UPDATED 19:51 EDT / JANUARY 07 2019

EMERGING TECH

HTC debuts two new virtual reality headsets at CES

Despite waning interest and declining sales, HTC Corp. is pushing ahead with its virtual reality products, debuting two new headsets at this week’s annual CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas.

Leading the list was the Vive Cosmo, a new consumer-friendly headset pitched as easier use and set up than rival devices.

The new headset comes with two front-facing cameras, two side-facing cameras and a pair of handheld wands. The inclusion of built-in cameras means that the headset does not require outside webcams or sensors to operate, shipping instead with what HTC calls “inside-out tracking.”

Although it’s not strictly a standalone VR headset, in a unexpected twist HTC said it can be tethered to a personal computer or smartphone, the latter giving users more flexibility than a corded connection to a PC.

Availability and price for the Vive Cosmos is expected to be revealed later this year.

Second on the list was an updated version of the Vive Pro VR headset called the Vive Pro Eye. As its name may suggest, the new headset includes eye tracking for the first time, allowing users to navigate within a virtual space using their eyes instead of hardware.

“Menu navigation and other gaze-oriented tasks can be done entirely without using controllers,” Digital Trends explained. “Not only will this be useful for consumer-level applications like games and learning tools, but also for businesses needing more accessible VR experiences, as it will make use of fewer resources than previous eye-tracking solutions.”

Like the Cosmos, HTC has not given a price for the headset, saying only that it will hit the market in April.

HTC also announced a number of new partnerships as well as a new content offering for users. In a deal with the Mozilla Foundation, Firefox becomes the default browser in all HTC VR headsets, while under a separate deal, HTC will leverage Amazon.com Inc. Sumerian to create and launch virtual reality experiences.

On the content front, HTC has announced the VivePort Infinity plan, a subscription service that offers users unlimited access to all titles in the HTC store. A pre-existing service called Viveport VR subscriptions limited users to only five titles a month.

Once again, HTC also didn’t disclose the cost of the new service, saying only that it would be available in April.

Images: HTC

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