As weird as it sounds, Meta avatars will soon recognize tongue movement. While facial simulation does involve tracking the motion of the mouth and tongue, it is just odd to highlight a feature that specifically focuses on the tongue. Is Meta trying to go for more accurate lip animations? Regardless of the intent, Meta is testing a new element that tracks tongue movement while using its VR headset.
Bleh!
As UploadVR reports:
“In version 60 of its SDKs for Unity and native code, Meta has released a new version of its face tracking OpenXR extension which now includes how far stuck out your tongue is. The Meta Avatars SDK hasn’t been updated to support this yet, but third-party avatar solutions can do so after updating their SDK version to 60.”
What this means is that Meta avatars will soon recognize tongue movement, providing a more realistic VR experience. We are not sure how tongue motion contributes to a more immersive virtual experience, but Meta seems to have found a correlation. If you think that is weird, then remember that Meta also planned to insert microchips into our brains.
This new tongue project is not as creepy as you think. As per UploadVR, tracking tongue motion is another element of Meta’s advanced face-tracking for more realistic expressions. Without tongue tracking, Meta’s simulated facial responses can get distorted. Furthermore, including tongue reactivity provides more authentic depictions of speech.
In reality, it is less about using your tongue in VR and more about recreating more realistic facial expressions. If Meta seeks to make the Metaverse the next stage of digital connection, then realism is the way to go.
The Wrap
While on the topic of realistic digital representation, Meta is also developing hyper-real CODEC avatars. Inevitably, that will also require tongue tracking to replicate real-world responses. Oddly enough, the best VR experiences are those that can recreate real-world elements on a near-1:1 ratio.
The thought that Meta avatars will soon recognize tongue movement might sound odd, but such a development can also lead to adverse positive outcomes. Legs were originally an issue for Meta avatars, but it seems that tongues will come in without a problem.