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Vivo Vision is Coming to China with Hopes of Undercutting Apple Vision Pro in Price & Weight

August 22, 2025 From roadtovr

Chinese smartphone creator Vivo announced its ‘Vision’ XR headset back in March, and now the company has officially unveiled the device’s spec sheet in addition to beginning live demos in China. In short, it’s lighter and cheaper than Apple Vision Pro by a fair margin whilst taking more than few design cues in the process.

At the company’s product launch event in Dongguan, China, Vision revealed more about Vision, which is being offered first in a ‘Discovery Edition’.

While the headset isn’t currently available for purchase yet, it has begun demoing across China, including major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, the company says in a press statement.

It’s uncertain at this time whether Vivo ever intends to bring it out of China, which could be a hard sell; Vivo Vison not only includes the ‘Vision’ from Vision Pro, but also is taking more than a few design cues directly from Apple.

Image courtesy Vivo

That said, pricing is slightly less uncertain, although not confirmed at this time. Gizmochina reports Vivo executives have hinted at a ¥10,000 price tag (~$1,400), which is a far cry from Vision Pro’s $3,500 price.

Compared to Vision Pro, which weighs around 600g, Vivo Vision is remarkably lighter at just 398g too, which Vivo notes is also “26% smaller than the industry average, improving overall comfort.”

Like Vison Pro, Vivo is putting heavy emphasis on hand-tracked interactions, which the company says includes “move-and-pinch” gestures, supported by 1.5° high-precision eye-tracking, 26 degrees of freedom fingertip recognition, and a 175° vertical tracking range.

The dual micro-OLED displays are also said to deliver “8K binocular resolution,” 94% DCI-P3 color coverage, and DeltaE<2 color accuracy>

Image courtesy vivo

The headset will be offered with four sizes of light seals, and eight foam padding options to ensure an optimal fit, the company says.

As for chipset, Vivo Vision is running a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, which is around a 2.5x GPU and 8x AI performance over the previous generation.

And you won’t find Android XR under the hood either, which feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. Vivo has created its own custom operating system for Vision, called ‘OriginOS Vision’.

You can catch a long-form matchup between Vision Pro and Vivo Vision, courtesy of Vincent Zhong. Non-Mandarin speakers can turn on auto-generated subtitles by clicking the ‘CC’ button near the bottom right of the frame.

Here’s the spec sheet provided by Vivo:

vivo Vision Discovery Edition Specs

  • Weight: 398 g
  • Height: 83 mm
  • Thickness: 40 mm
  • Size: 26% smaller than industry average
  • Light seal options: 4
  • Foam padding options: 8
  • Operating system: OriginOS Vision
  • Eye-tracking precision: 1.5°
  • Fingertip gesture recognition: 26 degrees of freedom
  • Vertical tracking range: 175°
  • Panel type: Dual Micro-OLED
  • Resolution: 8K binocular
  • Color coverage: 94% DCI-P3
  • Color accuracy: DeltaE < 2
  • Binocular brightness difference: ≤ 2 nits
  • Binocular chromaticity difference: ΔE < 2
  • Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2
  • GPU performance: 2.5x over previous generation
  • AI performance: 8x over previous generation
  • Panoramic video viewing
  • Sports/e-sports broadcasts: Multi-angle and split-screen
  • Virtual theater screen: 120 ft equivalent

Filed Under: News

Varjo Secures $5.8M Investment to Accelerate Military-Grade XR Hardware

August 22, 2025 From roadtovr

Varjo, the Finland-based maker of high-end XR headsets, announced it’s secured a €5 million (~$5.8 million) minority investment from THEON, the Greece-based manufacturer of military imaging systems.

Structured as a convertible loan, the €5 million investment also includes the option to secure an additional €5 million under the same terms, the companies say in a joint press release. Additionally, as a result of the strategic partnership, Varjo and Theon have agreed to collaborate closely on multiple product and business initiatives.

Founded in 1997, Theon develops and manufactures customizable night vision, thermal imaging systems and Electro-Optical ISR systems for military and security applications in Europe.

Varjo says the investment will strengthen the company’s capabilities to deliver “military-grade realism through next-generation immersive technologies.”

Varjo XR-4 | Image courtesy Varjo

“We are proud to welcome THEON as a strategic investor in Varjo,” said Timo Toikkanen, CEO of Varjo. “Since our inception, we have been creating the most advanced VR/XR military systems globally. THEON’s extensive experience and leadership in the defense sector make them an ideal partner as we expand our impact in mission-critical training and simulation, enabling unprecedented levels of realism, readiness, and operational effectiveness.”

Theon CEO Christian Hadjiminas says the investment “deepens our reach into the European innovation ecosystem and gives THEON access to unique capabilities in visual display systems and projecting technology. Together, we are pushing the frontier of digital defense technology.”

Theon’s investment in Varjo comes as part of its broader ‘THEON NEXT’ initiative, which is taking the company beyond imaging, as Theon seeks to expand into digital and AR-driven soldier systems.

Through Theon Next, the company has also invested $15 million in US/UK-based XR display manufacturer Kopin, signed a multi-year supply agreement with US-based XR display manufacturer eMagin, and announced a strategic partnership with ALEREON, the US-based creator of ultra-wide-band wireless technology.

This follows news last month that Varjo is pulling support for its older XR headsets starting next year, and putting its main focus on its XR-4 Series headsets, effectively marking a return to enterprise-first offerings following the release of its first and only consumer-focused headset, Varjo Aero.

Released in late 2023, the XR-4 Series includes the standard XR‑4 ($5,990), XR‑4 Focal Edition ($9,990), and its military-compliant XR‑4 Secure Edition, which comes in three variants (~$18,00 – $32,000).

Filed Under: AR Investment, Investment, News, VR Investment, XR Industry News

Operator XR Secures $3.7M VR Training Contract with Texas Department of Public Safety

August 7, 2025 From roadtovr

Australian immersive training technology company xReality Group announced its subsidiary Operator XR has secured a contract with the Texas Department of Public Safety (Texas DPS) worth up to AUD $5.71 million (~$3.7 million USD), which will see the rollout of it VR police training system across the state.

According to a press statement, Operator XR’s OP-2 system enables immersive, scenario-based training designed to improve tactical decision-making, de-escalation techniques, multi-officer coordination, and mission planning.

Texas DPS, one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the U.S. serving 30 million residents, is slated to use the system to enhance officer readiness and safety through more frequent and realistic training experiences.

xReality Group CEO Wayne Jones described the deal as a “strategic milestone,” citing Texas DPS’s high profile as a key reference point for further expansion into other state agencies. “This partnership reinforces our U.S. growth strategy and validates the OP-2 platform for large-scale deployment,” Jones said.

The initial portion of the deal, worth AUD $4.3 million ($2.8 million USD), is said to cover delivery of OP-2 hardware and software, along with onboarding and two years of technical support—slated to start in Q2 2026.

The contract includes optional support services for an additional three years, bringing the potential total value to AUD $5.71 million (~$3.7 million USD).

This follows a recent $2.1 million AUD (~$1.4 million USD) ‘Industry Growth Program’ grant by the Australian Government last month to accelerate the AI development roadmap for its Operator XR tactical training platform.

The funding is earmarked to support enhancements such as real-time feedback, automated scenario generation, expanded manufacturing, and global certification over the next 24 months.

Filed Under: News, vr industry, VR Investment, XR Industry News

Google’s ‘Genie 3’ Interactive Generative Video Model Takes Us One Step Closer to the Holodeck

August 6, 2025 From roadtovr

DeepMind, Google’s AI research lab, announced the release of Genie 3, a new AI system capable of generating interactive virtual environments in real-time—and bringing us one step closer to the Holodeck.

Google says in a DeepMind update that with a simple text prompt, Genie 3 can create dynamic, navigable scenes that run at 24 frames per second in 720p resolution.

Granted, Genie 3 can be only be used on flatscreen monitors, so there’s no telling when we’ll get something similar for VR headsets. For example, Quest 3’s display has a per-eye resolution of 2,064 × 2,208, clocked at a base refresh rate of 90Hz, putting VR on the far end of the performance fringe (as usual).

It’s undoubtedly prescient look at things to come though. Unlike static or pre-rendered simulations, Google says the model generates each frame on the fly, allowing for quicker user interaction and environmental feedback.

What’s more, these generated worlds can remain visually and physically consistent for several minutes, Google says, with the system retaining a form of short-term memory to reflect past actions.

Genie 3 is also capable of simulating a wide range of scenarios, including natural environments, historical settings, and both fictional and animated worlds. Meanwhile, users can trigger “promptable world events,” where users can insert in-world changes via text commands, like altering the weather or introducing new objects.

Beyond the fun of recreating 1800’s Osaka, or making a jet ski appear in the canals of Amsterdam, Google says Genie 3 will also be a tool for embodied AI training, with potential applications in fields like robotics, gaming, and artificial general intelligence research.

For now, there are a few limitations. Google says Genie 3 currently has a limited “action space” for agents, and struggles with accurately modeling multi-agent interactions in shared environments. By “agents,” the company’s referring to AI systems that operate autonomously within the virtual environments, in a way making decisions, taking actions, and learning from experience.

It also faces challenges with simulating real-world locations with “perfect geographic accuracy”, rendering text clearly, and maintaining long-duration interactions beyond a few minutes.

Still, it’s a pretty amazing leap from the sort of non-interactive videos we’re seeing online now, many of which are pretty difficult to tell from the real deal. Will Smith spaghetti-eating simulations are only going to get more lifelike and, with systems like Genie 3, interactive too.

Filed Under: News

‘Oasis’ WMR Driver Expected to Later This Month, Bringing New Life to Microsoft’s PC VR Headsets

August 5, 2025 From roadtovr

Microsoft stopped supporting its WMR platform on Windows 11 last year, essentially putting an end to its first foray into PC VR headsets. However, an unofficial SteamVR driver called ‘Oasis’ aims to bridge the gap when it releases later this month.

According to Oasis creator Matthieu Bucchianeri, the driver’s tentative global release date is August 29th, which he notes is subject to Valve approving release on Steam.

Oasis is slated to bridge Windows Mixed Reality headset support to SteamVR, which would otherwise need Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Portal to function. This, Bucchianeri says in the project’s GitHub, will include support for full 6DoF tracking along with motion controllers.

As for broad GPU support, Oasis is unfortunately restricted to Nvidia GPUs due to the way SteamVR interfaces with the GPU drivers. Bucchianeri has been trying to gain AMD’s permission, although at this point, he says the effort is “dead in the water.”

Bucchianeri says in a Reddit post this essentially comes down to AMD either “ignor[ing] 3rd party usage flag when LiquidVR attempts to open the device [, or offering] a functional EDID override so we can mask off the flag ourselves.”

Last October, the company deprecated the WMR platform with the launch of Windows 11 24H2, essentially killing support for a fleet of partner PC VR headsets, which included devices from Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Samsung.

Notably, Bucchianeri worked as a software engineer on Microsoft’s mixed reality division. While he currently leads firmware efforts at the company’s Xbox Gaming Devices Ecosystem, Oasis is a personal project.

Bucchianeri notes it doesn’t breech any prior non-disclosure agreements, leverages SteamVR, and doesn’t borrow any Microsoft intellectual property.

Filed Under: News, PC VR News & Reviews

Red Bull’s ‘Touching the Sky’ is an Hour-long Immersive Documentary on Wingsuit Flying and More, Now on Quest

August 4, 2025 From roadtovr

Red Bull and Jonathan Griffith Productions have released Touching the Sky on Quest, now letting you follow wingsuit base jumpers in the European Alps and a paragliding team across the Himalayas in Pakistan in an hour-long immersive documentary.

Captured using custom-built 3D, 360 cameras, the documentary lets you accompany wingsuit and base jump athletes Fred Fugen and Vincent Cotte, who take you on two wingsuit flights in the Italian Dolomites.

“The biggest challenge was in freefall, to fly with such a camera,” Fugen explains in a Red Bull blog post. “It took a lot of work to collaborate with the drone pilots who were in the helicopter. You had to adapt and synchronise together to do the jumps and freefalls. We didn’t have much training together [beforehand], so combining our skillsets was challenging.”

The documentary also features Aaron Durogati and his partner Matthias Weger as they paraglide across the Pakistani Himalayas, who aimed to get as high and deep in to the highest mountains on the planet.

“Flying in Pakistan is quite extreme because the mountains are huge and take expert technique to manage,” explains Durogati. “The thermal flows are unique to those in the Alps. If something happened there, you’re by yourself, and it’s unlikely that rescue helicopters can come to pick you up. In the Alps, you can almost always count on a rescue.”

You can watch the hour-along documentary for free over on Meta Quest TV, exclusively for Quest 2 and above.

If you’re interested in how it was all recorded, Red Bull has published a thirty-minute behind-the-scenes video, capturing the raw experience of what it takes to document such an amazing feat.

Filed Under: Meta Quest 3 News & Reviews, News

Samsung Confirms ‘Project Moohan’ XR Headset is Still Coming This Year

August 1, 2025 From roadtovr

Samsung didn’t highlight its upcoming mixed reality headset at Unpacked last month, nor at Google I/O the month prior—but no fear, the South Korean tech giant confirmed its Android XR-based headset is still coming this year.

In a recent earnings call, Samsung says its upcoming XR headset, tentatively named ‘Project Moohan’, is still coming. Small recompense, considering we still don’t know its official name, when the device is launching, or at what price.

“Meanwhile, we are also preparing to introduce next-generation innovative products, including our XR headset and TriFold smartphone this year,” confirmed Daniel Araujo of the company’s ‘MX’ mobile division in the company’s Q2 2025 earnings call.

Samsung Project Moohan | Image courtesy The Verge

That said, Samsung has seemed pretty reticent to put Project Moohan in the spotlight, which has been less than reassuring. While press demos were available at Google I/O, the headset wasn’t heavily featured there, which seems like a missed opportunity to engage with Android developers—the very people who will be building apps for the upcoming Android XR operating system.

What’s more, Project Moohan was essentially also a no-show at Samsung Unpacked in July, it’s annual product event. Then again, so was its TriFold smartphone, which is also slated to arrive sometime this year, suggesting we might get another mini product event between now and the year’s end.

While we don’t know exactly when Project Moohan is launching, or at what price, here’s what we do know:

Project Moohan runs Android XR via a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 + Gen 2. Its Sony-sourced micro‑OLED panels don’t have resolution specs yet, although it’s supposed to include some slimming pancake lenses, automatic interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment, support for eye and hand-tracking, optional magnetically-attached light shield, and a removable external battery pack. The headset is also slated to support VR motion controllers of some sort, although we haven’t seen them yet.

To learn more, check out our hands-on with Project Moohan from December 2024, which includes everything from comfort, display clarity, and how Android XR looks a lot like Horizon OS combined with VisionOS.

Filed Under: News, VR Development, XR Industry News

Brilliant Labs Unveils All-day Smart Glasses with Color Display, Pre-orders Launch at $300

August 1, 2025 From roadtovr

Brilliant Labs unveiled Halo, its next-gen smart glasses that pack in a full-color micro OLED display, bone conduction speakers, and real-time voice-based AI assistant—priced at a surprisingly reasonable $300.

Weighing in at just over 40 grams, Halo builds on the company’s earlier experiments in heads-up displays, including Monocle, a clip-on developer kit released in 2023, and Frame, a slimmer display unit launched a year later.

Halo represents a more consumer-oriented evolution, combining vision correction support, on-device AI, and open-source hardware in a form factor designed for everyday use.

The glasses are powered by a low-power Alif B1 processor with a Cortex-M55 CPU and a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of performing AI tasks directly on the device.

Image courtesy Brilliant Labs

A big feature is the company’s new integrated AI assistant, Noa, which supports real-time chats, promising to not only see what you see, but remember it too for later. And you’re meant to use it all-day, as the company says battery life is rated for up to 14 hours of typical use.

And as you’d imagine, a pair of microphones are onboard so you can talk with Noa, while a low-power optical sensor and six-axis IMU provide input for gesture and tap recognition. Connectivity is handled via Bluetooth 5.3.

Image courtesy Brilliant Labs

That single optical sensor isn’t for taking POV videos or images and posting them on Instagram though, as it’s used just for “AI inference,” Brilliant Labs says. Notably, there’s no familiar capture LED to indicate when it’s recording, like you see on Ray-Ban Meta or Xiaomi AI Glasses—likely because Halo doesn’t natively make video/images accessible to the user.

Noa is slated to be offered in two tiers: a free ‘Basic’ version with memory support and limited usage, and a ‘Plus’ subscription tier that includes full-speed conversational AI. Pricing for the premium tier has not yet been disclosed.

The display optics can be adjusted between +2 to -6 diopters to accommodate users with various levels of vision correction, and prescription lenses will also be available through partner Smart Buy Glasses.

Image courtesy Brilliant Labs

As with Brilliant Labs’ previous projects, Halo is open source. The company has published its design files and source code on GitHub, inviting developers and hardware enthusiasts to experiment with and modify the platform.

Shipping is slated to begin in Q4 2025, with Brilliant Labs noting that shipping is on a “first come, first served” basis. You can pre-order today direct on the Brilliant Labs website, priced at $299.

Check out the specs below:

Brilliant Labs Halo Specs

  • Display: Micro color OLED, adjustable +2 to -6 diopters
  • Audio: 2x bone conduction speakers
  • Processor: Alif B1 with Cortex-M55 CPU and NPU
  • Sensors
    • Low-power optical sensor
    • 2x microphones with audio activity detection
    • 6-axis IMU with tap detection
  • Lenses: Optical-grade with anti-reflective coating
  • Optional: prescription or sunglass lenses
  • Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3
  • Software
    • Open Source software (available on GitHub)
    • ZephyrOS with Lua scripting
    • Cross-platform mobile companion app
    • Cloud-based AI assistant (Noa)
  • Battery life: Up to 14 hours
  • Fit: Designed for IPD range of 58–72mm
  • Weight: Just over 40 grams

Filed Under: AR Development, News, XR Industry News

Meta Avatars Get a Major Makeover With New Body Types, Poses & AI-driven Clothing Styles

July 31, 2025 From roadtovr

Meta is giving its Avatars another big upgrade, offering users finer control over things like face shape, body part sizes, hair, makeup and more.

Avatars are integrated across the gamut of Meta’s platforms, including Horizon Worlds, Home and Workrooms on Quest and mobile, and across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

Now, users in the US and Canada can choose from dozens of new body types and customizable features, including things like shoulders, hips, and biceps. A new body preview mode is also there, letting users adjust their frame before customizing with outfits.

Notably, the Avatar face editor is also getting a boost, with new parametric controls for customizing things like jawlines, cheek fullness, and facial depth. Additionally, Meta says it’s added 18 standing poses, over 50 new emotes, and dozens of new clothing options tailored to fit all body types.

And to style your avatar, a new AI-powered style tool is launching too, which lets Horizon mobile app users generate new outfit ideas via text prompt or randomization, allowing users to then manually fine tune those creations.

Meta says it’s initially releasing the new avatar system to 13+ users in the US and Canada, noting that it’s rolling out the update gradually, which also means there should be more styles and features added over time.

Filed Under: Meta Quest 3 News & Reviews, News

‘Spotify’ Finally Comes to Quest, Letting You Listen to Music in the Background

July 30, 2025 From roadtovr

Spotify finally has its own Quest web app, letting you listen to music in the background as you go about your virtual ways.

The new Spotify app for Quest isn’t an app in the traditional sense, but rather a progressive web app (PWA) that essentially opens up its own browser window.

While that means you can’t use Spotify offline, like you might on Android or iOS, it does mean you can bypass the old song and dance of having to open the browser and go to Spotify web manually.

Image courtesy Spotify

It also means you can enjoy all of the same music and podcasts however you like, be it minimized for background play, or maximized so you can watch video podcasts, check out track lyrics, browse artists, and manage your playlists.

And as you’d imagine, the Spotify web app for Quest is free, supporting both free and paid subscriptions. You can find Spotify for Quest over on the Horizon Store, supporting Quest 2 and above.

Filed Under: Meta Quest 3 News & Reviews, News

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