Enterprise Pico 4 Pro Will Add Eye- and Face-Tracking with Auto-IPD

In addition to the Pico 4 headset for consumers, which was unveiled this week, the company also unveiled a Pico 4 Pro model for business use-cases. 

With this week’s launch of Pico 4, Pico is preparing to face off against Meta’s Quest 2. However, it appears that the business is also attempting to get ready for Meta’s planned Project Cambria, a premium standalone headset with an enterprise focus (which is rumoured to be called the Quest Pro).

The business also disclosed Pico 4 Pro along with Pico 4. The headset appears to be basically the same from a hardware viewpoint and is reportedly planned to release later this year. However, three internal cameras for eye and face tracking have been added.

In order to provide automated IPD adjustment with eye-tracking, Pico claims that the Pico 4 Pro will measure the user’s IPD each time the headset is put on and then modify the IPD distance with a motorised drive. The Pico 4 has a motorised drive as well, but because it lacks eye-tracking, the IPD value must be manually set.

Pico also states that the internal cameras may be utilised for “52 points” of face-tracking, but it’s unclear whether or not most of those are derived directly from samples or inferred from models. The only commercial headsets that have attempted face-tracking have had to use large under-slung cameras due to the difficulty in gaining a clear picture of the face and the results being very susceptible to the uncanney valley. It will be interesting to see what Pico can accomplish with a camera that is largely concealed and is supposedly pointed down at the user’s mouth. 

 

However, Pico 4 Pro will be significantly different in terms of the software. The company claims that the headgear will come with an enterprise-focused version of its operating system and won’t require any sort of “personal identification” to function, which, ideally, means no logins. 

Pico says the Pico 4 Pro headset will arrive later this year and will eventually be accessible in the US, but it has not yet provided a pricing or an exact release date.