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Meta To Reveal Project Cambria Mixed Reality Details Tomorrow

May 11, 2022 From uploadvr

Meta will reveal new details about its Project Cambria standalone headset tomorrow.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg just said as much over on his Facebook page. “Project Cambria’s color passthrough technology will enable developers to build a whole new level of mixed reality experiences,” he wrote. “More details coming tomorrow.” Included in the post is a new image of Zuckerberg wearing the device and using hand tracking features, which you can see below.

It’s possible that these details will only concern Cambria’s color passthrough capabilities but, then again, there’s plenty more we’re still yet to learn about the headset. For starters, the Cambria label itself is merely a codename, with the device being introduced at Meta’s 2021 Connect event. It’s billed as a high-end alternative to Meta’s affordable Quest headsets. Alongside the switch to color passthrough, Cambria will add face and eye tracking for more emotive social VR avatars, and features a revised form factor that employs a new type of lens.

We do know the kit’s due to launch this year but we don’t have a final release date, nor a price. Could these details be confirmed tomorrow?

Though the headset will be compatible with Quest, Meta has previously stated that Cambria is not a part of the Quest line, and is more designed for work use than gaming. In fact, Meta says it sees this headset eventually replacing devices like laptops and, at the beginning of the month, it suggested the device will cost “significantly higher” than $800 despite reports to the contrary in an article from The Information. Import logs also suggest the device will have 12GB of RAM.

What are you hoping to see from Project Cambria tomorrow? Let us know in the comments below!

Filed Under: cambria, instantsocial, Meta, new VR headset, project cambria, quest pro, top stories, VR Hardware

Project Cambria To Have 12 GB RAM For Multitasking, Import Logs Suggest

April 28, 2022 From uploadvr

Meta’s Project Cambria headset could have 12 GB RAM for multitasking, import logs and a potential leak suggest.

Project Cambria was announced in late October at Connect 2021. Cambria isn’t Quest 3 – Mark Zuckerberg described it as an “advanced and high end product” positioned “at the higher end of the price spectrum” to be sold alongside Quest 2. At one point it was called ‘Quest Pro’ internally.

Cambria appears to have a more balanced design than Quest 2, with a smaller frontbox and a strap resembling Quest 2’s elite strap accessory. Meta says this is achieved through the use of pancake lenses instead of fresnel lenses. Whereas Quest 2 has grainy black & white cameras, Cambria will have high resolution color passthrough for mixed reality experiences. It will also include eye tracking and face tracking to drive avatars in social VR.

During Meta’s Q1 2022 earnings call yesterday Zuckerberg told investors Cambria will be “more focused on work use cases” than Quest 2, saying he sees it “eventually replacing your laptop”. Meta has been slowly adding productivity features to its VR operating system, branded as Infinite Office. If you have a Logitech K830 or Apple Magic Keyboard, they’ll show up in VR so you can type and use the trackpad to navigate. Triple window support was added to the web browser in August, with window resizing added in December.

Quest 2 handles triple windows fine most of the time, but the browser is only accessible in the home environment. If you want to look something up while still inside a VR app you need to close it first. This limitation may be down to the device having just 6 GB of RAM.

Import logs found by SadlyItsBradley, Reggy04, and Samulia reference a shipment sent to Meta in March of “SEACLIFFBCM” with “256GB / 12GB” in the description – Seacliff being the codename for the Project Cambria headset. Given Quest 2 is sold in 128 GB and 256 GB models that’s almost certainly the storage size, with 12 GB being the amount of RAM.

SadlyItsBradley (Brad Lynch) also says he has a source claiming the Quest OS will be “heavily optimized and separated into many independent systems” to enable 3 key features:

  • Suspending 2D and VR applications so you can launch another app and resume your progress “seamlessly” later
  • Anchoring windows to different areas of your Home space, with the other areas suspended
  • System Windows API (beta), letting developers put system dashboard windows (including the browser) in their applications.

It could be argued that Cambria’s extra RAM might be to handle the eye tracking, face tracking, and color passthrough – Pico Neo 3 Pro Eye has 2GB extra RAM. But it seems unlikely an entire 6 GB would be needed for these functions. Given 12 GB of RAM, Zuckerberg’s comments about work use cases, and Brad’s source; Cambria’s hardware may be much more capable of multitasking than Quest 2.

Filed Under: bradley, cambria, import logs, Meta, multitasking, quest pro, RAM, top stories, VR Hardware, zuckerberg

Chinese Analyst: Pico Will Release High End Headset Soon Before Meta

April 19, 2022 From uploadvr

A Chinese VR analyst who’s been reliable in the past claims Pico plans to release a high end headset before September.

In a note posted to WeChat, the analyst 黑毛警长008 suggests the ByteDance-owned brand plans to intentionally beat Meta’s Project Cambria to market with a very similar product. Just as Meta stated that Cambria isn’t a Quest 3, the analyst claims Pico’s headset isn’t a Neo 4. Instead the name “may be Pico Pro, Pico Neo 3 Pro+, or a new name series for it” suggesting it will be sold alongside the current Neo 3 line, not replace it.

The current Pico Neo 3 also has remarkably similar specs to Meta’s Quest 2. Like Cambria, Pico’s high end headset will apparently use pancake lenses for a slimmer and lighter form factor and feature higher resolution, eye tracking, face tracking, and advanced controllers which ditch the tracking ring in favor of onboard tracking cameras.

The hardware cost of this product will be “far higher” than the Pico Neo 3 the analyst says, which was announced as launching to European consumers last week for €449. Meta has hinted on multiple occasions that Quest 2 is sold at or below what it costs to make, and the analyst claims the same “very aggressive subsidy policy” is happening for Pico Neo 3 and will continue with the new product too.

The analyst also claims Meta’s Project Cambria will launch in September, and that ByteDance will intentionally adopt a strategy to ship its headset earlier than Meta. If true, the product should launch within the next four months.

Pico described the Neo 3 Link consumer launch as a “beta program”, and made an unusual offer of giving buyers a 35% discount on a future model “should there be another product that comes from Pico within the next 12 months”. If this analyst’s report is to be believed, that offer may be referring to this high end model rather than a Neo 4.

Filed Under: bytedance, cambria, pico, pro, top stories, VR Hardware

Editorial: With Apple Approaching, Meta Needs A More Intuitive VR User Experience

January 15, 2022 From uploadvr

As we head into 2022, the virtual and augmented reality industry is starting to look a little more competitive than it has in the last few years. But with Apple approaching the market, Meta needs to change its approach to user interface and experience in VR headsets.

Since its launch in 2019, Meta’s Quest platform has dominated the VR market. But with PSVR2 specs announced and Apple’s VR/AR headset potentially arriving as soon as this year, competition is on the rise. 

Recent reports indicate that Apple and Meta are in competition over talent, both enticing their existing employees to stay while also trying to lure the competition away.

Meta is building up its AR efforts after showcasing its prototype AR project, Nazare, while also moving towards release of its Project Cambria headset later this year. Cambria is expected to feature high-resolution color passthough, eye and face tracking and much more.

A reported rough depiction of Apple’s unannounced mixed reality headset, drawn by The Information.

Apple’s VR/AR headset is expected to focus on mixed reality using high resolution color cameras, along with a 300-400 gram weight range, dual 4K OLED microdisplays and “M1 MacBook level performance.”

While Meta has seen the most success with the Quest platform, the expected specs for Cambria and Apple’s headset would position them more in competition with each other than with the Quest.

Both companies are essentially building towards the next big leap in personal computing. As they take these next steps, it becomes increasingly important for both Meta and Apple to pair cutting-edge hardware with a seamless and intuitive user interface and experience.

Guiding the User

For Apple, this is an area of expertise. Apple is known for providing an unparalleled, seamless experience within its own ecosystem. This intuitive ‘walled garden’ approach is both chided and praised from a wider technological standpoint, but the benefit to the Apple user experience is undeniable. 

Apple pairs smartly-designed, intuitive user interfaces with a notorious “it just works” attitude to new software and features, capped off by unmatched integration across its own ecosystem of devices. For most users, Apple’s software is the easiest to instantly understand — the complicated technology gets out of the way. Apple’s interfaces are designed to be used with little instruction, from either the device or other people. 

Steve Jobs coining Apple’s now-infamous “it just works” mentality, on stage announcing iCloud at WWDC 2011.

On the other side of the coin, Meta offers a very different approach to user interface and experience. Despite being one of the largest social media platforms in history, Facebook is a cluttered and confusing mess of an interface. This is partly because the site’s design is constantly changed, re-designed and evolved to improve engagement. It’s a live experiment in progress, always. 

From a sales point of view, Quest 2 has been a phenomenal success and it’s now a fantastic content platform for some of VR’s biggest releases. However, the base user experience mimics the Facebook design principles of confusion, evolution and convolution.

Quest 2 runs a custom VR operating system, built around a modified version of Android. Meta has made significant improvements (both in terms of design and available features) to the OS since the original Quest launch in 2019. For dedicated users and those accustomed to advanced technology, the Quest UI does its job.

For a casual audience however, Quest 2’s interface and user experience is often clunky, unintuitive and confusing to navigate. Simple actions and features are frequently hard to find or hidden away.

The latest iteration of the Quest 2 UI.

This became apparent to me personally over the holiday period, while trying to help my Dad launch an app on his Quest 2. He only uses the headset once every few months, but is otherwise adept when it comes to phones, computers and other technology platforms. 

What followed was a series of endless troubleshooting questions for very basic actions. “Have you found the app menu? It’s the icon with a grid of squares. It’s on the dashboard, at the bottom, can you see the dashboard? You bring it up by pressing the Oculus button. No, not that one. It’s the one that has no indentation, it’s flat, at the bottom of the face on the right controller. Can you see the dash now? Okay, can you find the app? It’s in the app menu…”

For a device that can fabricate an entire world around you, with limitless design options, it feels less natural and more confusing to navigate than almost any other platform. Meta’s UI on Quest obfuscates simple actions, over-complicates the basics and seemingly fails at guiding the user around the headset. 

A Tale of Two Operating Systems

The reasons for this are somewhat clear – Meta does not have Apple’s breadth of experience in the computer platform realm. Apple have been doing this for decades, Meta just over one. 

Perhaps some of the answers to these UI design problems will be solved with Meta’s proprietary VR/AR operating system, which is being developed internally and was, until recently, led by Mark Lucovsky (formerly of Microsoft, now developing an AR OS for Google). 

Project Cambria
Meta’s upcoming Project Cambria headset.

But with Cambria releasing this year, it seems unlikely it would run Meta’s proprietary OS — a continuation of the modified Android build pioneered for Quest seems like the safer bet.

Apple’s headset will probably feature much of the same design language, features and experience that has propelled Apple to become one of the most esteemed technology companies on the planet. So if Apple’s headset releases later this year, will Cambria’s competing user experience hold up to Apple’s standard?

Apple has spent more than a decade perfecting, streaming-lining and synergizing the design of its three big operating systems: iOS, MacOS and iPad OS. The upcoming headset is rumored to run its own operating system, rOS, and job openings describe engineers working on VR/AR problems alongside Apple’s existing UI frameworks and system software teams.

Meta may have a lead in the VR/AR content war and now seems laser-focused on building its own metaverse, but Apple could easily outplay them on a system software level. How? Let’s speculate on the hypothetical user experience offered by Apple’s upcoming headset, based off the company’s existing products and ecosystem-spanning features.

The (Hypothetical) Apple Headset Experience

Like most Apple devices, the headset will probably pair automatically with your account when placed in proximity to another Apple device you own, eliminating the need for almost any user setup. This would automatically connect the headset to your existing Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth and Apple devices, and your iCloud account.

In terms of user interface, the headset will likely borrow a lot of visual and interface cues from iOS/iPad OS, adapted for mixed reality. With an Apple chip inside, native support for existing 2D iOS and MacOS apps might be possible, if not expected. If so, automatic pairing would likely sync your existing app data and files across instantly using iCloud, syncing everything inside and outside of VR perfectly.

Apple Export
Apple’s heavily-integrated product ecosystem. 

Likewise, the headset would instantly connect to your accessories, like AirPods, right out of the box. Screenshots or video recordings taken in VR or mixed reality will probably upload automatically to iCloud, ensuring easy access from other non-VR devices. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see other Apple services, like AirDrop or AirPlay, to be integrated at launch as well.

While all of the above is hypothetical, it’s not necessarily unlikely — new Apple devices tend to fit into the ecosystem perfectly. Ecosystem features like AirDrop and automatic pairing are standard fare on every new Apple device.

Many of these features are already available on Quest, some in a different or much less convenient manner. However, the way that Apple melds intuitive design with convenient features is what counts. The average consumer doesn’t have to search very far to AirDrop a photo from one device to another — it’s just a button press or two away at all times.  On Quest 2, moving a screenshot from the headset to a phone or computer is unclear and cumbersome every step of the way. For ease of use and intuitive design, it’s still apples and oranges — even when counting recent improvements on Meta’s end.

If Cambria launches with such a low standard of user experience, then Apple’s headset shipping with AirDrop and other ecosystem staples would set it up to outclass Meta in several areas almost overnight.

A Fruitful Opportunity

Meta has arguably bought and developed its way to an impressive content library and feature set, but it lacks the experience to leverage that as part of an effective, integrated platform. At launch, the opposite might be true for Apple’s headset.

Both headsets are aiming higher than a gaming market — they are the next generation of personal computing. If Meta wants to compete with Apple on that level, then it will need to adapt and make some serious changes — and soon.

Clear and intuitive user experience is becoming increasingly crucial as VR reaches a wider audience. Apple joining the fray should present the industry with some well-needed competition in this department – let’s hope Meta bites back. 

Filed Under: Apple, apple ar, apple headset, apple mr, apple vr, apple vr headset, cambria, cambria vr, editorial, Editorials, Meta, meta cambria, project cambria, project cambria vr, top stories, ui, user experience, user interface, virtual reality, virtual reality experience, virtual reality game, virtual reality industry, virtual reality market, virtual reality new, virtual reality news, VR, vr 2022, VR app, vr article, vr experience, VR game, vr game news, VR Headset, vr headset news, vr industry, vr industry news, VR Market, vr new, VR news, vr news market, vr ui, vr user experience, vr user interface

Quest 2 Will Have ‘Long Life’, Project Cambria Still Due In 2022 – Meta

December 24, 2021 From uploadvr

Meta figureheads have reiterated that the Meta Quest 2 will have a “long life”, and will not be replaced by the upcoming Project Cambria.

Consulting CTO John Carmack made that much clear in response to a new blog post from Meta’s VR/AR head, Andrew Bosworth. “An important point here is that the “project Cambria” product will *NOT* replace Quest 2, it will be sold alongside it,” Carmack said. “Quest 2 will have a long life.”

The note comes amongst concerns that Cambria, which is a new high-end standalone headset, will eventually take front and center for Meta, much in the same way that Quest 2 has slowly replaced Quest 1 over the past 14 months. Indeed, a number of apps that have released for Quest 2 this holiday season can’t even be played on Quest 1, including Resident Evil 4 and Medal of Honor.

But Cambria, which was announced at Connect a few months back, isn’t going to be a part of the Quest line of products, and new features like color passthrough and eye and face-tracking suggest the headset will be significantly more expensive than Quest 2’s $299 starting point. The project’s aim is less about widespread adoption and more concerned with implementing features that Meta believes will advance its vision of the metaverse among other uses.

Bosworth’s blog, meanwhile, reconfirmed that Cambria is planned for release sometime in 2022, though there’s still no specific window for that launch. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the headset as we move into the new year and will bring you all the latest.

Filed Under: Andrew Bosworth, cambria, John Carmack, Meta, project cambria, Project Cambria release date, quest 2, top stories, VR Hardware

Project Cambria 3D Model Formed From Texture Leak

November 3, 2021 From uploadvr

Last week we reported on another Project Cambria leak that revealed a set of textures for Meta’s new headset. Now those textures have been stitched together to give us a closer look at the device.

Twitter user Bastian, who was behind the original leak of the textures, posted new images of all the assets molded into 3D models. There’s one for the headset itself, plus the new controllers and the controller dock that we first saw in another leak.

pic.twitter.com/3hwrUflxQv

— Bastian 😀 (@Basti564) November 2, 2021

Of course, when we first saw these leaks we were waiting on the reveal of Cambria — which we’d been referring to as Oculus Quest Pro — at the Connect developer conference. In the end, we didn’t get a full reveal of the device (Cambria itself is only a codename), but the little footage we did see of it is consistent with the 3D models here.

Namely, we can see a black headset with an integrated headband, a pair of controllers that no longer have the tracking rings of the original Touch designs, and a circular pad to charge them on. Bastain made a video flythrough of the models, too.

We also know that Cambria will not be a part of the Quest line of products, though it does look to be a standalone headset. The device uses multi-element pancake lenses for a more compact form factor, high-resolution color passthrough and eye and face tracking capabilities.

We’ll hopefully see more from Project Cambria soon, though the headset doesn’t have a firm release window just yet.

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Leaked 3D Model Offers a Clearer Glimpse at Meta’s Project Cambria Headset

November 2, 2021 From roadtovr

Meta (formerly Facebook) announced a mixed reality headset at its Connect 2021 dev conference last week—code named Project Cambria. The company’s official teaser video is supposed to leave a little something to the imagination, however leaked 3D models have surfaced now that seems to show a convincing view of the headset.

Here’s that teaser in case you missed it:

Prior to its unveiling at Connect, a number of leaked videos revealing Project Cambria were posted on Twitter by user Bastian which was reportedly found in the ‘Seacliff’ firmware—ostensibly an internal name designation used by Meta.

If that wasn’t enough, Bastian also uncovered black and white models of Project Cambria, which he has now reconstructed into a full 3D model, rendering the black version within a VR headset for full effect.

In the video you can get a better look at the headset’s strap, which appears to be a bit of a mix between PSVR’s halo strap and the Quest 2 elite strap that both cradles the occipital bone and the forehead.

The reconstructed model also gives us a closer look at the headset’s Touch controllers, which have a noticeable inward slope in comparison to the flat button area in previous Touch designs. Like we’ve seen in previous leaks, the Touch controllers appear to house their own optical sensors, or depth sensors of some sort.

There’s even the model of the charging cradle, which we also saw in the previous how-to promo.

Notably included in the 3D model is the Oculus logo. Meta announced last week that the Oculus naming scheme will be phased out sometime in early 2022, as the Oculus Quest line becomes Meta Quest. This may imply that the Meta rebranding wasn’t known to the Oculus team at the time, or that the model itself was an earlier representation before the name change was internally discussed.

Meta says Project Cambria will launch “next year,” however there’s still no pricing or more precise launch window. Check out the Connect announcement of Project Cambria to learn everything we know about the upcoming headset.

Filed Under: cambria, Meta, meta mr headset, meta project cambria, News, project cambria

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