CES 2022 saw a few big announcements for VR including the MeganeX headset and more news on PSVR 2, and we also heard news of a brand new HTC Vive Wrist Tracker which we'd like to know a concrete release date for.
The HTC Vive line of headsets is also one that's gone down as being some of the best available, and this wrist tracker looks to add a fair amount more functionality.
Here's everything you need to know, including when the wrist tracker looks to be hitting shelves.
HTC Vive Wrist Tracker Release Date
According to an official HTC blog post from Shen Ye, HTC's global head of hardware products, the Vive Wrist Tracker will be launched in 'early 2022' with a rollout starting in the USA.
When this exactly will be remains to be seen, but it would make sense for it to be within the first couple of months of this year.
Whilst we may not have some properly concrete information on a release date, we certainly do have some on the Vive Wrist Tracker's pricing.
HTC Vive Wrist Tracker Price
Shen Ye's blog post also revealed some handy regional pricing for the tracker, with it being placed at $129/€129/ £119 which also demonstrates the tracker will be released in the UK and in Europe, too.
That price may seem a little expensive at first, but when you consider the Tracker's spec sheet and the fact the product is designed for their more business-designed Focus 3 headset, it becomes clearer as to why HTC have priced it accordingly.
HTC Vive Wrist Tracker Specs And Features
In terms of what the HTC Vive Wrist Tracker can do, it looks like quite an intriguing piece of kit.
In essence, what it does is allow for some clever hand-tracking functionality to be added to the Focus 3 without use of its controllers, and it can even track a user's motion without the Tracker being in the camera's view, which is achieved with clever kinematics.
The tracker can also work with objects that are mounted to it and will track them in 6DOF and be rendered within VR.
click to enlargeHTC say this is a usual function for LBE venues (location-based entertainment) so the headset can render objects like guns or tennis racquets. They'll be releasing 3D CADs for some objects later on so venues can try the system out.
It'll also offer upwards of four hours of battery life and charge via USB-C, and the straps are removable and can be swapped out for any different supported ones.
A weight of just 63g also means the Wrist Tracker is 50% lighter than the standard Focus 3 controller and is 85% smaller, too.
It's definitely fair to say that the HTC Vive Wrist Tracker does look pretty cool and that we're excited to see what it can do.
We'll be back soon with any more VR guides news, guides and info that you won't want to miss with 2022 being such a big year for VR, especially with more headsets on the horizon like Apple's AR Headset.