FluxPose wants to be the new 6DoF VR body tracking system of choice, and its Kickstarter campaign has already raised over $2 million.
With Valve itself abandoning its “Lighthouse” SteamVR Tracking system in favor of inside-out computer vision in Steam Frame, the future of VR body tracking is in flux (no pun intended). Computer vision has made setting up VR fast, easy, and portable, all at a lower cost, but cameras on a headset have only a partial view of your body.
Further, like all optical systems, Lighthouse tracking is subject to occlusion. With the standard two base stations, there will be angles at which your tracked objects are blocked. To mitigate this, some enthusiasts add a third or even fourth base station. Lighthouse is also heavily affected by any reflective surfaces in the room, especially mirrors, which cause tracking issues.
FluxPose in VRChat.
Over the weekend, Spanish startup FluxPose launched a Kickstarter campaign for what it calls “the first affordable, truly portable, occlusion-free tracking solution with absolute positioning”. FluxPose uses electromagnetic tracking, with trackers that sense the magnetic field generated by a base station.
We’ve seen electromagnetic tracking systems in VR before. Razer Hydra, the first widely used 6DoF VR controllers, used it for a small tracking volume limited by the 4-foot cable each controller was connected to the base station with. And in 2013, the company that built the tech behind Hydra launched a Kickstarter for a tracking system called STEM, with many of the same core promises of FluxPose. But in 2018 STEM was canceled, with backers refunded.
Through-the-lens demo of FluxPose.
A key reason that STEM failed, why Razer Hydra had a short tether, and the core difference of FluxPose, comes down to the nature of magnetic fields and where you put the base station. With Hydra and STEM it sat on your desk, and because magnetic fields decay with the cube of the distance, beyond a few feet they would deliver jittery and inaccurate poses.
With FluxPose, the base station (which it calls the beacon) is attached to your hip. This effectively creates a portable occlusion-free tracking sphere around your body, with a radius of just over 5 feet, that, according to the startup, can support an “unlimited” number of trackers within it. It’s a clever solution to the electromagnetic distance problem, with the tradeoff that it requires wearing an additional device.
As with every VR tracking system, FluxPose also heavily relies on feeding the data from the IMU on the trackers, the tiny chip which contains the accelerometer and gyroscope, into a sensor fusion model.
FluxPose claims a real-use accuracy of less than 5mm, compared to the less than 2mm of SteamVR Lighthouse, with an update rate of between 50Hz and 300Hz depending on the power mode.
On the Normal power mode, the beacon’s battery should last around 12 hours. There’s also a Low power mode for “standing, sitting or laying” which should last 24 hours, and a Performance mode for tracking controllers or gloves, in which the beacon should last 6 hours.
The trackers themselves, meanwhile, weigh just 15 grams and last for 24 hours, FluxPose claims. That’s just one-fifth of the weight of a HTC Vive Tracker. And remarkably, despite that low weight, they have a tiny monochrome OLED screen for displaying status and a haptic feedback actuator.
You attach one of the trackers to your headset, with a per-headset adapter mount, while the others attach to the parts of your body you want to track. Mounts are available for Quest 2 and newer, Pico 4 and 4 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy XR, Valve Index, both Bigscreen Beyond generations. And FluxPose says it will have a mount for Steam Frame too.
Because of the headset-attached reference tracker, FluxPose claims its tracking system doesn’t require any calibration, and “never” drifts. The tradeoff is adding 15 grams of weight to your headset.
Both the beacon and trackers charge on the included dock, which also acts as the wireless data dongle, delivering the tracking poses to SteamVR on your PC via USB-C. From a PC’s USB port it should recharge everything within 3 hours, while on a PD charger this can drop to 1.5 hours.
On Kickstarter, you can pledge for three kits: Lite, Core, and Pro. Lite is priced at €339 before tax and comes with 3 trackers, Core at €479 with 5 trackers, and Pro at €689 with 8 trackers. Additional addons like straps are available separately.
FluxPose says it has already built 300 devices for early testers, and launched the Kickstarter to progress to full-scale production. It intends to start shipping the first “early bird” units in August 2026, and for most backers to receive their units in October. After the Kickstarter, prices will increase.
As with all crowdfunding campaigns, we must warn you that a Kickstarter pledge is not a preorder. There is no guarantee you will receive anything at all, and the company has no legal obligation to provide you with a refund if it doesn’t deliver.
