SlimeVR Crowdfunds Lighter, Thinner Full-Body Trackers
SlimeVR has launched a crowdfunding campaign for its new generation of full-body trackers. The new devices are lighter and thinner, targeting applications in VR, gaming, and motion capture, and represent the ongoing convergence of robotics, wearables, and consumer technology.
- The new "Butterfly" trackers weigh less than 12 grams and are under 7mm thick, a significant reduction from the previous official generation which weighed around 50 grams. This is achieved through a new split design that separates the battery and the main circuit board. - SlimeVR utilizes Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors for tracking, which differs from camera or base station-based systems like HTC Vive. This makes the system immune to occlusion (blockage from line-of-sight), but can be susceptible to yaw drift over time, which requires occasional resetting. - A key technical change from previous official versions is the switch from Wi-Fi to a dedicated 2.4 GHz dongle for communication. This is designed to provide a more stable, low-latency connection and contributes to a battery life of over 48 hours, a substantial increase from the 15-20 hours of earlier models. - The entire SlimeVR platform is open-source, with both hardware designs and software released under permissive MIT and Apache 2.0 licenses. This allows a community of DIY enthusiasts to build and modify their own trackers and contribute to the software's development. - The crowdfunding campaign on Crowd Supply for the Butterfly trackers surpassed its $180,000 funding goal within 30 hours. A "Core Set" of six trackers was offered to backers for $279, with an estimated shipping date of August 2026. - While IMU-based systems like SlimeVR offer a more affordable and flexible solution, they do not achieve the sub-millimeter precision of Lighthouse-based competitors like the HTC Vive Tracker or Tundra Trackers. SlimeVR's precision is stated to be within 1-5 cm. - The system integrates with SteamVR and supports standards like Open Sound Control (OSC) and Virtual Motion Capture (VMC), making it compatible with a wide range of applications such as VRChat, Blade & Sorcery, and motion capture for software like Blender and Unity. - The project has also teased future developments, including work on "SlimeVR Gloves" for open-source finger tracking, which would utilize the same underlying software ecosystem.
