Watching someone wearing VR glasses can actually be quite entertaining in my opinion. You often see users staggering around with their mouths open or a big grin on their faces, as if they have just consumed some particularly well-tolerated drugs. According to a Google Blog however, this view is not enough. To be able to share the VR experience even better, you need to be able to look behind the glasses and also see the eye area.
Three big names thought so too: Daydream Labs, Google Research and YouTube Spaces have joined forces and are currently working on unravelling the secret behind the VR glasses. The project runs under the simple name: Headset Removal.
Improve communication and social interaction
The main aim of the experiment is to improve communication and therefore social interaction. This can be particularly interesting for video conferences, multiplayer VR games and any applications that you want to experience together with others in the same real space.
To reveal the face as a dynamic 3D model behind the glasses, Google captures the face with a camera. The user sits in front of the screen for less than a full minute and follows a marker with their eyes. A quick turn of the head back and forth and that's it.
With a modified HTC Vive on their head, the user is placed in a green room. The virtual environment is then played in there to obtain the normal mixed reality output - but now with the user's facial expression on the glasses.
A good tracking system is important so that the face and eyes can be positioned correctly. The developers have opted for a kind of diving mask look, as artificial faces very quickly look confusing or repulsive if they are not 100% perfect. In my opinion, however, the whole thing still looks a bit creepy.
Source: Google / Youtube
Deutsch 
Français 
English (UK) 
Italiano