Meta seems to be testing a Quest 4 prototype with eye and face tracking
Could the next big feature in Meta Quest 4 be eye and face tracking? A Meta focus group test suggests it might be.
VR enthusiast Luna found an interesting listing on User Interviews. The listing is looking for testers for "a wearable tech device that will record their facial expressions and eye movements, as well as voice capture."
The test site is a Meta building in Burlingame, California and the focus group test is called "Project Pismo".
The Information previously reported that Meta plans to release Quest 4 in two versions in 2026: a standard and a premium version. Their codenames: Pismo Low and Pismo High.
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AdAdProject Pismo: Opportunity to Test NEW Tech On-Site (SF Bay Area)https://t.co/EaYTRxn9cD https://t.co/bFJiN3Si4I pic.twitter.com/Or93cAcQ10
- Luna (@Lunayian) October 21, 2024
Quest 4 with eye and face tracking? Questions upon questions
Even if Meta is testing a Quest 4 prototype with eye and face tracking, this does not mean that the finished product will be released with these features.
Eye and face tracking would undoubtedly drive up the cost of the device, which would be at odds with Meta's strategy of making VR headsets as inexpensive as possible. A Quest 4S with eye and face tracking? That seems unlikely from today's perspective. So far, only the Quest Pro (see cover image) has these features, and Meta initially sold it for $1,500.
Could only the Pismo High offer these features and not the Pismo Low? This is also unlikely, especially since the Quest 3 and the much cheaper Quest 3S already have software feature parity. It would be surprising to see Meta change this for the next generation of headsets. In addition, such a decision would hinder the adoption of eye and face tracking by developers.
Perhaps Meta has found a cheaper way to incorporate good eye and face tracking? Eye tracking in particular would bring many benefits to Meta Quest, including eye contact between avatars, dynamic foveated rendering and more elegant UI inputs similar to Vision Pro. It seems like the big next step for the Meta Quest platform.
Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth repeatedly emphasizes that implementing eye tracking is difficult, but also said that it would eventually become the standard for Quest headsets.
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