Two screenshots appearing to show new Oculus controllers with onboard cameras instead of a tracking ring were posted on image sharing platform imgur.
The shots appear to be from a Facebook Workplace video conference, based on the user interface visible in the first image. Workplace is Facebook’s Slack & Microsoft Teams competitor. That might suggest this leak originated either from within Facebook or from a developer with early hardware access using Workplace as their remote work solution.
Unlike all Oculus Touch controllers to date, no infrared LED ring is present in these shots. Instead, three cameras (one on the top face and two on the side) seem to be present for independent inside-out computer vision tracking.
Based on what we know so far about Facebook’s next VR headset, these controllers – if real – could be for Oculus Quest Pro.
Did Quest Pro Specs Leak On Reddit?
On Wednesday Reddit user Samulia posted purported low resolution renders of “Oculus Seacliff Controllers”. Seacliff is a hardware codename present in the Oculus Quest firmware since at least August 2020.
At the time we didn’t think much of it, because moderator-verified Oculus employee Reddit user AmitOculus commented “Just FYI that we do a lot of internal prototyping before we release final products. I have another quite different prototype.” – but the newly leaked video conference screenshots raise the credibility of Samulia’s leak.
As others have noticed, Samulia also posted a comment on Tuesday claiming to have had a “realistic and detailed dream” about the display type and exact models of camera sensors used in “Seacliff/Arcata Standalone Headset”.
The display is allegedly a Dual-Cell LCD from BOE with the same resolution as Quest 2 but an advanced backlight with pixel-level control, enabling OLED-like black levels without OLED’s black smear or manufacturability issues.
There are allegedly three sensors on the exterior of the headset. A 4K 120FPS RGB camera for color passthrough & mixed reality, and two side-facing 1K near-infrared 120FPS cameras with laser constellation projection. This side facing sensor system is listed as used for head tracking, hand tracking, and controller tracking. And as with the later screenshot leaks, the controller was said to track itself using onboard IR cameras.
The use of laser constellation projection could suggest that the controller locates itself relative to the projected pattern, which the headset knows the position of and so can translate this to its own coordinate space. Samulia also claimed the controllers as having precise finger position sensing, triple haptics (main, trigger, pinch) and a fingerprint sensor.
As well as the exterior sensors there are allegedly two 480p 120FPS eye tracking cameras and two 400p 120FPS face tracking cameras. References to face & eye tracking calibration were found in the public Oculus Quest firmware earlier this month.
Are these specs legit?
It’s possible that Samulia somehow obtained the screenshot leaks before making their comments, then simply Googled suitable VR tracking sensors and upcoming BOE technologies. BOE supplied the LCD panels for Oculus Go, Rift S, and Quest 2 after all.
The same Oculus employee on Reddit that claimed to have “a very different” prototype commented again to caution “Aspirations and final products are sometimes different things.” – an attempt to reign in a hype train out of control?
But YouTuber Basti564 – known for finding upcoming features in Oculus firmware on multiple occasions – posted an icon file appearing to show the same controller as leaked, calling it “Starlet”.
This looks surprisingly similar to my findings. Someone must have had very lucid dreams
— Bastian
(@Basti564) September 24, 2021
Basti also Tweeted that Samulia’s purported spec sheet “looks surprisingly similar to my findings” and hints at these Starlet controllers using the same OV7251 480P 120FPS sensor as Samulia claimed is used for eye tracking. The manufacturer Omnivision says this model has “the industry’s smallest global shutter pixel”.
A Truly High End Product?
The Starlet controllers, if real, would be the smallest consumer device with high precision self contained positional tracking ever shipped – a remarkable technical achievement.
In a public conversation with Facebook’s soon-to-be CTO Andrew Bosworth back in April, “Consulting Oculus CTO” John Carmack cautioned “I’m happy to have some Pro version that’s going exploring every sensor in the kitchen sink. I just think that you’ll wind up with 1/10th of the users on there and we should be about kind of maximizing the user base.”
Bosworth referred to “Quest Pro” in that conversation and not “Quest 2 Pro”, and so did the firmware leaks. This along with the apparent varied sensor suite including laser projectors, a 4K passthrough camera and controller cameras suggest Faceb00k may use Quest Pro as a VR tech showcase and development kit for new features, which may not all make it into a future Quest 3 sold at a mass market price.
Quest Pro could be, for the first time since the original Oculus Rift, a headset meant to push the boundaries of what’s possible instead of optimizing for low cost. And if the rumors from multiple sources are true, it could be directly facing off against Apple as early as next year.
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