This message is going out to all SteamVR Tracking licensees, and is also posted here. Valve has been working on improvements to tracking technology, and we have some exciting news to share about the sensor ASICs for SteamVR Tracking. We want to update you on our roadmap for the sensors and base stations.


As you are probably aware, all licensees have access to the TS3633 part from Triad Semiconductor to use in your products. This ASIC uses 11 components per sensor and produces a single “envelope” pulse per laser or sync blinker hit. That hit allows the Watchman module in the device to time the difference between the sync and the laser hit and compute angle from that difference. Up until this point, use of this sensor is required to receive tracking signals in your SteamVR Tracking device.

In late June we will make another option available, assuming testing of first silicon continues to go well. The TS4231 part uses 5 components per sensor, so it is cheaper to place at each sensor. More importantly, though, it provides a burst of data per laser or sync hit. Using that data allows information to be transmitted on the laser itself, which we can use to learn about the source of that laser.

This new capability to encode information in the laser is significant for two reasons:

• It allows support for more than two base stations, and thus larger tracking volumes.
  
• It allows a base station to function without including a sync blinker, which is the source of most of the interference between base stations (and is also a significant driver of base station cost.) We call this technology sync-on-beam.

Because of the significance of this new capability we recommend that all designs that will ship after TS4231 is available use this new ASIC instead of the older TS3633. The datasheet for TS4231 is available from Triad[www.triadsemi.com].




This new sensor technology is part of what we call SteamVR Tracking 2.0. The main features of 2.0 are:

• Support for more than two base stations
  
• Base stations that are smaller, quieter, lower power, more reliable, and less expensive than their 1.0 counterparts
  
• Better performance by reducing the number of moving parts and sources of manufacturing variation.

Because the new Valve-built base stations don’t include a sync blinker, one side-effect of the sync-on-beam technology in tracking 2.0 is that those base stations will only work with TS4231-based devices. Valve-built base stations will not work with older 1.0 devices. The older 1.0 base stations will continue to work with new devices, just without any of the new features. Valve will have base stations available in production quantities starting in November 2017. If you would like engineering samples of those base stations, let us know. Those will be available in June.

The following diagram describes the compatibility breakdown of 1.0 vs. 2.0 base stations and devices.




That is all a fair amount of detail on our roadmap for SteamVR Tracking. If you want your devices to support more than two base stations, you need to switch to TS4231.

Those TS4231-based devices will work with both 1.0 and 2.0 bases, and when they are tracking with 2.0 bases they will support all of the SteamVR Tracking 2.0 features. TS3633-based devices will only work with 1.0 bases.

We will have more details about TS4231 (and our roadmap) to share around the end of June when the verification tests are complete.

Thanks,


The SteamVR Tracking team