Body tracking may be in the works for the Quest 2 VR headset.
In a document outlining how to get the Quest 2 headset set up for a tracked physical keyboard through the Unity game engine, a supporting image showed a toggle for body tracking, UploadVR reports. The image also distinguished between body tracking and hand tracking, the latter of which both the original Quest and Quest 2 headsets have supported for some time.
The image is no longer present in the support document, and Meta—Facebook’s parent company—declined to comment for UploadVR.
The document doesn’t outline how the Quest 2 may achieve body tracking. There are currently a number of solutions already available on the market, some which use external cameras or VR base stations to track extra hardware worn by the user. The Xbox Kinect camera system can also be set up to track body movements, as demonstrated by YouTuber The Mysticle. But these systems don’t integrate seamlessly with the Quest 2 headset as a standalone device.
Last spring, Meta teased a prototype wristband that detects movements and electrical signals to recreate precise finger movements in VR. And later in the year, Mark Zuckerberg showed off a haptic glove that can let you feel virtual objects.
The best hints about Quest 2 body tracking, though, may come from leaks related to Meta’s upcoming VR headset, Project Cambria. “Project Cambria will be a high-end device at a higher price point, because it’s going to be packed with all the latest advanced technologies, including improved social presence, color Passthrough, pancake optics, and a lot more,” Meta said in an October blog post. (Emphasis ours)
A series of leaks shared by @Basti564 on Twitter appear to show Project Cambria body tracking using onboard sensors and a mirror. The Quest 2’s cameras have already proven capable of tracking hands, so tracking a wearer’s body through a mirror may also be plausible.
