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Refract Technologies today revealed its new virtual reality accessory, the AXIS Lite. This set of four rechargeable nodes can be attached to the body in order to track movement without much extra hardware — it requires no external base station or wires. As the name suggests, it’s a scaled-down version of the company’s existing AXIS VR accessories. Refract opens the preorder for the Axis Lite on February 8, and the device launches in late spring. The device costs $288 during early bird pricing, with a full retail price of $350.
The AXIS Lite is intended to capture full-body motion on the lower body with low latency, according to Refract. The four nodes are attached to the legs with straps, capturing movement on the lower body with finer detail. It’s compatible with SteamVR, OpenVR, OpenXR, Unity, and Unreal Engine. The accessory can also capture kicks — Refract’s partnered with the World Taekwondo Federation to develop Virtual Taekwondo, allowing anyone to experience the sport.
The AXIS Lite has fewer nodes than its existing counterparts, Refract’s AXIS Standard (which has nine nodes) and AXIS Pro (which has 16 nodes). They are designed to offer more detailed capture over a larger area of the body, making them more useful for full-body VR tracking and mocap for animation. It’s also cheaper than both the Standard and Pro models, which cost $749 and $1299 respectively.
Michael Chng, co-CEO of Refract, said in a statement, “At Refract, we believe VR has legs. It is our goal to democratize full-body tracking. By making quality motion capture more accessible and affordable, we are confident that AXIS Lite will extend human experiences beyond reality for even more users. We can’t wait for people to get their hands on the AXIS Lite when it ships in late spring.”
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