"DANLW
8 days ago
"Even if it’s available today, it wouldn’t matter; Faceware is still mum about the expression tracking camera that you would need before using the new chat feature."
That statement is inaccurate. According to their presentation, you can use a normal webcam, and the technology will work. Faceware's camera, like a GTX 1080ti, is only necessary if you want the BEST experience. (albeit presumably not nearly as expensive as a 1080ti)
The issue is one of the camera's FPS and lens. Again according to their presentation, standard webcams record at 30fps and at a relatively wide angle. FaceWare's camera will record images at 60fps (enabling smoother animation), have a lens with a narrower field of view (making the players face larger, and thereby allowing greater accuracy in tracking expressions), and use an image sensor better suited to low light situations (since a lot of us play with the lights off.)
Also, the story missed another major point - it also has head tracking, making the $150 TrackIR with it's silly hat clip obsolete. And so as long as their camera costs less than $150, I'm sold."
So you pretty much just summarized (repeated pretty much) everything that was mentioned and demoed in the YouTube video embedded in the article. Cool, thanks.