Vive Focus 3 Facial Tracker

Vive Focus 3 Facial Tracker
Basic Info
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Type	Face-tracking accessory
Subtype	Facial tracker
Platform	HTC Vive Focus 3, Vive Focus Vision
Creator	HTC
Developer	HTC
Manufacturer	HTC
Announcement Date	September 7, 2022
Release Date	2022
Price	US$99
Website	https://www.vive.com/us/accessory/facial-tracker-for-vive-focus-series/
Versions	Facial Tracker for VIVE Focus Series
Requires	HTC Vive Focus 3 (or Vive Focus Vision) headset
Predecessor	Vive Facial Tracker
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	60 Hz (tracking)
Persistence	N/A
Image
Field of View	151 degrees (camera)
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 (mono camera, 38 blend shapes)
Base Stations	N/A
Eye Tracking	No
Face Tracking	Yes
Hand Tracking	N/A
Body Tracking	N/A
Rotational Tracking	N/A
Positional Tracking	N/A
Audio
Audio	N/A
Microphone	N/A
Camera	Single 60 Hz wide-angle tracking camera
Connectivity
Connectivity	USB Type-C
Ports	USB Type-C connector
WiFi	N/A
Bluetooth	N/A
Power	Bus-powered via USB-C
Battery Capacity	N/A
Battery Life	N/A
Charge Time	N/A
Device
Weight	11.6 g
Material	Plastic housing
Headstrap	N/A
Haptics	N/A
Color	Black
Sensors	Mono tracking camera
Input	N/A

The Vive Focus 3 Facial Tracker, sold by HTC as the Facial Tracker for VIVE Focus Series, is a snap-on face-tracking accessory for the HTC Vive Focus 3 standalone virtual reality headset. Announced on September 7, 2022, it uses a single downward-facing camera mounted on the front of the headset to read the wearer's mouth and lower face, then maps those movements onto a virtual avatar in real time. HTC priced it at US$99 and launched it alongside a separate $249 eye tracker for the same headset, positioning the pair as expression and gaze add-ons roughly one month before Meta Quest Pro reached the market with comparable built-in features.

The tracker captures 38 blend shapes across the lips, jaw, cheeks, chin, teeth, and tongue, sampling at 60 Hz so that mouth movements and speech stay synchronized with an avatar with near-zero latency. It connects through the headset's USB Type-C port, weighs about 11.6 grams, and adds lower-face expression to a headset that otherwise tracks only the head and hands.

Background

HTC's first consumer face tracker was the Vive Facial Tracker, a separate product released in March 2021 for the PC-tethered HTC Vive Pro and HTC Vive Pro Eye at US$129.99. That earlier unit also recognized 38 facial movements across the lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, cheeks, and chin at 60 Hz, but it relied on a dual-camera module with infrared illumination rather than a single sensor.

The HTC Vive Focus 3, by contrast, is a standalone mixed reality headset aimed at business and enterprise customers, sold for roughly US$1,300. Because the Focus 3 runs without a PC, HTC redesigned the face tracker around a single camera that plugs directly into the headset rather than the dual-camera approach used on the tethered Vive Pro. The company announced the Focus 3 Facial Tracker and a companion eye tracker together on September 7, 2022, extending the Focus 3's accessory line that already included a separately sold wrist tracker.

Hardware and design

The Facial Tracker is a small black module that attaches to the front underside of the HTC Vive Focus 3 and angles a single wide-angle camera down toward the mouth and lower face. The camera runs at 60 Hz, and the whole unit weighs about 11.6 grams, drawing power and sending data over a USB Type-C connection to one of the headset's ports. UploadVR described the accessory as weighing roughly 10 grams and using a single 60 Hz camera with a wide-angle lens, in contrast to the eye tracker's two infrared cameras. The wide field of view, listed at 151 degrees, lets the single sensor cover the full range of jaw and lip motion that the earlier dual-camera Vive Pro unit captured with two cameras.

Because the Focus 3 is a self-contained device, the tracker requires no separate processing box or PC connection. It can be fitted or removed without tools, and it works together with the optional Focus 3 eye tracker so that a user can run face and gaze tracking at the same time.

Tracking and software

The tracker reads 38 blend shapes spread across the lips, jaw, cheeks, chin, teeth, and tongue. Blend shapes are the standard parameters used to deform a 3D avatar face, so the 38 values let an application reproduce expressions such as smiles, frowns, puckered lips, and tongue movement, and keep them in sync with the wearer's voice at the camera's 60 Hz sampling rate. This makes the accessory useful for social VR, virtual meetings, and avatar-driven content creation including VTubing, where lifelike mouth movement adds presence beyond head and hand motion alone.

For developers, HTC exposed the facial data through its VIVE Wave SDK and the SRanipal facial-tracking SDK, with support for the OpenXR standard, and integration paths for the Unity and Unreal Engine game engines. Captured expression data can also be streamed to a PC over Wi-Fi for use in PC VR applications, allowing the standalone headset to feed face animation into desktop-grade experiences.

Specifications

Specification	Detail
Type	Snap-on facial tracking accessory
Compatible headset	HTC Vive Focus 3 (also marketed for Vive Focus Vision)
Camera	Single wide-angle tracking camera
Tracking rate	60 Hz
Field of view	151 degrees
Tracked points	38 blend shapes (lips, jaw, cheeks, chin, teeth, tongue)
Connection	USB Type-C
Weight	About 11.6 g
SDK / software	VIVE Wave SDK, SRanipal facial-tracking SDK, OpenXR, Unity, Unreal Engine
Announced	September 7, 2022
Price	US$99

Reception

Coverage at launch framed the Facial Tracker and its companion eye tracker as a way for the enterprise-focused HTC Vive Focus 3 to match the social-presence features that competitors were building in. Both UploadVR and Road to VR noted the timing: HTC revealed the add-ons about a month before Meta Quest Pro launched with integrated face and eye tracking, so the Focus 3 accessories offered a comparable capability set on hardware that had been on sale since 2021. Reviewers also observed that the single-camera design and US$99 price made the Focus 3 unit cheaper than the earlier dual-camera Vive Facial Tracker for the Vive Pro, while tracking the same 38 blend shapes.

See also

• HTC Vive Focus 3
• Vive Facial Tracker
• HTC
• Facial tracking
• Eye tracking
• Meta Quest Pro