Virtual Realtiy has become the talk of the town lately. With the launch of different VR technologies ranging from Samsung Gear VR, the very famous Pokemon Go to Google Cardboard , there is always something new to be experienced when it comes to this side of technology. Veeso, a Virtual Reality headset with face tracking technology which captures the facial expression and interprets every emotion of the person wearing it through sensor technology. So who doesn’t want to experience the way we look digital to others!
The smartphone enabled VR headset is compatible to iOS and Android devices. The company claims that this headset is the first of its kind where the software enables the user, not only to communicate with one another but also to ‘emote’, which means to capture users’ facial expressions and emotions, and transfer them in real time into the digital world.
Veeso is a product of Be and Become, a New York based company which is currently raising funds on indiegogo for the development of the product. According to a report in Daily Mail Joseph D’Anna, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Veeso, said, “When we decided to bring that special interaction that occurs between people and bring it into virtual reality we realized the technology is not there. Veeso has built in infrared cameras that track your facial expressions and transfers them to a virtual avatar. Imagine being transformed into a favourite gaming character, if all games and movies could reflect your emotions.”
How does it work?
At this stage Veeso is a functioning prototype, capable of capturing a variety of user’s facial expressions through its two cameras. The first infrared camera tracks the position of the pupils and moments of the eyelids that enables Veeso to make out where the user is looking and also what are the emotions being portrayed. The second infrared camera is aimed at the mouth, jaw and covers the whole face of the user to broadly capture all the expressions. The headset uses Bluetooth to track the data and communicate it to mobile device. Currently the prototype makes use of a power cable, but the final product will be wireless, available with an integrated battery-pack.
Indiegogo preorder campaign for Veeso ended in August and the phase two will commence in September. This stage includes scalable software infrastructure, hardware engineering validation testing, manufacturing and delivery, and will end in December 2016 by presenting the final product. According to Techcrunch, Veeso is hoping to raise $80,000 with this campaign.