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Key Google AR/VR Director Heads To Facebook Reality Labs

From uploadvr.com

Google continues to bleed experts in AR and VR technology as Facebook Reality Labs staffs up for a bigger push into hardware.

The latest move to Facebook is Joshua To, a key Google director who led “a large team of product designers, artists, writers and researchers focused on supporting our wearables and hardware efforts,” according to a Linkedin profile, which says he started at Facebook Reality Labs this month. A report by Input added that he worked on AR/VR projects like Lens and Daydream and confirmed he’ll be working on AR at Facebook.

To is the latest Googler to move on in recent years after the company shuttered efforts in VR right as it was on the cusp of delivering an all-in-one package similar to Facebook’s Oculus Quest. We’ll note that Paul Debevec left Google recently for Netflix. Debevec is one of the leading researchers in light field technology who joined Google in 2016 after pioneering work at USC working at the same institute Palmer Luckey spent time in before kickstarting the Oculus Rift. Debevec is now “Director of Research, Creative Algorithms and Technology” at Netflix where he’s doing “Research in computer graphics, computer vision, and machine learning to improve the creative filmmaking process.” A recent deal by Netflix with a prolific producer could lead to VR content from the company.

The pair join a long list of experts who have moved on from Google as the company shifts its ambitions in hardware and platforms. The company open sourced its art app Tilt Brush and shut down its 3D object hosting service Poly while adding new AR-centric features to its efforts in smartphones. Meanwhile, Facebook continues to hire at an incredible rate with more than 10,000 people working on VR and AR at the company.

Google Trials ‘Starline’ Glasses-Free Light Field Display

From uploadvr.com

Google’s research into light fields is bearing fruit with a glasses-free 3D display technology called “Project Starline” available at a few of its offices.

Google revealed the work as part of its annual developer conference this week. It is pitched as working like a “magic window” and relies on “custom-built hardware and highly specialized equipment” with advances in real-time compression, spatial audio, computer vision, and machine learning to provide a sense of being face to face with someone no matter the physical distance.

The image below posted by Google’s Vice President of AR and VR Clay Bavor offers a look at the substantial footprint for the system while it is used in one of Google’s offices.

project starline google

Google also posted a video showcasing the technology used for some person-to-person interactions said to provide “a sense of volume and depth that can be experienced without the need for additional glasses or headsets.” The company says it is planning to trial deployments with enterprise partners later this year.

We tested some early-stage glasses-free light field display technology in 2018 and it required years more development and enormous investments to improve brightness and cost enough to put it within reach of average consumers. In our 2018 demonstration from Light Field Lab, for instance, the 3D effect only worked if you kept your head in a very specific area relative to the display. Indeed, even with Google claiming key breakthroughs in its efforts to prove its glasses-free 3D display technology as a direction “technology can and should go”, the company cautions that only “some of these technical advancements” are likely to make it into its communication products.

Still, we’d love to go eyes-on with Project Starline at some point for a better sense of its use cases and the investment Google will need to spend to bring its advancements into wider use.