On Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerbergshowed off the company’s progress toward its goal of researching VR headsets. The company formerly known as Facebook said in February that it aims to spend at least $10 billion this year on research and development in virtual and augmented reality technologies. He revealed several of the unfinished prototype VR headsets the company has built.
Mark Zuckerberg has bet the future of the social networking company he founded on virtual reality, which immerses users in a computer-generated world, and augmented reality, which superimposes computer-generated objects on top of the real world.
Last year, the company changed its name to Meta to highlight the company's new emphasis on the metaverse, a virtual world where Zuckerberg imagines people will spend more and more time — ideally, through advanced computer glasses.
If Zuckerberg can make glasses mainstream, Meta will have a new revenue stream from hardware sales and control of its own platform, which would make it less susceptible to platform changes than other companies. For example, in its latest earnings report, Meta said that Apple’s recent privacy changes to the iPhone could cost it $10 billion in lost revenue this year , as it hinders the company’s ability to target ads to specific audiences.
The VR market is currently small, and there are questions about how big it could become. Meta currently dominates headset sales, with the current Quest 2 accounting for 78% of all headset sales in 2021, according to an estimate by IDC. However, only 11.2 million VR headsets were sold in total during the year — far fewer than smartphones or computers.
See also: Meta, Microsoft and others form Metaverse Standards Forum
Meanwhile, investors are skeptical about Meta's move away from the ad and app business. The stock has fallen more than 53% so far in 2022 on fears of rising costs, subdued growth forecasts, increased competition from TikTok and the fallout from Apple 's privacy change to the iPhone that has blocked mobile ads.
Monday's presentation did little to allay those fears — Meta's stock closed up more than 4% on Tuesday, despite a broader rally in tech stocks. U.S. markets remained closed on Monday in observance of the June holiday.
Meta is developing next-generation virtual reality displays designed to provide an experience that is realistic enough that users feel like they are in the same room with other virtual people, Zuckerberg said during his demo. Current displays have low resolution, screen distortions and cannot be worn for long periods of time.
“It won’t be long before we can create scenes with absolute fidelity,” Zuckerberg on a media call about the company’s virtual reality efforts. “It’s just that instead of seeing them on a screen, you’ll feel like you’re there.”
"The issue today is that the vividness of the screens we compare now to what your eye sees in the physical world is reduced by an order of magnitude or more," Zuckerberg said.
In recent years, Meta has regularly shown off its progress on VR headsets and augmented reality glasses to partners and the press, to encourage investors to consider the project worthwhile and to help recruit highly paid developers and executives with experience in VR and AR.
At these presentations, Meta regularly shows off unfinished prototypes of VR headsets for use in research, which is unusual in consumer electronics. Gadget companies like to finish products and plan how they’re going to be built before talking about them to the press. For example, Apple, which is working on its own headsets, never shows off prototypes.
"These prototypes are custom, custom-made models that we built in our lab, so they are not ready-to-ship products," Zuckerberg said.
Here were the prototypes he showed:
Butterscotch: Butterscotch is designed to test higher-resolution displays that have pixels small enough for the human eye to see. Butterscotch features a new lens from Meta that narrows the headset's field of view, enabling small text and increased realism. However, Meta says that this prototype VR headset isn't something that can be shipped because of how heavy and bulky it is — plus the prototype still has exposed circuit boards.
See also: Meta has stopped developing its smartwatch
Half Dome 3: Meta has been working on Half Dome since at least 2017, testing a type of display that can shift how far away the headset's optics are in focus. With Half Dome technology, Meta says, the resolution and image quality could improve enough for users to create giant computer screens inside a headset to use. Version 3 replaces the mechanical parts with liquid crystal lenses.
Holocake 2: Meta says this is the thinnest and lightest VR headset the company has ever made , and that it is fully capable of running any VR software when connected to a computer. However, it requires specialized lasers that are too expensive for consumer use and require additional safety precautions.
“In most VR headsets, the lenses are quite thick and have to be placed a few inches away from the screen so they can focus properly and direct the light directly into your eyes,” Zuckerberg said. In the Holocake 2, Meta uses a flat, holographic lens to reduce bulk, in addition to the lasers.
Starburst: Starburst is a research prototype that focuses on high dynamic range displays, which are brighter and display a wider range of colors. Meta says HDR is the only technology that is most associated with added realism and depth.
"The goal of all this work is to identify what technical paths will allow us to substantially improve in ways that start to approach the visual realism we need," Zuckerberg.
Mirror Lake: Meta also showed off a concept design called Mirror Lake for a ski-goggle-style headset. Mirror Lake is designed to combine all the different technologies from the Meta headsets it's developing into a single, next-generation display.
“The Mirror Lake concept is promising, but right now it’s just a concept without a fully functional headset to definitively demonstrate the architecture,” said Meta Reality Labschief Michael Abrash. “But if it comes to fruition, it will be a game-changer for the visual VR experience.”
Source: cnbc.com
