We checked the HTC Vive Pro Eye, or VR goggles with eye tracking

The new VR goggles from HTC will not make the virtual reality finally go under thatch. HTC Vive Pro Eye with tracking eye movement is an important step that brings the moment closer.

Virtual reality in the current edition, especially in the form of goggles connected to personal computers, is a solution primarily for geeks. HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are not typical plug-and-play equipment that allows you to play right out of the box. You need to set up sensors in the apartment and set up the whole set laboriously.

Less advanced mobile goggles, in which smartphones are inserted, are toys at HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Something in between, in terms of both ability and price, are PlayStation VR gaming devices connected to Sony players' equipment, but this is still a niche gadget compared to the console itself. The whole category has been developing for years, but it still has not entered the mainstream.

HTC Vive Pro Eye , or the latest version of the Taiwanese company goggles, will not change that.

HTC Vive is not sold in hundreds of millions of copies, although it has its group of satisfied enthusiasts, for whom more games are created. The first goggles from this family appeared already in 2016. Since then, there have been plenty of additional accessories and several subsequent revisions, including the HTC Vive Pro , which debuted at the beginning of 2018.

This year, the HTC Vive Pro Eye was presented at CES 2019 . The new model differs from the predecessor by adding a new member in a longer name and handling the tracking of eye movements. This is great news and not just for players. This gives not only an additional way to control the video game, but also a new form of interaction with application applications.

I had the opportunity to set up HTC Vive Pro Eye on my head and I was pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of motion detection.

I succeeded at this year's CES in Las Vegas at the Tobii brand stand, which is the HTC partner responsible for the HTC Vive Pro Eye motion detection technology. The creators of this system, which previously functioned as an external accessory for personal computers, presented me with a simple shooter.

The game consisted of aiming at the next hordes of worms that tried to destroy the crystal in the middle of the board. The basic weapon was firing where I directed one of the controllers. After getting the power-up, my character could, however, aim the rockets at specific enemies after I looked in their direction. It worked extremely well.

You did not have to move your head to do this, just look at it.

HTC Vive Pro Eye caught up without any problem, on which of the dozen or so present on the screen enemies looked. What is interesting, during the normal game I did not pay any attention to it, because this way of control is very natural. In addition, only after turning off this system, the player understands how helpful it was.

Does it work well I checked later, keeping my head still and pointing with the eyes of next enemies. At first, they were worms on opposite sides of the board, but after a while I was able to indicate exactly one of the two next to each other. The accuracy of eye movement detection is really good at the HTC Vive Pro Eye.

Of course, adding this feature is not enough to introduce virtual reality goggles into the living rooms.

Elea enthusiasts of this type of entertainment should be satisfied with the HTC Vive Pro Eye, but this is not a new product worth releasing cosmic money for the purchase of another set just one year after the previous purchase - the premiere is scheduled for the second quarter of 2019. I am afraid of market fragmentation, so the potential of this solution will not be fully utilized.

Eye tracking in HTC Vive Pro Eye prepared in cooperation with Tobii will be available only to some of the recipients. The developers of games and applications will not be able to design their applications right away with the eye in mind and will remain only an addition, not the main way of interaction.

The Vive Reality system, which includes both operational and empirical elements, will affect the entire family of HTC Vive products. It will debut in 2019 on the HTC Vive Cosmos platform. The element of the project is also cooperation with Mozilla, the result of which will be the world's first web browser, created for the needs of the HTC Vive environment.

We checked the HTC Vive Pro Eye, or VR goggles with eye tracking