HTC may be working on a new VR headset, the Vive Eclipse

Somewhat beleaguered company HTC has sold off much of its phone business to Google, but decided to retain its VR headset division, and this section of the company has continued to be busy, apparently developing a new VR device.

LetsGoDigital has noticed that HTC has registered a trademark for the HTC Vive Eclipse in New Zealand which describes, amongst other things, a “head-mounted display for computer simulated reality“.

LGD speculates this could be a successor to the HTC Vive headset, and different from the HTC Vive Focus, which may be a PC-free VR headset with smartphone-like internals(or vice versa).

The full trademark application references the following applications:

Head mounted display for computer simulated reality; computer hardware? computer simulated reality software? computer simulated reality game software? handheld controllers for use in computer simulated reality environment? optical devices, namely, eye pieces for head mounted displays? carrying cases and holders for use with head mounted displays; smartphones; portable computers; wearable electronic devices in connection with a head mounted display for use in computer simulated reality environment; motion tracking sensors; handheld computer simulated reality controllers; computer peripherals for mobile devices for remotely accessing and transmitting data; apparatus for the recording, transmission or reproduction of sound, images, or data? electronic and optical communications instruments and components.
Apparatus for games; amusement machines, automatic and coin-operated; game pads and controllers for use in computer simulated reality; counters [discs] for games; video games; controllers for game consoles; toys; portable games with liquid crystal displays; arcade video game machines.

Whatever the application, it is likely that any new headset would embrace the new must-have feature of inside-out tracking, which markedly increases the convenience of setting up and using VR headsets. It may even be a device which supports Windows Mixed Reality, given that HTC should now be particularly serious about VR and has a long-standing relationship with Microsoft.

With the holiday buying season coming up I suspect we should find out sooner rather than later.

Source: LetsGoDigital.org