HTC Vive Facial Tracker

HTC Vive Facial Tracker
Basic Info
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Type	Face-tracking accessory
Subtype	Lower-face tracker
Platform	SteamVR
Creator	HTC
Developer	HTC
Manufacturer	HTC
Announcement Date	March 10, 2021
Release Date	March 24, 2021
Price	$129.99
Website	https://www.vive.com/
Versions	Vive Facial Tracker
Requires	Vive Pro / Vive Pro Eye, USB-C port, SRanipal runtime
Predecessor	Vive Facial Tracker developer kit (2019)
Successor	Facial Tracker for Vive Focus Series
System
Operating System	N/A
Chipset	N/A
CPU	N/A
GPU	N/A
Storage
Storage	N/A
Memory	N/A
SD Card Slot	No
Display
Display	N/A
Resolution	N/A
Refresh Rate	N/A
Image
Field of View	N/A
Horizontal FoV	N/A
Vertical FoV	N/A
Optics
Optics	N/A
Ocularity	N/A
IPD Range	N/A
Adjustable Diopter	N/A
Passthrough	N/A
Tracking
Tracking	Optical (computer-vision lower-face tracking)
Base Stations	N/A
Eye Tracking	No
Face Tracking	Yes (lower face, up to 38 movements)
Hand Tracking	N/A
Body Tracking	N/A
Rotational Tracking	N/A
Positional Tracking	N/A
Audio
Audio	N/A
Microphone	N/A
Camera	Dual cameras (60 Hz) with IR illuminator
Connectivity
Connectivity	USB-C (wired)
Ports	USB-C
WiFi	N/A
Bluetooth	N/A
Power	USB bus-powered
Battery Capacity	N/A
Battery Life	N/A
Charge Time	N/A
Device
Material	Plastic housing
Headstrap	N/A
Haptics	N/A
Color	Black
Sensors	Dual cameras, IR illuminator
Input	Facial expression capture
Compliance	SteamVR compatible

The HTC Vive Facial Tracker is a virtual reality face-tracking accessory developed by HTC that clips onto the underside of a Vive Pro headset to capture lower-face expressions in real time. Announced on March 10, 2021 and released in the United States on March 24, 2021 for $129.99, the device uses dual cameras running at 60 Hz, together with an infrared illuminator, to track up to 38 facial movements across the user's lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, chin, and cheeks. By mapping these movements onto a virtual avatar's mouth, the accessory adds lip-sync and lower-face animation to social and expressive VR applications, complementing the eye tracking already built into the Vive Pro Eye.

History and Development

HTC first showed a Vive Facial Tracker as a development kit in 2019, before bringing a consumer version to market in 2021. The retail Facial Tracker was unveiled on March 10, 2021 alongside the HTC Vive Tracker 3 (Vive Tracker 3.0), a slimmer body-tracking puck that HTC announced at the same time. Dan O'Brien, general manager of HTC America, framed the pair as an upgrade to the broader Vive ecosystem, noting that the new tracker generation was designed to "increase the utility and immersion of VR." Both products went on sale in the United States on March 24, 2021 through vive.com, each priced at $129.99.

The Facial Tracker arrived as part of HTC's push toward more expressive social VR, positioning lower-face capture as the natural companion to the eye tracking that shipped in the Vive Pro Eye. An early public demonstration of the device was given by Frooxius, the developer behind the social VR platform Neos, showing the tracker driving avatar mouth movement.

A separate, later product, the Facial Tracker for the HTC Vive Focus Series (sold for the standalone Vive Focus 3 and related headsets), extended HTC's facial-tracking line to standalone hardware. The original Vive Facial Tracker described here is the PC VR accessory built around the Vive Pro family.

Hardware and Design

The Vive Facial Tracker is a small camera module that mounts to the front underside of the headset, sitting below the lenses so its cameras face the wearer's mouth. HTC ships the unit with adhesive to attach it to the Vive Pro HMD series, and it connects over a USB-C cable.

Two cameras capture the lower face from slightly different angles, running at a 60 Hz tracking rate, while an integrated infrared illuminator keeps the area around the mouth lit so the computer-vision tracking remains reliable in low-light or varied lighting conditions. HTC's announcement materials cite a sub-10 millisecond response time so that lip movement stays in sync with the user's voice, while Road to VR's coverage reported a figure of 6 ms latency.

Specification	Detail
Type	Lower-face tracking accessory
Sensors	Dual cameras with IR illuminator
Tracking rate	60 Hz
Facial movements	Up to 38 (lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, chin, cheeks)
Response time	Sub-10 ms (HTC); 6 ms (Road to VR)
Mounting	Adhesive to Vive Pro / Vive Pro Eye, below the lenses
Connection	USB-C cable
Power	USB bus-powered
Price	$129.99
Release	March 24, 2021 (US)

Tracking and Software

The device performs computer-vision tracking of the lower face, resolving up to 38 distinct movements that together approximate nearly the entire lower portion of a user's face, including the lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, chin, and cheeks. Because it captures only the lower face, it is typically paired with the eye tracking in the Vive Pro Eye to produce full-face avatar animation.

On the software side, the Facial Tracker relies on HTC's SRanipal runtime, the Windows software layer used to interface with Vive eye- and face-tracking hardware. SRanipal is required for the tracker to function, and the runtime can be installed through Vive Console or as a standalone package. For developers, HTC provides the Vive eye- and facial-tracking SDK (SRanipal), with support for engines and standards including Unity, Unreal Engine, and OpenXR.

In consumer social VR, the tracker is commonly used through community tools such as VRCFaceTracking, which bridges SRanipal data into apps like VRChat so that compatible avatars mirror the wearer's mouth and lower-face expressions.

Compatibility

HTC designed and trained the Facial Tracker around the Vive Pro headset's geometry, and it officially supports the Vive Pro and Vive Pro Eye. In practice, the unit also works with other PC VR headsets that have an accessible USB port and enough room to mount the camera in front of the mouth, including the original HTC Vive, the Valve Index, and Pimax headsets, though doing so requires a do-it-yourself mounting solution.

Enthusiasts demonstrated the tracker working on the Valve Index and the Meta Quest 2, in some cases using a USB-C adapter and double-sided tape to fit and position the module. HTC, however, did not guarantee results outside the Vive Pro. Shen Ye, then senior director and global head of hardware products at HTC, said the company could "only guarantee performance with Pro as that's the exact position we'd originally trained the recognition on," and cautioned that USB-A to USB-C adapters fall outside USB-IF specifications, so such setups should be attempted "at your own risk." Users running the device on non-Vive Pro headsets also lose the integrated eye-tracking benefits of the Vive Pro Eye.

Reception

Coverage at launch focused on the novelty of bringing mouth, tongue, and jaw tracking to consumer VR. Outlets including Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag described the lip- and tongue-scanning capability as both striking and slightly unsettling, reflecting how unusual detailed lower-face capture was for a consumer accessory at the time. SlashGear highlighted early demonstrations of the tracker driving avatar expressions, including a clip shared by the Neos VR developer Frooxius.

The Facial Tracker found its strongest following in social VR communities, where face tracking gives avatars natural mouth movement and more personal, expressive interaction; platforms such as VRChat became a common home for the device through community tooling. HTC continued to build on the concept, later releasing facial- and eye-tracking add-ons for its standalone Vive Focus 3 hardware.

See Also

• HTC
• HTC Vive Pro
• Vive Pro Eye
• HTC Vive Tracker 3
• Vive Tracker
• Facial tracking
• Eye tracking
• SteamVR
• VRChat