Immersive solutions manufacturer HTC VIVE teased its audiences on Wednesday with a photo of an upcoming headset on Twitter.
The Taoyuan City-based firm tweeted at the time, “Go small or go home” along with a teaser photo of the device, triggering reactions from the Twitter community.
Go small or go home. pic.twitter.com/PUqqKn4V5E
— HTC VIVE (@htcvive) October 6, 2022
Replying to an early responder, the headset maker said: “We’re working on something big… we mean small. It’s a new headset!”
While the company did not disclose further information about the head-mounted display (HMD) or specs, many speculate it will be a mid-range, affordable headset that could compete with rival firms.
The news comes just weeks after ByteDance’s Pico Interactive revealed updates on the Pico 4, which followed announcements on the TikTok owner’s Neo3 Link budget headset.
Additional competitors in the VR market include Sony’s PSVR 2 and Meta’s acclaimed Quest 2 headsets.
HTC VIVE Metaverse Solutions, Ambitions
The update comes amid a massive wave of changes and updates for HTC VIVE, namely after it released several key products and solutions to build infrastructure for the Metaverse.
HTC showcased its VIVE Mars Cam Track solution at the SIGGRAPH 2022 in August, which creates virtual production content with a cost-effective solution backing the FreeD positional data protocol.
The device also supports plug-and-play features for Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, a suite of professional applications, multi-cam tracking for three cameras, and low-latency performance, among others.
The firm also released a mystery device with connectors for VIVE and SteamVR tracking base stations for full-body motion recording.
HTC VIVE also released a further set of VIVE Flow smart goggles last year for users seeking mindfulness, gaming, and entertainment in a world-class lightweight, compact form factor.
HTC VIVE Expands XR Interoperability, Use Cases
In an interview with XR Today at the Immerse Global Summit (IGS) 2022 Europe in late September, Pearly Chen, HTC VIVE’s Vice President, explained how her company aimed to expand use cases for extended reality (XR) technologies.
She said her company’s VIVE Pro, Focus 3, and Flow devices had built an “amazing portfolio of devices,” but that the company also continued to innovate its sensor and tracking capabilities.
HTC VIVE also focused on developing its facial and eye trackers to boost “natural interactions and expressions into virtual reality,” leading to greater realism and immersion, she said.
Explaining further, she told XR Today,
“We’re not just a device manufacturer anymore. We are building and advocating for the VIVERSE, which is our interpretation of what the open Metaverse looks like, which is built on Open XR and web XR, so people can access via any connected browser they have on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops”
She added users no longer required VR devices to access “incredible experiences” developed on HTC VIVE’s tools and infrastructure. This would allow creators and companies to build immersive worlds that people could travel to “within the next 5-10 years.”
