project cambria

Alleged Quest Pro Unboxing Video Apparently Leaks Meta’s Next VR Headset

September 12, 2022 From roadtovr

As rumored over the past few months, Meta’s upcoming high-end VR headset Project Cambria seems to be named Quest Pro. And an apparent unboxing video has leaked too, which gives us a good look at the company’s next VR headset and controllers.

We saw the exterior box of Meta Quest Pro pop up on Reddit over the weekend, but a new video seems to have completely blown the cover off Meta’s next VR headset. Here’s a look at the box below for reference:

The video was obtained by Spanish language PC gaming streamer Zectariuz Gaming and posted to their Facebook, showing off the headset’s exterior and controllers.

The images above, appended with the ‘Engineering Sample’ sticker, are also seen on the box in the video, suggesting that either final or very near-final versions of the hardware aren’t just in the hands of trusted developers.

Here’s a breakdown of what we see in the video if you haven’t caught our previous coverage. Meta Quest Pro is a high-end VR headset capable of AR interactions thanks to its color passthrough cameras, which are placed on the front part of the headset.

You’ll also probably notice the headset is remarkably more compact than Meta Quest 2, which is due to the inclusion of pancake lenses. Those, like the name suggests, are flatter than traditional Fresnel lenses, reducing the space between the display and lens for a slimmer, less front-heavy profile. The headset also includes eye and facial-tracking, although we don’t really get a good enough look at the inside of the headset to learn anything new here.

The controllers are also a completely new design for the company, as you’ll see they’re missing the traditional infrared optical tracking rings seen on Rift, Rift S, Quest and Quest 2. The slimmer controller is studded with its own inside-out sensors that in theory should allow for more robust tracking since they don’t need to be within the line of sight of the headset itself.

There’s still no definite word on specs or price, although that last bit of info is officially slated to be “significantly higher” than $800, solidly putting Quest Pro in the enterprise and prosumer space.

There are also rumors (still unconfirmed by Meta) on Quest Pro’s specs. The data below is courtesy Bradley Lynch of SadlyItsBradely, however since they aren’t official please take with a grain of salt:

2,160 x 2,160 MiniLED Backlit LCD Panels (2)
Custom Pancake Lenses (2)
16MP Color Camera for Color Passthrough
Eye + Face Tracking (IR Camera based)
Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 1 SoC
12GB LPDDR5 RAM
256GB SSD
WiFi 6E Support
~5000 mAh battery

There is some decidedly more solid info on release for Meta’s next headset though. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg let it slip that its “next device [is] coming out in October,” which suggests a Quest Pro will follow in the footsteps of Quest 2 by being release during the company’s Connect developer conference, which takes place on October 11th, 2022.

Meta Connect Dev Conference to Be Held Virtually on October 11th

September 6, 2022 From roadtovr

Meta today announced that its next installment of Connect, the company’s annual XR developer conference, is again going digital this year. The event, which promises to share updates and looks into the “near and far future” of Meta, will be held on October 11th, 2022.

Like last year’s all-digital Connect, this year’s dev conference will include livestreaming keynotes and developer sessions, which the company says will be available on the Reality Labs Facebook page. And it’s all being boiled down into one day.

There’s no schedule out yet, however the company says its one-day virtual event will explore “the building of the metaverse and the future of augmented and virtual reality.” You can sign up for updates over at metaconnect.com for any upcoming livestreams.

We’d expect that much, but more specifically we’re hoping to learn a few key things. Topping the list is info surrounding its next VR headset, Project Cambria, or what is rumored to be dubbed Meta Quest Pro.

On the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg let it slip that its “next device [is] coming out in October,” which suggests a Cambria launch during Connect. That would also mean we get the full info drop on the so-called Quest Pro then. Reminder: at more than $800 Cambria is likely meant for prosumers and developers looking to get their hands on a VR headset capable of AR interactions (aka ‘mixed reality’) thanks to color passthrough and built-in eye tracking.

Whatever we see though will most certainly need top last year’s big name change if the company wants to make good on its complete rebranding, which essentially unplugged the Facebook and Oculus brand names and pivoted the company to focus more on building the metaverse.

Some other bits we’d expect in Connect 2022: Meta’s social VR space Horizon Worlds demonstrating a more definite direction, which we’d hope includes better-looking avatars and the sort of baked-in social features its VR hardware has been missing since, well, forever.

Now that Oculus…er…Meta Quest 2 has seen a price bump and the company still hasn’t delivered on its ambitious metaverse concepts, Connect 2022 may be just the place for the company to set expectations for Meta moving forward.

Allegedly Leaked Project Cambria Files Could Reveal Internal Design

June 2, 2022 From roadtovr

Meta is still pretty camera-shy when it comes to showing off Project Cambria, the company’s upcoming high-end VR headset which offers AR passthrough. It’s been intentionally blurred for its few on-screen demos, however now we may have just gotten a look under the hood.

YouTuber and tech analyst Brad Lynch (SadlyItsBradley) released a number of images in a post on his Patreon page which appear to be CAD files of Project Cambria.

Lynch previously released a render of an alleged production version of Cambria back in April, however he says some of those details were misinterpreted. With the leaked files, Lynch says there’s a few key items he’s noticed that are included in the upcoming headset that weren’t previously apparent.

“You may notice a wire on the right side of the device. In one of the pictures its sorta coiled/curved. This is the power delivery wire that connects the battery in the back of the head strap to the HMD up front. It seems that when you adjust the strap to the ‘closest point,’ it will coil automatically. And stretch to be straight when you adjust the opposite way,” Lynch says in the Patreon post.

Lynch notes that on the headset’s left side, a clip attached to the headstrap may be for the USB-C cable that is allegedly bundled with the device.

“This is very similar to how most PC VR HMDs include a plastic clip to run a tether around comfortable their devices. I am shocked they are including this, since I figured they would push the Oculus Air Link method rather than the Oculus (wired) Link method but there it is. Especially from the fact this device is almost certain to include Wifi-6E.”

In the image above you can also make out the adjustment knob for the headset’s strap.

Lynch also posits that a knob on the front of the headset is to dial-in lens distance from the face, or similar to how the comfort dial works on Valve Index.

He also alleges the IPD mechanism is set by “grabbing the lenses themselves and moving them,” as opposed to dialing them in with some sort of wheel mechanism. Unlike Quest 2, Lynch says it offers smooth adjustments between interpupillary distance (IPD) sizes for more precise user comfort.

And what sets Cambria apart from other headsets: Lynch alleges it has two “glacier” cameras on the front left and right, and one “teton” high resolution RGB Camera in the center, the latter of which is used to colorize the monochrome stereo glacier sensors.

A supposed infrared (IR) projector is also there—a small square sitting just above the centrally located RGB sensor—which is said to provide additional depth data for environmental mapping.

Lynch has spent considerable time over the past few months datamining with fellow VR cohorts Basti564 and Samulia to track down rumors and info. Although Lynch doesn’t reveal where this info came from, he maintains its a “large leak.”

Lynch has also included a prediction of specs based on those files and other obtained info. It’s said to feature:

2,160 x 2,160 MiniLED Backlit LCD Panels (2)
Custom Pancake Lenses (2)
16MP Color Camera for Color Passthrough
Eye + Face Tracking (IR Camera based)
Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 1 SoC
12GB LPDDR5 RAM
256GB SSD
WiFi 6E Support
~5000 mAh battery

There’s still no precise launch information yet for Project Cambria, although Meta has gone one record saying it’s slated to be “significantly higher” than $800, making it targeted more squarely at developers and enthusiasts.

Project Cambria’s Price Will Be “Significantly Higher” Than $800, Meta Reveals

May 2, 2022 From roadtovr

Following a report today which claimed Meta’s upcoming Project Cambria headset would be priced at $800, rather than denying the information as a rumor, the company took the curious step of confirming the headset would be much more expensive.

A report by The Information today, citing an internal roadmap, claimed that Meta is planning to release four new VR headsets by 2024. The first would be Project Cambria, the report says, priced around $800.

Now typically when there’s a leak like this, companies will simply decline to comment on any of it. In this case, Meta took the somewhat odd step of pretty much doing that except for addressing a single point.

A Spokesperson for the company tells Road to VR the $800 price for Project Cambria claimed by the report is not accurate, and further, that the actual price of the headset will be “significantly higher.”

That’s a curious move, but it seems that Meta didn’t want the report to set a false expectation for the price of the headset, which is expected to launch later this year.

We’ve known from the bits Meta has shared previously that Project Cambria wasn’t going to aim for the lowest possible cost like Quest. But it’s a bit surprising that the company says the actual price will “significantly” exceed $800.

If the reported price of $800 was within $100 or even $200 of the actual price, it doesn’t seem like it would be that big of a deal. But because the company took the odd step of not just saying ‘the price is incorrect’, but also adding that it will be higher, makes us think the real price will certainly exceed $1,000.

That’s definitely expensive for a standalone VR headset, but not unheard of. HTC’s Vive Focus 3—which is aimed at enterprise customers—is priced at $1,300. If Meta sees itself competing for those same customers, they may aim to come close to that price (if not a bit under).

– – — – –

Interestingly, the episode bears resemblance to something that happened in the early Oculus days, before the company was absorbed deeply into Meta. Back in 2015, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said the launch price of the original Oculus Rift headset would be “roughly in [the $350] ballpark.” But when the headset’s price was officially revealed at $600, nearly double the ‘ballpark’ price, people weren’t happy.

This was before the launch of Oculus Touch, the headset’s motion controllers; later when someone asked Luckey what the ‘ballpark’ price would be for Touch he remarked, “no more ballparks for now. I have learned my lesson.”

Whether that’s a long forgotten memory for Meta or not, the company must have felt it was quite important to get ahead of the Project Cambria price discussion before it got out of their hands.

Report: Meta to Release Four New VR Headsets by 2024, Starting with Project Cambria in September

May 2, 2022 From roadtovr

According to a report by The Information, Meta plans to release four new VR headsets by 2024, and that’s purportedly in addition to its AR devices.

The Information reporters Sylvia Varnham O’Regan and Mathew Olson say they’ve seen an internal roadmap that shows an aggressive rollout of new VR headsets by Meta.

“By 2024,” the report says, the company plans to launch four new headsets. The report specifically says these are “virtual reality headsets” (though this could well include mixed reality headsets using passthrough AR) and indicates the four new devices are separate from the AR headsets that Meta is also developing.

The first of Meta’s four new headsets will be Project Cambria, which the report says is expected in September of this year.

We already know a bit about Project Cambria as the company officially teased the headset last year and a handful of leaks have filled in some details. According to The Information‘s report, the headset is likely to be priced at $800.

Update (May 2nd, 2022 – 4:24PM PT): Meta confirmed that the actual price of Project Cambria will be “significantly higher” than the $800 price stated by The Information’s report.

An unofficial rendering of Project Cambria based on leaked info | Image courtesy SadlyItsBradley

And a follow-up to Cambria is already in the works, according to the report; codenamed Funston, which is expected in 2024.

As for the other two headsets, those are the next-gen iterations of Meta’s more affordable Quest 2 headset, reportedly codenamed Stinson and Cardiff, with an expected release in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

But what features the headsets beyond Cambria will be target is still somewhat unclear. It’s too early for headsets built around some of the radical changes in compute architecture that Meta believes is necessary to take XR devices to the next level, or the holographic folded optics it’s been researching, though maybe the varifocal tech Meta has been working on for years is nearly ready for primetime. And what of those two headsets the company teased late last year?

As ever, only time will tell, but it looks like Meta’s increasingly steep investments in XR are ramping up the pace for the company’s headset releases.

Check out the original report by The Information for more details.

Unofficial Render Purports to Show Production Model of Meta’s Next-gen Headset, Project Cambria

April 7, 2022 From roadtovr

YouTuber SadlyItsBradley claims to have seen actual photos of the production model of Meta’s next-gen mixed reality headset, Project Cambria. Though they aren’t sharing the source photos, they worked with a 3D modeler to create a detailed rendering of what the photos showed.

SadlyItsBradley is an XR hardware analyst who has spent considerable time digging deep to track down rumors and info relating to upcoming VR hardware. Recently they claimed that Meta’s upcoming mixed reality headset, currently known as Project Cambria, reached its ‘DVT’ phase which means that it’s nearly ready for production.

SadlyItsBradley also claims to have seen actual photos of the production-ready Project Cambria, and while they couldn’t share the photos themselves, they worked with a 3D modeler Marcus Kane to recreate what was seen in detail. Below are the renders that resulted.

Project Cambria Unofficial Renders

In the video accompanying the renders, Bradley talked about the array of cameras on the headset, including a pod of four sensors hidden underneath the front cover. According to them, the pod contains two cameras and two non-camera sensors which are theorized to be some kind of depth-sensor:

What’s especially notable about the renders is how compact the optics and display housing is compared to current VR headsets. If the renders are fairly accurate, this affirms that Project Cambria is likely moving to a new optics system compared to past headsets (likely a ‘pancake’-style optic).

Some of this info and speculation—and even much of the look of the device—was teased by Meta itself last year. At the time the company said Project Cambria would include “high-res color mixed reality passthrough,” new optics, eye & face tracking, and controllers which do away with the tracking rings (likely moving to on-board inside-out tracking). The company also confirmed that Project Cambria would launch in 2022, though no further details on a release date or price have been announced.

Meta’s Wireless High-End Headset Project Cambria Still on for 2022

February 3, 2022 From vrfocus

While Meta’s quarterly earnings calls are a number fest, occasionally CEO Mark Zuckerberg gives some interesting insight or update as to its hardware plans. That was certainly the case this week when in amongst all the Oculus Store figures he mentioned that Meta’s high-end virtual reality (VR) headset (Project Cambria) is still on track for a 2022 launch.

New Oculus Facebook headset leak — Leaked image prior to Project Cambria announcement.

Project Cambria was officially announced during the Connect 2021 keynote – although a leak had surfaced – widely expected because had continually talked about an Oculus Quest Pro model. This was going to be more powerful, have more sensors packed into it to track your eyes and facial features. It’s assumed these are the same device, with Meta looking to corner the prosumer and enterprise market as well.

The Connect 2021 address mentioned a 2022 launch window and Zuckerberg has reiterated that fact, saying: “We’re working towards a release of a high-end virtual reality headset later this year.” It’s likely the official launch will take place during Connect which should make for quite an exciting finale to 2022 for VR fans as PlayStation VR2 has been rumoured to arrive by year-end.

Whilst there are still plenty of unknown’s regarding Project Cambria, Meta has dropped several details highlighting its desire to create a much more refined VR experience for those who don’t mind paying for it.

It’ll still be a wireless, standalone headset for ultimate freedom in VR that’ll be compatible with Quest – but it won’t be the next Quest – so it’ll likely still include AirLink or some other PC connectivity. Plus as a high-end product, it’ll cost more, probably north of £500 to differentiate it from the Quest 2’s £299/£399 consumer price point.

Project Cambria optics — Project Cambria’s Pancake Optics. Image credit: Meta

As for the in-built tech, those eye and face tracking features will play a major part, thus allowing your metaverse avatar to express your actual emotions. Meta’s VR avatars actually got an upgrade earlier this week to aid with this process. Eye-tracking also allows for foveated rendering, focusing processing power on where you’re looking whilst your peripheral vision can be rendered at a lower quality.

Project Cambria won’t purely offer VR experiences either, it’s going to be a mixed reality (MR) headset with full-colour passthrough thanks to an array of cameras. This will be different to MR devices like Magic Leap because you won’t have a transparent display to look through. Instead, the real world will be displayed in the internal screens with advanced algorithms helping to add a sense of depth.

None of this will be any good if the optics aren’t amazing. So to make the visuals pop whilst ensuring a slim, light headset Meta will be employing pancake optics. These fold light several times over to maintain a thinner form factor, the lens being one of the main reasons for the bulk of a VR headset.

This pro headset might be readying for launch in 2022 but don’t forget Meta isn’t dropping the Quest product lineup. The CEO said last year that its Reality Labs division was working on follow-up devices: “We have product teams spun up now, working on the next few generations of virtual reality and what Quest 3 and 4 are gonna look like.” So consumer Quest’s aren’t going anywhere.

For further updates on Project Cambria, keep reading gmw3.

Apple vs. Meta: Who Will Offer the Better Metaverse Experience?

January 21, 2022 From vrfocus

As we edge closer towards Web 3, it seems like every company wants a piece of the pie. After rebranding to Meta and laying out its plans to dominate the metaverse, Facebook has made significant waves within the last few months. Other Big Tech giants such as Microsoft, Samsung and Sony have also sunk their teeth into the metaverse space, with offerings such as collaborative software, better connectivity and more immersive user experiences.

Mark Zuckerberg @ F8 2018 - Virtual Reality

The spotlight has also long since been on Apple, with many analysts and experts waiting for one of tech’s biggest trailblazers to introduce their own ‘mixed reality’ headset. However, recent reports have confirmed that Apple has no short-term plans to enter the metaverse with their much-awaited device, which is set to be announced later this year. Instead, the company is allegedly focusing only on providing access to gaming, communications and entertainment content for the time being.

With the metaverse being an inevitable prospect, will Apple eventually enter the market with a Web 3-compatible device? First, let’s take a look at what’s in store for both Apple and Meta’s next headset releases in 2022. We’ll then review what both Facebook and Apple are best at doing — and why we think that Apple won’t necessarily stay behind the curve.

Facebook’s first high-end headset under the Meta moniker is due for release sometime later in 2022 — though an exact timeframe has yet to be confirmed.

Dubbed ‘Project Cambria’, Meta’s latest device was initially referenced last year at the company’s virtual Connect conference. This headset has been promised to be the successor to the popular Oculus Quest 2, packed with immersive features that were previously unseen in previous headset releases.

Notable features include lifelike facial communication capabilities, the ability to track users’ facial expressions, reconstruction of mixed reality objects, a special avatar personalisation engine and other advancements that are in line with bringing CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s promise of an ‘embodied’ metaverse experience to life.

In terms of its design, several defining assets were also revealed in Meta’s Connect 2021 demo. Some of the most notable ones include:

A more ergonomic design: In its current prototype form, Project Cambria will come in a sleek, all-black structure that is lighter, more compact and equipped with a much slimmer strap than its Oculus predecessors.

Tracked controllers: Project Cambria is also expected to feature full-body tracking capabilities, giving users a better sense and level of control over their virtual surroundings.
More advanced sensors and reconstruction algorithms: Project Cambria is also set to feature more superior sensors and reconstruction algorithms, with the ability to represent physical objects in the real world with impeccable perspective and depth. The sensors will also accommodate various different skin tones and facial features, making users’ experiences more immersive and lifelike.

According to Meta analyst Noelle Martin, the company: “aims to be able to simulate you down to every skin pore, every strand of hair, every micromovement […] the objective is to create 3D replicas of people, places and things, so hyper-realistic and tactile that they’re indistinguishable from what’s real.”

So far, Meta’s project appears to be off to a smooth start. Since its rebranding, the company’s share price has risen by about 5%. Meta’s plans involve hiring at least 10,000 new staff members to build out their metaverse space. And while this news hasn’t exactly been hailed across the board, Meta has even started poaching staff members from both Microsoft and Apple and recruting them to join their mission.

What do we know about Apple’s upcoming ‘mixed reality’ headset?

While multiple sources initially claimed that Apple’s upcoming headset would be set to launch in 2022, Bloomberg now suggests that we will more likely see the announcement of the new headset closer to the end of this year.

Some features that are projected to be featured in Apple’s first XR offering include:

Turbo-fast processing: Apple’s headset release is expected to wield the same level of power as the M1 processor currently found in its latest MacBook Pro lineup, with a 96W USB-C power adapter at its helm. It’s also reported to feature a lower-end processor, which will power up any sensor-related computing.
Tracking cameras: Apple’s headset will apparently feature two tracking cameras, with the ability to relay information to two 8K displays located in front of the user’s eyes.
LiDAR sensors: These sensors have been cited as a possibility for Apple’s first headset — with lasers to measure distance, allowing for the fast and accurate gathering of a space’s area. This would allow for better placing of objects in AR.

Despite ample predictions that Apple would join the likes of Meta, Microsoft and other tech leaders in creating a metaverse-compatible device, it appears that they won’t be in the ranks just yet. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, known to be a reliable Apple analyst: “The idea of a completely virtual world where users can escape to — like they can in Meta Platforms/Facebook’s vision of the future — is off-limits from Apple.” Instead, he has said that the upcoming mixed-reality headset will allow users to perform shorter activity sessions — such as gaming, communications and entertainment consumption.

With Web 3 clearly on the horizon, Apple’s refusal to enter the metaverse space has prompted reactions of shock and disappointment from spectators. This news also places both Meta and Apple in very different areas of the playing field, with Apple’s upcoming vision feeling like a sharp contrast to that of Meta’s — a brand that has completely centralised its new positioning around creating a metaverse space in Web 3.

If we shift our focus back to Meta, we’re left with an important question — what kind of advantage do they have in this race? Has Facebook’s success and business model laid down the right foundation for Meta to rightfully take off?

What Facebook has done best: connecting people

From its earliest days, Facebook was created with one primary mission: to bring people closer together.

A then-sophomore at Harvard, a young Mark Zuckerberg launched The Facebook — a social media website built to forge better connections between Harvard students. This force of connectivity was then used to help students across different institutions connect with each other. Eventually, the Facebook universe would completely revolutionise how the rest of the world would connect, communicate and share personal information across a centralised database.

Now as Meta, the company’s goal is to enhance the user experience and make these virtual connections more immersive. According to Mark Zuckerberg: “the defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place.” Moreover, he describes the objective of allowing users to feel truly present with one another as: “the ultimate dream of social technology.”

Today, it can be argued that Meta is the only Big Tech corporation with the scale and capital to create a metaverse space — with a user base of 3.5 billion people and a total of $86 billion in generated profits from within the last year. With an unparalleled number of users at its fingertips, Meta already houses the largest web of interconnected people in all of social media history.

However, will the expansiveness of Meta’s ecosystem continue to foster a safe and equitable space for users to freely connect and share information? Despite Facebook’s long history of controversies, Zuckerberg seems to have a pretty egalitarian version of the metaverse — promising a need for greater interoperability and lower fees for developers. But with the advent of virtual land on decentralised platforms such as Decentraland and Somnium Space, questions have now arisen about how Meta will govern its new internet medium, or about where communities may find ways to connect more freely in Web 3.

With this taken into account, it’s also easy to wonder: should Meta be forced to share the metaverse with these newer, blockchain-powered platforms, will the Project Cambria headset offer fair access? Or will this one day be offered by another, potentially more mainstream and user-friendly device?

What Apple has done best: innovation

Apple is often credited for revolutionising some of our most widely-used product innovations. Well-known examples include the iPod, the iPhone and, of course, the Apple Macintosh — one of the very first machines that helped make personal computing ubiquitous. To illustrate an example, let’s jump into a time machine and backtrack to the very early days of computing.

Steve Jobs, a then-aspiring tech mogul, paid a visit to Xerox’s PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) laboratory back in 1979. During this time, Xerox was the first company to have produced an operating system based on a graphical user interface (GUI) — a remarkable device called the Xerox Alto.

However, the Alto would never see a commercial release. With a price tag of $32,000 USD (the equivalent to $114,105 USD in today’s market), Xerox’s managers saw nothing but an overly complicated workstation that was far too expensive to mass-produce. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, saw much more than that. He was amazed by the GUI and believed that the Alto was the ideal blueprint for how all computers should operate.

Most analysts agree that the Xerox Alto was far ahead of its time. Before any other machine in computing history, it featured the same type of keyboard and mouse interface we still use today. It also, incredibly enough, featured now-universal concepts such as email, event reminders and word processing.

Wanting a piece of the innovation for himself, Jobs sold shares of Apple to Xerox in exchange for access to the Alto’s technology. Apple would then use their data to create a more refined, user-friendly and affordable home computing device.

The same logic can be applied to the creation of the iPhone. While Apple wasn’t the pioneer of the mobile smartphone, they were able to reinvent the handset concept and turn it into the closest thing we then had to a pocket-sized computer. To date, the iPhone’s build has served as a de facto blueprint for how future touch-screen devices would be constructed and integrated into our everyday lives.

Throughout the course of tech history, Apple has mastered the art of taking existing technology and making it better. And while Steve Jobs may no longer be at the forefront of Apple’s empire, their continued efforts (such as the M1 processor in today’s lightweight, industry-standard MacBooks, or the highly expansive App Store library) have proven that the tech giant hasn’t lost its innovation edge.

So, how does this all relate to our current technological paradigm, which is Web 3?

Well, it’s a prime example of what Apple does best: innovation. And while it might be too soon to tell, decades of Apple’s design-first trends suggest that we could very well see history repeat itself once the tech giant decides to create an innovative, metaverse-ready device. Like the iPhone or the Macintosh, it just might be the one that finds its way into the households of the masses.

So, what’s next?

With neither tech giant having released their dedicated XR headset yet, it’s still far too early to tell which path either will take. Recent reports have revealed that Meta plans to enter the NFT marketplace, though no evidence yet suggests that the company has any plans to embrace a more decentralised business model.

When we look back at the history of computing, however, one thing is clear: computers — or in this case, headsets — have never been the end goal. They’re not the thing, per se — they’re the thing that gets us to the next thing. And when it comes to getting closer to Web 3, the company that brings us towards the better, more ubiquitous user experience will win.

To keep learning more about Apple, Meta and other industry trends related to the metaverse and Web 3, stay tuned for more updates on gmw3.

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.

Leaked Facebook MR Headset Confirmed as Project Cambria, a “High-end” Device Coming Next Year

October 28, 2021 From roadtovr

Facebook today confirmed Project Cambria, the MR headset which was spotted in a recent leak. The company says it’s a high-end headset designed to roll out more advanced technology before being able to bring it down to the price point of the Quest line. Project Cambria is said to be launching sometime next year.

If you followed along earlier this week you’ll already be at least a little bit familiar with Project Cambria; the headset’s look was revealed in leaked videos, but there were few details to be gleaned from it otherwise.

Today during Facebook Connect the company confirmed the headset, which is codenamed Project Cambria. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the headset “isn’t the next Quest,” though it will be compatible with the Quest platform.

The way Zuckerberg explains it, Cambria is a high-end headset (and will be “at the higher end of the price spectrum”) which will include advanced technology that the company wants to experiment with before considering bringing it to the more affordable Quest product line.

Project Cambria Specs and Features

We don’t know a whole lot of specifics about Cambria yet, but the company did confirm a handful of things.

For one, the headset will include “high-res color mixed reality passthrough,” which will make it better for mixed reality applications. It will also use pancake optics to reduce the headset’s bulk.

Eye-and face tracking will be included to provide a more realistic representation of the user within the virtual world.

From the leak and teaser photos we can also see that the controllers are ditching the tracking rings and are likely tracked with on-board cameras.

Project Cambria looks like it will lean much more into its mixed reality capabilities than Quest 2 is currently capable of.

Project Cambria Release Date

Facebook said that the Project Cambria headset will launch “next year,” but offered no additional details on timing or price, though the company says it’s already working with developers to begin building experiences for the headset.