Meta is Improving Quest Hand Tracking

Now we can find that there is a new update for hand tracking on Meta’s Quest VR headset, the best thing is that it is about to get better with this update. The update is v50, which will allow you to “touch” things like menu buttons or virtual keyboards with just your hands, which means it will be even easier than before to be able to use your hands for certain functions instead of relying solely on Quest controllers or a pinch gesture.

In fact, it is important to know that Meta released Hand Tracking 2.0, its updated system that can detect things like high-fives and claps, this release was made in April 2022. Still, the company is now making 2.0 the default hand tracking technology for Quest.

Meta Announced

• “Updating to Hand Tracking 2.0 doesn’t require any action from developers, and we believe this change will enhance the quality and capabilities of hand tracking across our app ecosystem” 
• “Hand Tracking 2.0 allows you to take full advantage of the many hands-driven interactions available with Interaction SDK”

Hand Tracking

In late 2019, Meta first implemented manual tracking on its Quest headsets, at the time you had to pinch to “select” something, meaning you had to pinch to scroll through text or click a button. But now there are new features because of the update.

New features:

The new manual tracking features will be available as an experimental setting that Meta calls “Direct Touch.” Meta also announced that these features will be an improvement on hand tracking technology “Direct Touch is a major improvement to our hand tracking technology, offering a more intuitive and engaging way to interact with the system and 2D panels in general.”

In fact, we got to see a demo of the hand-tracking technology thanks to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who showed off the demo in an Instagram video where he uses his hands to scroll through a list of apps, shoot a basketball at a game and aim with a pointer in a puzzle game. You can see this demo publication by clicking on this link.

At first glance it looks quite useful and it could also even make interacting with virtual screens feel more like using your phone’s touch screen, making everything simpler and easier to use.

This announcement may be about these new features, but it may also be an attempt to get ahead of Apple’s VR headset, which has been reported and long rumored to have its own advanced hand tracking.

Also, apparently, Apple plans to reveal the device at WWDC 2023, so we may not have to wait much longer to find out more and also find out how Meta and Apple hand tracking will compare.

There are other features that the Quest v50 has added. For example, one of the features of Quest Pro, is the ability to open a 2D application without the need to close a game you are playing at the same time, this type of feature is coming to the Quest 2 headset. Also, another feature What the Quest v50 has added are the Quest Touch Pro controllers, which should respond faster when you put the headphones on.