, however, is not enough to eliminate all the issues. So Facebook also trained a neural network to detect and filter out blobs of lights that are too small or too large to be a controller LED given its last position.

You can read a full technical explanation of the solution in Facebook’s blog post.

This isn’t the first time Facebook improved the controller tracking on Quest and Rift S. Both headsets use the Oculus Insight tracking system and launched on the same day. At launch, the controllers wouldn’t track when brought too close to the headset and tracking could break when one was placed in front of the other. This made games like shooters difficult to play until a patch was released one month after launch which fixed these issues.

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