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Meta is Reportedly Partnering with LG to Create Apple Vision Pro Competitor

From roadtovr

Meta is reportedly teaming up with South Korean tech giant LG Electronics to offer up competition to the Apple’s forthcoming Vision Pro mixed reality headset, which is slated to arrive sometime in 2024.

South Korea’s Maekyung (Korean) is reporting on two new Meta headsets: a low-cost Quest model that will be priced at “less than $200” coming in 2024, and a high-priced model in a joint venture with LG in 2025, which is supposedly set to take on Apple Vision Pro.

The report maintains the name of the Meta/LG headset will be ‘Meta Quest 4 Pro’.

Mass production of the so-called Quest 4 Pro is allegedly being handled by LG Electronics, and LG Display, with LG Innotek and LG Energy Solution supplying parts.

Provided the report is true, it seems some very distinct battle lines are being drawn. Samsung announced earlier this year that it was working with Qualcomm and Google to develop an Android-powered XR device, which may also be positioned to compete against Apple and Meta.

Meta Launches ‘Horizon Worlds’ Closed Beta on Smartphones

From roadtovr

Meta’s social VR platform just took its first step outside of Quest-exclusivity, as the company recently launched a closed beta for Horizon Worlds on Android mobile devices.

You won’t find Horizon Worlds on Google Play. Users taking part in the closed beta can directly launch the app through the Quest Android app.

X (previously Twitter) user Lunayian was apparently one of those chosen few, showing off a brief hands-on in the Super Rumble lobby, Meta’s first-party hero shooter revealed late last month.

Besides scripted avatar animations, the user’s legs seem to be what visually separates users on Quest from Android mobile devices, as Quest users are doomed to skate around as floating torsos until Meta decides otherwise.

There’s no word when the company plans to roll out access on browsers either, which the beta’s FAQ says will broaden availability of the platform to iOS devices on Safari, and Google Chrome, Safari, or Microsoft Edge on laptops and desktops.

At the time of this writing, the standard geolocation restrictions are still in effect for Horizon Worlds, with only users in the following countries able to access the platform: Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

When it does roll out to more locations and platforms though, it will be better positioned to actually compete with the most successful metaverse apps, such as Rec Room, Roblox, and VR Chat, all of which have benefited from releasing on essentially every major platform worldwide—VR headsets and traditional platforms included. Undoubtedly, Meta is looking to replicate this success with Horizon Worlds, as it is now offering up better (and decidedly more sticky) first-party content like Super Rumble.

We’re sure to learn more about new Horizon Worlds features at the company’s annual Connect developer conference soon, which takes place September 27th, steaming both online and in-person for a select few at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters.

Meta Appears to be Readying a Quest 3 Charging Dock to Streamline Usage

From roadtovr

A new charging dock from Meta, apparently for Quest 3, has been revealed through regulatory certification. As with Quest Pro’s dock, the goal of the new dock is certainty to streamline headset usage by encouraging users to keep it charged and always up-to-date.

Friction in VR—all of the clunk associated with putting a thing on your head, fitting it, then, going through menus to get to the software you want to use—is a tough challenge the industry has been slowly chipping away at over many years.

One major piece of that friction comes with keeping headsets charged and up-to-date. It’s an all-too-common occurrence for someone to forget to plug in their headset after a session and then realize the battery is dead the next time they have the urge to use it. Worse still, if it’s been a while since they plugged the headset in, it’s likely to need updates to both the core software and specific apps before it’s ready to go.

This is a clear issue, and one that Meta has attempted to address with an official charging dock, first sold alongside the Quest Pro headset. The dock charges both the headset and controllers, making sure everything is juiced and keeping the headset powered on and updated (well, when the auto updates actually work).

It would seem the company was happy with the benefits to retention brought by the Quest Pro dock, as a new charging dock—almost certainly for Quest 3—has been revealed by regulatory certification through the US Federal Communication Agency.

The FCC is tasked with certifying products with electromagnetic emissions to be safe and compatible with regulations. Products utilizing radio, WiFi, infrared, etc. need certification before they can be distributed for sale. Certification by the FCC marks one step closer to the launch of consumer electronics product.

The documentation reveals that the dock includes “wireless charging function for left and right controllers,” apparently up to 2.5 watts. That’s pretty slow compared to what we see from wireless charging on modern smartphones, but may be more than adequate for the Quest 3 controllers which don’t need as much power as a smartphone or the headset itself. The actual Quest 3 headset will continue to charge via direct contact as we can see by the pins revealed on the underside of the headset.

– – — – –

Wireless charging is an interesting change from the Quest Pro dock which exclusively relies on direct-contact charging. One reason for this change is likely that the current method of docking the Quest Pro controllers is quite awkward—sometimes leading to the controllers not charging when it looks like they should be. The headset itself is much easier to place in the proper location.

The Quest Pro controllers must be angled somewhat awkwardly to make proper correct contact with the dock for charging | Photo by Road to VR

A Quest 3 dock with wireless controller charging could create more tolerance for mispositioned controllers, leaving less room for user-error.

One big question is whether or not the dock will be included with Quest 3.

Considering Meta’s goal to keep the sticker price of the mainline Quest headsets low, we’d guess it will be made available as an optional accessory. But there’s a chance that Meta deems the dock important enough to the overall user experience that they opt to include it right in the box.

If it did come in the box, this would be the first time the company included rechargeable controllers in its consumer line of VR headsets. All prior consumer headset controllers from Meta have required AA batteries, though it’s always been easy enough to add recharging to the controllers through inexpensive rechargeable AA batteries.

The Quest 3 dock will unfortunately almost certainly not be compatible with Quest 2 controllers because the newer headset is using a new controller which the company calls Touch Plus.

Image courtesy Meta

The new controller does away with the tracking ring that has always been present on the company’s consumer VR controllers, and will likely include the hardware necessary for wireless charging.

Meta Reveals New Prototype VR Headsets Focused on Retinal Resolution and Light Field Passthrough

From roadtovr

Meta unveiled two new VR headset prototypes that showcase more progress in the fight to solve some persistent technical challenges facing VR today. Presenting at SIGGRAPH 2023, Meta is demonstrating a headset with retinal resolution combined with varifocal optics, and another headset with advanced light field passthrough capabilities.

Butterscotch Varifocal Prototype

Revealed in a developer blogpost, Meta showed off a varifocal research prototype that demonstrates a VR display system which provides “visual clarity that can closely match the capabilities of the human eye,” says Meta Optical Scientist Yang Zhao. The so-called ‘Butterscotch Varifocal’ prototype provides retinal resolution of up to 56 pixels per degree (PPD), which is sufficient for 20/20 visual acuity, researchers say.

Since its displays are also varifocal, it can support from 0 to 4 diopter (i.e. infinity to 25 cm), and matching what researchers say are “the dynamics of eye accommodation with at least 10 diopter/s peak velocity and 100 diopter/s2 acceleration.” The pulsing motors below control the displays’ focal distance in an effort to match the human eye.

Varifocal headsets represent a solution to the vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC) which has plagued standard VR headsets, the most advanced consumer headsets included. Varifocal headsets not only include the same standard support for the vergence reflex (when eyes converge on objects to form a stereo image), but also the accommodation reflex (when the lens of the eye changes shape to focus light at different depths). Without support for accommodation, VR displays can cause eye strain, make it difficult to focus on close imagery, and may even limit visual immersion.

Check out the through-the-lens video below to see how Butterscotch’s varifocal bit works:

Using LCD panels readily available on the market, Butterscotch manages its 20/20 retinal display by reducing the field of view (FOV) to 50 degrees, smaller than Quest 2’s ~89 degree FOV.

Although Butterscotch’s varifocal abilities are similar to the company’s prior Half Dome prototypes, the company says Butterscotch is “solely focused on showcasing the experience of retinal resolution in VR—but not necessarily with hardware technologies that are ultimately appropriate for the consumer.”

“In contrast, our work on Half Dome 1 through 3 focused on miniaturizing varifocal in a fully practical manner, albeit with lower-resolution optics and displays more similar to today’s consumer headsets,” explains Display Systems Research Director Douglas Lanman. “Our work on Half Dome prototypes continues, but we’re pausing to exhibit Butterscotch Varifocal to show why we remain so committed to varifocal and delivering better visual acuity and comfort in VR headsets. We want our community to experience varifocal for themselves and join in pushing this technology forward.”

Flamera Lightfield Passthrough Prototype

Another important side of making XR more immersive is undoubtably the headset’s passthrough capabilities, like you might see on Quest Pro or the upcoming Apple Vision Pro. The decidedly bug-eyed design of Meta’s Flamera research prototype is looking for a better way to create more realistic passthrough by using light fields.

Research Scientist Grace Kuo wearing the Flamera research prototype | Image courtesy Meta

In standard headsets, cameras are typically placed a few inches from where your eyes actually sit, capturing a different view than what you’d see if you weren’t wearing a headset. While there’s a lot of distortion and placement correction going on in standard headsets of today, you’ll probably still notice a ton of visual artifacts as the software tries to correctly resolve and render different depths of field.

“To address this challenge, we brainstormed optical architectures that could directly capture the same rays of light that you’d see with your bare eyes,” says Meta Research Scientist Grace Kuo. “By starting our headset design from scratch instead of modifying an existing design, we ended up with a camera that looks quite unique but can enable better passthrough image quality and lower latency.”

Check out the quick explainer below to see how Flamera’s ingenious capture methods work:

Now, here’s a comparison between an unobstructed view and Flamera’s light field capture, showing off some pretty compelling results:

As research prototypes, there’s no indication when we can expect these technologies to come to consumer headsets. Still, it’s clear that Meta is adamant about showing off just how far ahead it is in tackling some of the persistent issues in headsets today—something you probably won’t see from the patently black box that is Apple.

You can read more about Butterscotch and Flamera in their respective research papers, which are being presented at SIGGRAPH 2023, taking place August 6th – 10th in Los Angeles. Click here for the Butterscotch Varifocal abstract and Flamera full paper.

Meta CTO Rebukes Report Claiming Cancellation of Quest Pro Line

From roadtovr

According to a recent report from The Information, Meta is allegedly spinning down Quest Pro alongside a broader move to cancel the future ‘Pro’ line of XR hardware altogether. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth says however, “don’t believe everything you read.”

Meta has reportedly stopped ordering new components for the Quest Pro from its suppliers, The Information maintains. While it’s thought Meta will continue selling its $1,000 Pro-branded mixed reality headset as long as there is enough stock, the report alleges the entire Pro line has been suspended, putting a second-generation Quest Pro distinctly out of the question.

Speaking in an Instagram Stories post yesterday, Bosworth rebukes the claim that a potential Quest Pro 2 has officially been cancelled for good, saying that his team is developing multiple prototypes in parallel for all of its projects. Notably, he doesn’t address whether it’s spinning down the current version of Quest Pro, however he implies that the report of Quest Pro 2’s demise was the result of a disgruntled employee whose project was cut.

Here’s Bosworth’s statement in full:

“I have to explain this every year. There is no Quest Pro 2 headset until we decide there is. What I mean by that is there are lots of prototype headsets—lots of them—all in development in parallel. Some of them, we say, “that’s not the right one,” and we shut it down. Some of them, we say, “that’s the right one,” and we spin it up. What you need to understand is, until it goes out the door, it doesn’t get the name. So, there might be a Quest Pro 2, there might not be. I’m not really telling you, but I will say don’t believe everything you read about what’s been stopped or started. A lot of times it comes from someone who’s unhappy their particular project got cut when there are other projects that did not get cut.”

Still, it’s clear there’s been some turbulence in how Quest Pro was handled from the get-go. Originally launched for $1,500 in October 2022, Meta decided only a few months later it would slash Quest Pro by $500, putting at its $1,000 price tag today. Meanwhile, Quest 2 has seen multiple price changes, ranging from $300 to $400 for the same 128GB variant.

Fluctuating prices aside, Quest Pro’s raison d’être has never really been clearly defined, as the company has nebulously pitched it to professionals as a would-be workstation. In practice, Quest Pro has been more of a developer kit for studios hoping to build consumer apps for the cheaper Quest 3, coming in Fall 2023 at $500. Meanwhile, Quest Pro users have reported a host of usability issues since launch, decidedly making it feel a little less ready for prime time than the company probably hoped.

Whatever the case, Quest Pro 2 would need a much clearer value proposition—provided whatever prototypes Meta has waiting in the wings also don’t also get cut.

Meta Reveals Real-Time Avatar Calls For Bad Hair Days

From vrscout

Animated stickers have also arrived on iOS and Android.

Yesterday, Meta revealed real-time avatar calls, a new feature that allows Messenger and Instagram users to conduct real-time conversations using their personalized Meta avatars.

No longer do you have to worry about tidying up your hair before an early morning meeting. Instead, let your perfectly kept digital persona do the smiling for you. Real-time calling with avatars is available now on both iOS and Android devices.

Credit: Meta

“Whether you’re Instagram famous, a casual doom-scroller, or an adventurer about to head off on some daring VR exploits, your Meta Avatar lets you represent yourself seamlessly and hang out with others across the metaverse,” said Meta in an official release.

“More than a billion Meta Avatars have been created to date, helping people express themselves in digital spaces in new ways. And today, we’re sharing some updates that make your avatar more fun, useful, and social than ever before.”

Credit: Meta

In addition to real-time avatar calls, Meta also unveiled several other exciting updates:

  • Animated Stickers – Choose from a variety of animated stickers starring your personalized Meta avatar, from face-palm and applause to thumbs-up and hello. Animated avatar stickers can be shared across Instagram and Facebook Stories and Reels, Facebook comments, and Messenger and Instagram messages.
  • Social Stickers – Tag a friend to automatically add their Meta avatar to your stickers on Facebook Stories for a more social sticker experience.
  • Live Selfie Avatar Creation – This experimental feature for Facebook and WhatsApp generates a suggested avatar option based on a simple 2D selfie. Meta states that this feature is still being tested, so expect mixed results for now.
  • Improved Avatar Design – Avatars now sport a more proportional design that makes them look a bit less like a “cake pop,” as described by Meta. This new design will serve as the standard across all platforms including VR.
Credit: Meta

As if that weren’t enough, Meta revealed yet another luxury fashion brand, Valentino, has joined its Avatars Store. You can choose from six new virtual outfits and one pair of Valentino Garavani VLogo Signature earrings.

For more information check out yesterday’s full announcement here.

Feature Image Credit: Meta

Meta Reportedly in Talks With Tencent to Bring Quest to China

From roadtovr

Facebook and Twitter have been blocked in China since 2009, but Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is hoping to get back in that country with Quest, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the report maintains that Meta has held discussions with several Chinese tech companies, making the most progress with massive entertainment conglomerate Tencent.

The Meta-Tencent talks reportedly came to a head late last year, with Tencent Chairman Pony Ma deciding to proceed with the negotiation first and “see what deals they could reach,” WSJ reports.

Undoubtedly the most complicated bit of the talks would revolve around VR content distribution, and how it’s moderated for Chinese markets. It’s said a portion of Meta’s global offerings could be on offer alongside Tencent’s own apps and services.

In 2009, Facebook and Twitter were banned in China after breaching Beijing’s notoriously strict censorship laws; the ban is thought to have been a direct effort to quel the July 2009 Ürümqi riots that took place in the country’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

More recently, Chinese executives were allegedly worried that Zuckerberg isn’t seen as “friendly to China” due to lingering tentions over prior accusations of technology theft by companies such as ByteDance, maker of TikTok.

A Meta spokesman declined to comment on WSJ’s report. Tencent didn’t respond to a request for comment.

This isn’t the first time Meta VR hardware has made a splash on the Chinese mainland. In 2018, Meta (then Facebook) penned a deal with Xiaomi to release a Chinese variant of Oculus Go, sold by Xiaomi as the ‘Mi VR Standalone’. At the time, this was something of a quid pro quo, as Xiaomi was tasked with manufacturing Oculus Go, giving it exclusive rights to the mainland Chinese market as a result.

No such manufacturing deal is in place with Meta Quest 3, which is coming this Fall for $500. In the end, Meta’s current strategy seems less about getting its subsidized hardware into the country, and more about driving a wedge into the Great Chinese Firewall so it can once again tap into the world’s fastest-growing economy.

Meta & BMW Are Taking In-Car XR To The Next Level

From vrscout

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta and the BMW Group have partnered to develop a research project focused on the integration of virtual and augmented reality (AR) into vehicles.

The partnership, which was first announced in 2021, aims to explore how this technology could be used to enhance passenger and driver experiences.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen VR technology used in passenger cars. Holoride has already begun offering its own version of in-car VR entertainment. That said, in-car VR technology still features its fair share of limitations. For instance, if the device is moving while the car is moving, it might get confused and display unstable content.



Navigating a few speed bumps

The mismatch between the current generation of VR headsets and the design of vehicles has prevented stable virtual content from being displayed inside a car when it’s moving.

This issue has been a problem for the automotive industry for a long time, and the folks at Meta Reality Lab collaborated with the BMW team to resolve it. Through this partnership, they were able to create a solution that accurately anchors virtual objects to the car and integrates the data collected by a BMW car’s sensor array into its Quest Pro tracking system. 

Credit: Meta
Credit: Meta

This solution allowed them to accurately anchor a virtual object to the car by leveraging data from Meta’s Aria research glasses and demonstrate the use of Meta’s new tracking system and the Meta Quest Pro in cars with MR and VR experiences. The next step was to add the car’s location to the system so that it can be rendered in a world-locked manner.

Exciting results

“Our research prototype shows that we can enable entertaining and comfortable passenger experiences that are anchored to the car itself, including VR and mixed reality gaming, entertainment, productivity, and even meditation capabilities,” said Richard Newcombe, Vice President of Research Science, Reality Labs Research, in an official release. 

“The technology has the potential to transform how we can safely interact with our environment while traveling, and as we progress into reliable world-locked content on the road to AR glasses, we’re hopeful it will be possible for passengers to see things like markers for landmarks, restaurants, places of interest and more.”

Credit: Meta

The future looks bright

It’s too early to tell exactly when the technology will be available in cars. That said, the BMW Group believes that it could be used to improve the passenger experience. For instance, it could be used to help the driver locate their car in a parking lot and alert them to potential hazards.

Claus Dorrer, Head of BMW Group Technology Office USA in Mountain View, said “The implications of future AR glasses and VR devices — for passengers as well as drivers — are promising. The research partnership with Meta will allow us to discover what immersive, in-vehicle XR experiences could look like in the future and spearhead the seamless integration of such devices into cars.” 

Credit: Meta

Meta and BMW are working together to develop new use cases for its in-car technology. One of these is the ability to access the car’s 6D positioning system, which could allow the virtual content to be displayed outside the vehicle. This could be useful for developing AR glasses and AI assistants.

The potential of this technology to transform travel will help shape the future, as it could allow us to experience new forms of utility and communication without the need for screens or instruments.

To learn more about the project, please refer to Meta’s official blog post or check out the press release issued by BMW.

Feature Image Credit: Meta

Report: Meta in Talks with Magic Leap for Multiyear AR Headset Tech Deal

From roadtovr

A report from the Financial Times maintains Meta is currently in talks with AR headset creator Magic Leap to strike a multiyear deal, which could include intellectual property licensing and contract manufacturing of AR headsets in North America.

The AR unicorn is said to possess valuable IP regarding custom components, including its optics, waveguides, and software.

It’s said a potential deal may also allow Meta to lessen its reliance on China for component manufacturing. In 2019, Magic Leap partnered with manufacturing solutions company Jabil to create a Guadalajara, Mexico plant which the report maintains can assemble headsets in “the tens of thousands a year.”

Magic Leap 2 | Photo by Road to VR

Citing people with knowledge of the talks, the report maintains however a specific joint Meta-Magic Leap headset isn’t expected.

While both companies didn’t comment on a potential partnership, Magic Leap said this to the Financial Times:

“Given the complexities of developing true augmented reality technologies and the intricacies involved with manufacturing these optics, as well as the issues many companies experience with overseas supply chain dependencies, we have entered into several non-exclusive IP licensing and manufacturing partnerships with companies looking to enter the AR market or expand their current position.”

Since it exited stealth in 2014, Magic Leap has released two AR headsets, Magic Leap 1 and Magic Leap 2, which have been compared in functionality to Microsoft’s HoloLens AR headsets.

The company has raised over $4 billion, with minority investors including Google, Alibaba, Qualcomm, AT&T, and Axel Springer. Its majority stakeholder is Saudi Arabia’s state-owned sovereign wealth fund.

In addition to Quest Pro mixed reality headset, Meta has confirmed it’s currently working on its next iteration of Quest, likely Quest 3, as well as its own AR glasses. Meta started real-world testing of Project Aria in 2020, a platform for training its AR perception systems and asses public perception of the technology.

Meta to Open ‘Horizon Worlds’ Social VR Platform to Kids Ages 13+

From roadtovr

Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR platform for Quest, is only open to 18+ users for now, however the company says it’s expanding to include teens aged 13 to 17 in the US and Canada.

Meta says the new policy will go into effect in “the coming weeks,” effectively opening the company’s first-party social platform to its entire user base in those countries; Meta only allows users 13+ to actually use Quest devices.

To prepare for the wave of younger users, the company is also releasing some age-appropriate protections and safety defaults.

Safety features will include the ability for teens to control who they follow and who can follow them back. Profiles are also set to private by default, which obscures active status and location. Worlds and events will have content ratings, so younger teens can’t get in.

A new voice mode feature is also rolling out to everyone, which garbles voices of both unknown people and teen’s voices by default. Raising your hand to your ear temporarily lets you hear other users when voice mode is switched on, Meta says.

“We’re rolling out to teens slowly, so that we can carefully examine usage and are taking a phased approach before expanding more broadly,” the company says in a blogpost. “We can’t wait to see everything these new members of the community bring to Worlds.”

Parents and guardians can use the parental supervision tools to manage their teen’s experience and “support healthy conversations about safety in VR,” Meta says. To learn more, check out the new Family Center.

The company also released a safety tutorial to see the new features in action:

While Meta only just released official word of those changes to Horizon Worlds, the news was actually first reported by The Wall Street Journal in February, which was based on an internal memo that alleged the social VR platform was under performing and needed to increase user retention to keep up with the competition. According to the memo seen by WSJ, Horizon Worlds’ weekly retention rate was 11% in January 2023, which the company aimed to increase to 20%.

A goal outlined in the memo maintained Worlds needed to reach 500,000 monthly active users (MAU) in the first half of 2023, ultimately reaching the one million mark by year’s end. At the time, it was reported the platform was hovering around 200,000 MAUs, or just below the December peak.

There’s no telling when the flatscreen version of Horizon Worlds is due to arrive, however Meta maintained it would be opening the Quest-only social platform to Web and mobile devices “soon.”