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SimonPei
New Participant
December 16, 2025
Question

Accessing RGB Images from Meta Quest Pro Front Camera

Hello, I would like to capture RGB images from the front camera of the Meta Quest Pro. Could you please confirm whether the Passthrough Camera API (Overview | Meta Horizon OS Developers) is available for the Meta Quest Pro? If not, are there any alternative methods to access these images?

Thank you in advance for your guidance!

7 replies

htaylor
htaylor
Community Manager
December 16, 2025

Hey SimonPei, 

Great question! I believe the Passthrough Camera API should work the same on a Quest Pro as a Quest 3/3S. To clarify, are you saying that you tried the guide in the documentation and that it didn't work for the Quest Pro? I'm more than happy to look into this further if so! 

    SimonPeiAuthor
    New Participant
    December 16, 2025

    Hey Taylor! I am a developer currently deciding between purchasing the Quest 3 or the Quest Pro. The effect I need to achieve is: in an AR scene, capture the real-world target that the user is looking at (based on eye-tracking data), for example, when I am wearing the AR headset and looking at a desk lamp, by combining and calling the eye-tracking data together with the front camera image data API, the system can display in real time near the lamp “You are currently looking at the desk lamp.”

    Therefore, the device must support both open access to eye-tracking data and open access to front camera image data. Between these two devices, which one would you recommend? Thank you!

    htaylor
    htaylor
    Community Manager
    December 17, 2025

    Hey Simon! 

    While I'm not able to make a purchase recommendation, the Quest Pro is currently the only Quest device that supports eye tracking, using the OVREyeGaze script, which is covered in our documentation here.

    You could also achieve something similar to this effect on the Quest 3, basing the object recognition on the user's head location as they turn to look at an object. This would just require the user to turn their head rather than just moving their eyes. Both should support the Passthrough Camera API, which would provide the functionality you're looking for. 

    For what it's worth, the Quest Pro is also considered to be a legacy device. For more information on that, you can see the legacy device support article here. 


    SimonPeiAuthor
    New Participant
    December 17, 2025

    Thanks for your suggestions! 

    Do you mean that both Quest 3 and Quest Pro support the Passthrough Camera API, but only the Quest Pro supports eye tracking while the Quest 3 can only rely on head tracking (pseudo eye tracking)?

    SimonPeiAuthor
    New Participant
    December 17, 2025

    I noticed from a YouTube video（Quest 3 vs Quest Pro Passthrough #quest3 #metaquest3 #questpro #vr #mixedreality） that the Passthrough quality on the Quest Pro is significantly lower than on the Quest 3. Could this potentially affect the accuracy of object detection and recognition when feeding Passthrough camera frames into a machine learning model? For example, in the same scene, the higher-resolution frames from the Quest 3 might successfully detect a desk lamp or text on a wall, while the lower-resolution frames from the Quest Pro might fail to recognize them.

    jtriveri
    jtriveri
    Honored Contributor
    December 17, 2025

    The Passthrough Camera API only works on the Quest 3 and 3S. You may be able to use a display capture API as a work-around if your app displays the passthrough feed. Here's one example project specifically for Unity, but it contains some Java code you can use in other environments https://github.com/trev3d/QuestDisplayAccessDemo

      SimonPeiAuthor
      New Participant
      December 18, 2025

      Thanks for your suggestions

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