Vive Focus 3 : no camera passthrough access

[Fangh]

Hello Everyone,

with the Vivecon going on, we know that the Focus 3 will be available soon and that's a greate news.
However, this source, states that it will be no more possible to get access to the camera video stream.

It is a shame because, as a developer, I use this camera stream to do some Mixed Reality. I use it to read a QR-Code to be able to read the position of a real object and position the virtual one at the same place.
The camera stream was very useful to make some Mixed Reality app and be able to merge the real and virtual world.

If it is not possible, I have to sell or dump all my HTC Vive Focus Plus in order to buy some PicoVR headset or another non-HTC headset. But I love the fact that the Focus 3 is way better in term of view quality.

Question to HTC : 
Do you confirm this information ? We will no more have access to the camera ?

 

Question to the community :

What do you think about this ? Are you ready to make your voice count and tell HTC we need access to the camera stream in order to make our Mixed Reality app working ?

[HackPerception]

@Fangh- I will ask the WaveSDK team for a first party confirmation about API access to the front-facing cameras. Privacy is a key concern on this HMD due to the clients buying it.

The headset itself does have stereocorrect pass-through on the OS level so you don't have to take off the headset to view the outside world. That said, the camera output within the HMD is similar to Quest 2's - albeit a bit higher resolution and I think a bit faster frame-rate.

[HackPerception]

@Fangh I can confirm that at launch Focus 3 will not support API-access to the cameras due to the privacy concerns for our enterprise clients. This is a topic of active conversation - if the situation changes we'll certainly communicate it loudly.

[ssid]

Hi,

I just updated the Wave XR Plugin from v1.0.1 to v4.0.0-r.28 in our project and one of the provided scripts that I was using for Camera Passthru now says deprecated.

 

This is probably related to the front camera access issue mentioned by @Fangh. We have a similar use case for QR code reading and not sure where to go at this point. What is the best way forward for developers?

Thanks,

Sidhant

[Fangh]

@HackPerception does the HTC Vive Focus Plus will still support this feature ?

[Phillrb]

Removing this functionality is a real shame.

Are there any APIs that would at least allow the app to set the skybox to the external camera stream?

Our app doesn't actually want access to the stream itself (and that's probably the security concern) but just to give the user awareness of their surroundings via a pass-through skybox whilst still using our app. Please bring back this significant benefit to the user! 

[HackPerception]

@Phillrb  The deprecation of these APIs for WaveSDK 4.0 was a security requirement for many of our key enterprise partners and customers to even be allowed by their organization to work with Focus 3. If you are a Focus 3 developer, speak privately with your account manager about your situation and use-case.

If you have a previous WaveSDK version in a Focus/Focus + project that you had working - remain on the working version of the WaveSDK for the time being while options are explored. Most of the updates in the new SDK.

We're still exploring a long term set of solutions for the security challenges posed by pass-through on the new device.

[Fangh]

On mobile, when you want to access the camera API, it asks the user to accept the access to the camera.
I imagined it could be the case for the camera pass-trough API as well. It seems to be the simplest way to have something that protect the privacy of users while making the API accessible.

[J. Ottens Head of Technology]

Hi,
we would like to have access to the camerastream also. It is one of the most usefull features you need if you do large scale freeroaming experiences. 

[LE GALL]

Hey there, 

Any news about this topic, @HackPerception?