Oculus Touch is a line of motion controller systems used by Meta Platforms (formerly Oculus) virtual reality headsets. The controller was first introduced in 2016 as a standalone accessory for the Oculus Rift CV1, and began to be bundled with the headset and all future Oculus products beginning in July 2017. Since their original release, Touch controllers have undergone revisions for later generations of Oculus/Meta hardware, including a switch to inside-out tracking, and other design changes.
The Oculus Touch consists of a pair of handheld units, each featuring an analog stick, three buttons, and two triggers, (one commonly used for grabbing and the other for shooting or firing), along with the first and third iterations having a dedicated thumbrest. [1] and features a system for detecting finger gestures the user may make while holding them. [2] The ring in each controller contains a set of infrared LEDs, which allows them to be fully tracked in 3D space by sensors (either external, or located in the face of the headset on later models), allowing them to be represented in the virtual environment. [3] [4]
The first iteration of Oculus Touch was revealed on June 11, 2015, with a prototype called the Half Moon. The prototype used the same infrared LED tracking technology as the Oculus Rift and included inward-facing sensors which could detect common hand gestures. [5]
Since the Oculus Rift CV1 was initially shipped without motion controllers, Oculus Touch was first released as a standalone accessory for the device. Pre-orders for Oculus Touch began on October 10, 2016, for a release on December 6 at a price of US$200, with priority granted until October 27 to those who had originally pre-ordered the Oculus Rift. [6] In March 2017, their price were lowered to $99. [7] In July 2017, Oculus began to bundle Oculus Touch with Oculus Rift headsets, replacing their previous inclusion of a limited remote control and Xbox Wireless Controller. [8] [9]
A second iteration of Oculus Touch was introduced by the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S released in 2019. The most prominent modification is that the controllers' IR rings were moved to the top of the device facing the user, as they are tracked via cameras embedded in the headset rather than external Constellation sensors. [10] [11]
The Oculus Quest 2 is bundled with a revision to the second-generation Oculus Touch controllers; they feature updated ergonomics influenced by the first-generation controllers (including reinstating the thumb rest on the rear of the controller), improved haptics, and improved battery life. They also replace the magnetic battery cover with a snapping system to prevent the cover from randomly slipping off during intense gameplay. [1]
The controller has been criticized for being less accurate than the previous revision. [12]
The fourth iteration of Oculus Touch—branded as Touch Pro—was unveiled in October 2022. They are included with the Meta Quest Pro and sold as an optional accessory for Quest 2 and 3. [13] [14] Touch Pro controllers have an on-board tracking system utilizing Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 system-on-chips and integrated cameras, which removes the need for the controllers to be within the headset's line of sight for the best accuracy and performance. These changes also allow the controllers to have a more compact form factor with no sensor rings. The controllers also have a pressure sensor designed to detect pinching gestures, a haptic feedback system known as "TruTouch," and use rechargeable batteries. [15] [16] [17]
Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S [18] [19] ship with Touch Plus controllers. [20] Their design are similar to the Touch Pro controllers, but still use infrared emitters for positional tracking—re-located from a sensor ring to the body of the controller, and augmented by internal sensors and the headset's hand tracking system. [21] [22]
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment, education and business. VR is one of the key technologies in the reality-virtuality continuum. As such, it is different from other digital visualization solutions, such as augmented virtuality and augmented reality.
In computing, a motion controller is a type of input device that uses accelerometers, gyroscopes, cameras, or other sensors to track motion.
Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality industry. It was the first virtual reality headset to provide a realistic experience at an accessible price, utilizing novel technology to increase quality and reduce cost by orders of magnitude compared to earlier systems. The first headset in the line was the Oculus Rift DK1, released on March 28, 2013. The last was the Oculus Rift S, discontinued in April 2021.
Reality Labs, formerly Oculus VR, is a business and research unit of Meta Platforms that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon Worlds. In June 2022, several artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives that were previously a part of Meta AI were transitioned to Reality Labs. This also includes Meta's fundamental AI Research laboratory FAIR which is now part of the Reality Labs - Research (RLR) division.
HTC Vive is a line of virtual and mixed reality headsets produced by HTC Corporation. The brand currently encompasses headsets designed for use with personal computers as well as standalone headsets such as the Vive Focus line, Vive Flow glasses, and the Vive Elite XR mixed reality headset.
A virtual reality headset is a head-mounted device that uses 3D near-eye displays and positional tracking to provide a virtual reality environment for the user. VR headsets are widely used with VR video games, but they are also used in other applications, including simulators and trainers. VR headsets typically include a stereoscopic display, stereo sound, and sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes for tracking the pose of the user's head to match the orientation of the virtual camera with the user's eye positions in the real world. AR headsets are similar to VR headsets, but AR headsets enable the user to see and interact with the outside world. Examples of AR headsets include the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3.
Virtual Desktop is remote control software for Android-based virtual reality headsets. It allows users to control a PC over a wireless LAN from the headset, including the ability to stream VR games and software.
Foveated rendering is a rendering technique which uses an eye tracker integrated with a virtual reality headset to reduce the rendering workload by greatly reducing the image quality in the peripheral vision.
A virtual reality game or VR game is a video game played on virtual reality (VR) hardware. Most VR games are based on player immersion, typically through a head-mounted display unit or headset with stereoscopic displays and one or more controllers.
The Oculus Go is a discontinued, standalone virtual reality headset developed by Meta Reality Labs in partnership with Qualcomm and Xiaomi. It is in the first generation of Facebook Technologies' virtual reality headsets, and the company's first device in the category of standalone VR headsets, which was a new category at the time of the Go's release. The Oculus Go was unveiled on October 11, 2017 during the Oculus Connect developer conference, and released on May 1, 2018. Xiaomi launched their own version of the headset in China as the Mi VR Standalone on May 31, 2018.
The first-generation Oculus Quest is a discontinued virtual reality headset developed by Oculus, a brand of Facebook Inc., and released on May 21, 2019. Similar to its predecessor, Oculus Go, it is a standalone device, that can run games and software wirelessly under an Android-based operating system. It supports positional tracking with six degrees of freedom, using internal sensors and an array of cameras in the front of the headset rather than external sensors. The cameras are also used as part of the safety feature "Passthrough", which shows a view from the cameras when the user exits their designated boundary area known as "Guardian". A later software update added "Oculus Link", a feature that allows the Quest to be connected to a computer via USB, enabling use with Oculus Rift-compatible software and games.
Oculus Rift S is a discontinued virtual reality headset co-developed by Lenovo Technologies and Oculus VR. Announced in March 2019 and released that May, it is a successor to the original Oculus Rift CV1 model, with noted changes including a new "inside-out" positional tracking system with cameras embedded inside the headset unit, a higher-resolution display, and a new "halo" head strap.
Oculus Rift CV1, also known simply as Oculus Rift, is a virtual reality headset developed by Oculus VR, a subsidiary of Meta Platforms, known at the time as Facebook Inc. It was announced in January 2016, and released in March the same year. The device constituted the first commercial release in the Oculus Rift lineup.
Quest 2 is a standalone virtual reality headset developed by Reality Labs, a division of Meta Platforms. It was unveiled on September 16, 2020, and released on October 13, 2020 as the Oculus Quest 2. It was then rebranded as the Meta Quest 2 in 2022, as part of a company-wide phase-out of the Oculus brand following the rebranding of Facebook, Inc. as Meta.
The Meta Quest, initially the Oculus Quest until 2022, is a line of virtual reality headsets with augmented reality capabilities produced by Reality Labs, a division of Meta Platforms. The first-generation Oculus Quest was developed by Oculus and released on May 21, 2019. Since then, Facebook has released new Quest models and Quest OS updates. As of February 2023, over 20 million total Quest headsets have been sold.
The Meta Quest Pro is a mixed reality (MR) headset developed by Reality Labs, a division of Meta Platforms.
Meta Quest 3 is a standalone virtual reality (VR) headset developed by Reality Labs, a division of Meta Platforms. It was unveiled on June 1, 2023, and released on October 10, succeeding the Quest 2 as the third generation of the Meta Quest line.
Meta Horizon OS, previously known informally as Meta Quest Platform or Meta Quest OS, is an extended reality operating system for the Meta Quest line of devices released by Meta Platforms. Initially developed for the embedded operating system on the Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S, the platform has been based on the Android operating system since the release of the Oculus Go in 2018. It first supported augmented reality via grayscale camera passthrough upon the release of the Oculus Quest in 2019, and has supported color passthrough since the release of the Meta Quest Pro in 2022.
Meta Quest 3S is a standalone virtual reality (VR) headset developed by Reality Labs, a division of Meta Platforms. It was unveiled on September 25, 2024, and released on October 15, 2024, as part of the third generation of the Meta Quest line.