News

LG Shakes Up XR Division, Reportedly Putting Meta Headset Partnership on Ice

June 12, 2024 From roadtovr

Korean media last month alleged that the Meta/LG partnership to create a high-end XR headset wasn’t going so well, suggesting either outright cancellation or a delay pushing release of a prospective Apple Vision Pro competitor to 2027. While this hasn’t been substantiated by either company, it’s clear there’s something big going on under the surface, as LG is now shuffling employees from its XR division to other parts of the company.

As confirmed by Korean outlet ETNews (Korean), LG is reassigning employees in charge of the XR division to research and development and other business divisions within the company.

Here’s the official statement from LG obtained by ETNews, machine translated from Korean to English:

“We have recently confirmed the relocation policy for personnel in charge of the XR business. Taking into account the department and work location desired by the personnel and the demand for additional personnel in other departments, the relocation will take place for about a month.”

ETNews reports that the nature of the shakeup is “unusual” in LG, as such cases of forming a product division after research and development comes as a rare occurrence.

The report further stipulates LG has delayed its own XR tech indefinitely, and terminated its joint commercialization of a product with Meta. The report however maintains the two companies will continue in research and development of XR technologies.

When LG announced its collaboration with Meta in May, it was said the partnership would be focused on strengthening “the fusion of Meta’s diverse core technological elements with LG’s cutting-edge product and quality capabilities [promising] significant synergies in next-gen XR device development.”

While not explicitly stated by either LG or Meta, it was rumored the two has been working to create a competitor to Apple Vision Pro for launch in 2025.

One possible reason for the XR shakeup could be Meta is getting ready to release its XR operating system to third-party OEMs for the first time, which will include new Quest-style headsets coming from ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox. Growing the number of competing devices that will use Meta’s HorizonOS (ex-QuestOS) and Horizon Store (ex-Quest Store) so rapidly may have spoiled the deal for LG—although without confirmation from either company, that remains conjecture at this time.

Some Users Won’t Need to Wear Vive Trackers Soon Thanks to Upcoming AI Body Tracking Update

June 12, 2024 From roadtovr

HTC has teased that some users may not even need to wear their latest Vive Ultimate Trackers soon thanks to an upcoming AI-powered body tracking update.

HTC’s Vive Ultimate Trackers are capable of inside-out body tracking thanks to the inclusion of two on-board cameras that track its own position in space, requiring you to strap them to your elbows, feet, or hips for full-body tracking.

Now the company has shown off a video about how its Vive XR Elite headset, Face Tracker module, and Vive Ultimate Tracker pucks can be useful in physical therapy. In it, we get a look at a single Vive Tracker pointed at a user doing a sit-up, with the device placed on a nearby tripod, ostensibly making sure the user is executing the right moves.

“In addition, the incoming AI body tracking doesn’t require the patients to wear the trackers,” the company says in the video. “This will lead the rehabilitation experience to a new level.”

While it’s clear the update is being positioned for enterprise use, when the company first showed off is AI body tracking at GDC 2024 back in March the company said the new feature would service “VTube, Arcade, healthcare and more” with the OpenXR-supported device capable of tracking 26 joints, suggesting it will be broadly released as an integral software update.

As shown in the GDC 2024 demo, it seems to be primarily targeting non-VR use cases, working essentially like a webcam attached to an AI pipeline. We’ve reached out to HTC for more clarity on when/how the update will work, so check back soon.

Released in late 2023, the $200 Vive Ultimate Trackers are the company’s first to make use of inside-out optical tracking, departing from the SteamVR base station ecosystem that drives its various PC VR headsets and Vive Tracker 3.0 released in 2021.

Thanks to Antony ‘SkarredGhost‘ Vitillo for pointing us to the news.

VisionOS 2 Improvement Targets Key Vision Pro Critique Among Developers

June 12, 2024 From roadtovr

For basic Vision Pro interactions like navigating apps and scrolling web pages, the headset’s look-and-pinch input system works like magic. But if you want to go more ‘hands-on’ with virtual content, the headset’s full hand-tracking leaves much to be desired.

Compared to Quest 3, Vision Pro’s full hand-tracking has notably more latency. That means when moving your hands it takes longer for the headset to register the movement. Especially in interactive content where you directly grab virtual objects, this can make the objects feel like they lag behind your hand.

Changes coming in VisionOS 2 stand to improve hand-tracking. Apple detailed the changes in a developer session at WWDC 2024 this week.

For one, the headset will now report estimated hand positions at 90Hz instead of the previous 30Hz. That means the system can reflect changes in hand position in one-third of the time, also making the movement of the hand smoother thanks to more frequent updates. This only applies to a small portion of the overall latency pipeline (which we previously estimated at a total of 127.7ms) but it could reduce hand-tracking latency by as much as 22ms in the best case scenario.

Here’s a look at that in action:

It’s an improvement, but you can still easily see the latency of the teapod compared to the hand, even with this slow movement.

For a snappier experience, VisionOS 2 will alternatively allow developers to enable hand-tracking prediction, which provides an estimate of the user’s future hand position. While this doesn’t truly reduce latency, it can reduce perceived latency in many cases. Similar prediction techniques are common across various XR tracking systems; it’s quite surprising that Vision Pro wasn’t already employing it—or at least not making it available to developers.

Here’s a look at predictions in action:

Now we can see the virtual teapot staying much more aligned to the user’s hand. Granted, this isn’t likely to look quite as good with faster motions.

We’ll be looking forward to putting Vision Pro’s hand-tracking latency to the test with VisionOS 2 soon!

Canon to Launch a More Affordable Stereo Wide-angle Lens for Spatial Video Capture

June 10, 2024 From roadtovr

Leading camera maker Canon today announced its next big entry into its dual-optic lens category, which allows its line of high-end EOS R7 cameras to take spatial video and photos.

Called the RF-S3.9mm F3.5 STM Dual Fisheye lens, Canon says its more affordable VR lens system is engineered to offer “a perfect balance between clarity and usability for vlog-style VR creation.”

The new Dual Fisheye lens seems to be mostly the same idea and execution as the previous model introduced in 2021, however features slightly lower specs, including a smaller field-of-view and aperture, but offered at a greatly reduced cost.

To boot, the new lens system is scheduled to be available sometime this month for $1,099.00, or about half the price of the lens initially announced for its EOS VR System from 2021.

“This APS-C Stereoscopic VR lens’ ability to achieve a 144º wide-angle view and utilize equidistant projection makes it ideally suited for every day, virtually hassle-free VR production,” Canon says in a press statement. “Also designed for versatility, this lens permits multiple methods of camera handling, from hand-holding, mounting on a gimbal, or tripod-mounting.”

Notably, the new stereoscopic lens features an interpupillary distance (IPD) of 60mm, which is very near to an average human IPD, making captured content more realistic when played back the the user.

Check out the full specs below:

Focal Length	3.9mm
Maximum and Minimum Aperture	f/3.5 – f/16 (1/3 stops, 1/2 stops)
Lens Mount Type	Canon RF Mount; Metal Mount
Interpupillary Distance / Baseline Length	60mm
Minimum Focusing Distance	0.66 ft. (7.9 in.) / 0.2 m
Maximum Magnification	0.03x
Angle of View (Diagonal)	144° 00′
Lens Construction (each lens)	11 elements in 8 groups
Special Elements (each lens)	Two UD glass elements
Lens Coating	Canon ASC (Air Sphere Coating)
Filter Size Diameter (rear lens mount)	30.5mm screw-type filter
Rear Mounted Gelatin Filter Holder	Supported – Built-in Supports cut gel or polyester
Aperture Blades (each lens)	7
Lens Switches	None
Dust/Water Resistance	Not Provided
Focusing System	Gear type STM focusing
Left/right focus difference adjustment	User-adjustable, via adjustment mode switch
Dual Pixel CMOS AF	Supported
Focus Guide	Not Supported
Full-time Manual Focusing	Supported
Control Ring	Supported
IS Mode Selection	Not Supported
Optical Image Stabilization	Not Supported
Stabilization with in-body IS (EOS R7)	Not Supported
Dimensions (width x height x length)	4.4 x 3.3 x 2.1 in. (112.0 x 83.7 x 54.6mm)
Weight	Approx. 10.2 oz. (290g)

Apple Vision Pro Will Soon Let You Convert 2D Photos to 3D & Share Them Live via SharePlay

June 10, 2024 From roadtovr

Apple today announced at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) its big visionOS 2 update, which is set to arrive on Vision Pro sometime later this year. With it comes a few new features which promise to let you convert 2D photos into spatial photos, and share them live with your Vision Pro-owning friends.

Alongside iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, Vision Pro has the ability to natively take 3D photos and video, although you probably have a ton of standard 2D snaps in the backlog that aren’t spatial enough.

Apple says its visionOS 2 update will include “a powerful way to transform photos into 3D memories,” which is being done via the company’s machine learning.

In its WWDC keynote, Apple says it will allow you to convert these 2D images to 3D by rendering “both a left and right-eye view from your beautiful 2D image, creating a spatial photo with natural depth, which looks stunning on Vision Pro.”

The visionOS 2 update is also bringing the ability to share spatial photos and videos with other Vision Pro users live via SharePlay, which users will find in the Photos app.

There’s no telling when we’ll see visionOS 2 land, however the company says we’ll be getting it this Fall, which it says will be available to “all Apple Vision Pro users,” which ostensibly includes the list of new countries its shipping to starting this month.

VisionOS Update to Bring Ultra-wide Screen & Higher Resolution to Mac Virtual Display

June 10, 2024 From roadtovr

Apple today announced its 2.0 version of visionOS, which is bringing alongside it a number of new features including a wider and higher-resolution version of Mac Virtual Display.

The feature, which is set to launch sometime later this year, will let users dramatically increase their work areas as they connect Vision Pro to Mac.

The company says the “ultra-wide display that wraps around you” will allow for resolutions “equivalent to two 4K monitors, side by side.”

Content is said to “stay sharp wherever you look” thanks to dynamic foveated rendering performed on the Mac itself.

While Apple hasn’t said as much, the promo video released in during the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote showed a simple UI toggle to go from ‘Normal’ to ‘Wide’ and ‘Ultrawide’ modes when using Mac Virtual Display.

It’s not certain when the feature update will arrive, although as the company is gearing up for its big Vision Pro international release starting this month, it’s a good bet it will be one of the first updates to arrive to the company’s $3,500 mixed reality headset.

Vision Pro is Leaving US Exclusivity as Apple Set to Launch in New Countries Starting This Month

June 10, 2024 From roadtovr

Apple announced at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) today that it’s finally set to release Vision Pro internationally, as it’s now coming to a number of new countries over the next two months.

Previously only available in the United States since its initial launch in February, Apple says it’s now bringing Vision Pro to mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK, which includes keyboard support for major world languages used in those countries.

Apple says users in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore can pre-order Apple Vision Pro on June 13th, with earliest shipments coming June 28th. Customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK can pre-order on June 28th, with availability beginning on July 12th.

Apple says Vision Pro will include DingTalk, Douyin VR Live, Migu Video, Taobao, Tencent Video, and Weibo in China; apps from Yahoo! JAPAN, LIFULL HOME’S, U-NEXT, and Nikkei in Japan; and Singtel CAST, StarHub TV+, and mewatch in Singapore.

Upcoming apps also include MUBI and Soul Spire in the UK; Canal+, Foxar, OQEE, and SeLoger in France; BILD, OTTO, and ZDF in Germany; Classix and Sportsnet in Canada; and Domain in Australia.

This follows earlier reports in March that Apple would indeed be launching in mainland China in addition to a number of the countries mentioned above. In practice, this gives the Cupertino tech giant a critical reach beyond Meta, which is barred from operating its apps and services in mainland China.

Earlier this year it was reported that talks between Meta and Chinese tech giant Tencent had stalled, which may have otherwise opened up some avenue for Meta hardware to launch inside the tightly-controlled country.

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