Little is known about the Oculus Quest Pro at this point, but it has come a long way since the teaser at Q&A. When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is prepared to comment off the record about future hardware, you knows it must be a done deal.
In an interview with CNET about the future of VR, when asked directly about Quest Pro, Zuckerberg replied, "It's something we're working on." [Interestingly, the recently released AirLink allows the Oculus Quest 2 device to harness the power of the computer's GPU without physical cables. Zuckerberg explained, "I think the trade-off for needing a wire is just too great in terms of the experience."
"Even if you're sitting at your desk doing productive work, there's a tradeoff between immersion and walking around."
So if the entry-level Quest 2 can already harness the power of a computer, what can Quest Pro bring? The answer seems to be the on-board sensors. Zuckerberg said, "There are other aspects of virtual reality that make it a higher-end experience."
Later in the interview, the Facebook CEO returned to this topic, highlighting eye tracking, face tracking, and health sensors. Zuckerberg noted that additional sensors would require "more expensive, higher-end" headsets. As Zuckerberg points out, additional sensors would require a "higher, more upscale" headset.
Naming each sensor is not a guarantee of inclusion, but it is certainly an interesting starting point. Eye tracking has been mentioned before, and Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's president of Augmented Virtual Reality, has previously stated that "rendering only what is within the field of view of the fossa can dramatically improve performance."
On the other hand, the performance of the renderings of the orbital field of view is not as good as the renderings of the orbits.Face tracking, on the other hand, can make VR a more empathetic social experience if your facial expressions are automatically tracked.
Whatever the Oculus Quest Pro eventually becomes, we don't expect it anytime soon. Bosworth has previously stated that the Pro headset will not be available this year, which is what Zuckerberg reiterated here, "It's not coming anytime soon."
When it does, however, it appears to be closer to the company's vision of VR than any of its previous VR offerings. Zuckerberg said, "From my perspective, it fulfills the original vision and hope that VR has a lot of different use cases." 'It's great for gaming, but it's not just for gaming.'
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