HP has today announced the Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition VR headset with advanced tracking technology to create "human centric" experiences. The HP Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition VR headset is an upgraded version of the recently released HP Reverb G2 headset with added cameras and sensors to track eye movement, pupillometry, heart rate, and facial expressions. This data can be used with the advanced machine learning algorithms of the Omnicept SDK to capture physiological responses. The headset's firmware safeguards the sensor data at every moment of capture and no data is stored in the headset.

The HP Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition VR headset maintains the impressive resolution, inside-out tracking, and 3D audio of the HP Reverb G2 while adding a suite of new sensors and cameras to deliver enhanced monitoring. These new sensors enable eye tracking and gaze to determine focus and engagement levels while also enabling foveated rendering for reduced GPU and higher image quality. They also allow for heart rate monitoring which can be used in wellness treatments along with facial expression monitoring capabilities for more natural and engaging conversations. The HP Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition is expected to be available in Spring 2021. Pricing will be shared closer to product availability. HP Omnicept SDK is expected to be available in Spring 2021 and will include a flexible business model.

The StarVR One VR headset was initially announced in 2015, it amazed us with its ultra-wide 210º horizontal FOV and enterprise features. In 2016 Acer signed a joint venture with Starbreeze the company developing the StarVR to bring the headset to market, after a year Acer increased their stake in the venture to 66% as Starbreeze could not meet their capital commitments. Finally in late 2018 it was announced that developers and enterprise would be available to apply for hardware. Since then we haven't heard anything from the company until recently when a purchase button appeared on the StarVR site.

The purchase page shows availability from several distributors in Japan and Taiwan, with China listed as coming soon. The EU, UK & USA all have open expressions of interest for resellers in the region. Surprisingly no price is listed for the headset but we can assume it will be close to the $3,200 USD the developer version sold for in 2018.

NVIDIA's ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) Twitter handle posted a curious-looking teaser of something to look forward to on March 19. The now-deleted Tweet contained an animation showing the shape of an eye tracking two points of light crossing its iris. This date falls just a couple of days ahead of the March 22 debut of GTC 2020, the NVIDIA-promoted trade-show covering all things graphics tech. As many on the tweet and online forums discussing have pointed out, the announcement could probably be related to a commercial release of NVIDIA's foveated rendering technology that was demonstrated way back at SIGGRAPH 2016, at a time when VR and related technologies were all the rage.

The concept of foveated rendering is straightforward: eye-tracking is leveraged to ensure that areas of the frame you're looking at are rendered in greater detail than the others, to conserve system resources and improve performance. This is achieved by tracking your foveal vision (the primary part of your vision focused on detail), while shedding resources on parts of the frame that fall within your peripheral vision. Compared to 2016, rendering technologies to facilitate foveated rendering have advanced. A related technology is variable shading rate (VRS), which allows an application to render different parts of the scene at different levels of detail, and improve performance.A video presentation detailing NVIDIA's foveated rendering tech from 2016 follows.