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Facebook Announces Zoom Partnership For Horizon Workrooms

From uploadvr

Facebook announced a collaboration with video conferencing application Zoom, integrating Zoom meetings natively into Facebook’s new remote work solution for VR, Horizon Workrooms.

The integration won’t arrive until next year but will allow you to “easily join Zoom Meetings and use Zoom Whiteboard all from within VR.”

Horizon Workrooms is Facebook’s remote work collaboration tool for Oculus Quest 2, allowing several users to join a virtual boardroom and speak to each other as if they are in a real room, with avatars, spatial audio, remote desktop, keyboard tracking and group whiteboard features.

While the focus is on users joining using virtual reality, Workrooms also contains functionality that allows a non-VR user to join the meeting through a regular video call. However, starting next year, Workrooms will also allow VR users in the virtual boardroom to join an existing Zoom meeting and collaborate using Zoom Whiteboard. You can take a look at the announcement, which was made at Zoom’s Zoomtopia keynote speech, in the video embedded above. The Horizon Workrooms segment begins around the 34 minute mark.

Zoom Whiteboard was also announced at Zoomtopia, just before the Facebook and Zoom collaboration. It is an upcoming tool for Zoom that allows users to collaborate on a virtual whiteboard together, taking notes, making drawings, placing post-it notes and more. With Horizon Workrooms integration, VR users will be able to use Horizon’s desk whiteboard or the large standing whiteboard to alter the Zoom Whiteboard.

Zoom product manager Jordan Thiel said that they “envision” being able to save and share Zoom Whiteboards as well, which would allow you to save the end product after the meeting and send it around to those who weren’t in attendance.

Will you use the Zoom integration with Horizon Workrooms once it’s available? Let us know in the comments below.

‘Quest Pro’ Face & Eye Tracking References Found In Oculus Firmware

From uploadvr

Reddit user Reggy04 dug into the Oculus Quest v32 firmware, finding strings referring to ‘Quest Pro’ as well as face and eye tracking.

We obtained the Quest v32 firmware file, decompiled it, and searched it with grep to confirm Reggy’s claims.

The Quest Pro reference appears to be from the Hand Tracking setup process:

QUEST PRO ESTIMATES YOUR HAND SIZE AND HOW THEY MOVE SO YOU USE YOUR HANDS INSTEAD OF CONTROLLERS IN VR.

Quest Pro was first teased by VP of Facebook Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth in a February Instagram Ask Me Anything session. In April, Bosworth said Quest Pro could “introduce new functionality to the headset”, but cautioned it would not ship this year.

Face & Eye Tracking

Calibration text for both face and eye tracking are present. While this doesn’t confirm Quest Pro will have these features, it does suggest Facebook is testing them in real device firmware.

In March, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described face & eye tracking as his most wanted feature for future Oculus headsets.

The face tracking calibration asks you to smile, pull an angry face, frown, and then show a surprised expression.

FOLLOW THE TARGET WITH YOUR GAZE

EYE CALIBRATION FAILED

EYE MOVEMENT ESTIMATION COMPLETE

It’s unclear whether the system simply detects these four states or whether the exact lip shape is passed to apps, as with HTC’s Vive Pro Facial Tracker.

SMILE NATURALLY UNTIL THE CALIBRATION IS COMPLETE. YOU MAY NEED TO HOLD THIS POSE FOR A FEW SECONDS.

SHOW AN ANGRY EXPRESSION UNTIL THE CALIBRATION IS COMPLETE. YOU MAY NEED TO HOLD THIS POSE FOR A FEW SECONDS.

FROWN NATURALLY UNTIL THE CALIBRATION IS COMPLETE. YOU MAY NEED TO HOLD THIS POSE FOR A FEW SECONDS.

SHOW A SURPRISED EXPRESSION UNTIL THE CALIBRATION IS COMPLETE. YOU MAY NEED TO HOLD THIS POSE FOR A FEW SECONDS.

FAILED TO CALIBRATE THE EXPRESSION. RETRYING…

FACE MOVEMENT ESTIMATION COMPLETE

Reggy is not the first to discover eye tracking & face tracking – YouTuber Basti564 found similar references back in June.

Lens Depth Adjustment

Reggy also found a reference to a “depth button” for adjusting the longitudinal distance between the lenses and your eyes:

PRESS AND HOLD THE DEPTH BUTTON AND MOVE THE HEADSET CLOSER OR FURTHER AWAY FROM YOUR FACE. THE LENSES SHOULD BE CLOSE TO YOUR EYES, BUT NOT CAUSE

ADJUST LENS DEPTH

Lens depth adjustment, present in headsets like Valve Index, allow the wearer to balance the comfort of pressure with the wider field of view afforded by closer lenses.

A depth button already existed in the PC-based Rift S, but this firmware is for the Android-based Quest range.

‘Quest Pro’ Face & Eye Tracking References Found In Oculus Firmware

From uploadvr

Reddit user Reggy04 dug into the Oculus Quest v32 firmware, finding strings referring to ‘Quest Pro’ as well as face and eye tracking.

We obtained the Quest v32 firmware file, decompiled it, and searched it with grep to confirm Reggy’s claims.

The Quest Pro reference appears to be from the Hand Tracking setup process:

QUEST PRO ESTIMATES YOUR HAND SIZE AND HOW THEY MOVE SO YOU USE YOUR HANDS INSTEAD OF CONTROLLERS IN VR.

Quest Pro was first teased by VP of Facebook Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth in a February Instagram Ask Me Anything session. In April, Bosworth said Quest Pro could “introduce new functionality to the headset”, but cautioned it would not ship this year.

Face & Eye Tracking

In March, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described face & eye tracking as his most wanted feature for future Oculus headsets.

Calibration text for both face and eye tracking are present in the Oculus firmware. While this doesn’t confirm Quest Pro will have these features, it does suggest Facebook is testing them on a real standalone headset, not just PC-based lab prototypes.

FOLLOW THE TARGET WITH YOUR GAZE

EYE CALIBRATION FAILED

EYE MOVEMENT ESTIMATION COMPLETE

The face tracking calibration asks you to smile, pull an angry face, frown, and then show a surprised expression.

It’s unclear whether the system simply detects these four states or whether the exact lip shape is passed to apps, as with HTC’s Vive Pro Facial Tracker.

SMILE NATURALLY UNTIL THE CALIBRATION IS COMPLETE. YOU MAY NEED TO HOLD THIS POSE FOR A FEW SECONDS.

SHOW AN ANGRY EXPRESSION UNTIL THE CALIBRATION IS COMPLETE. YOU MAY NEED TO HOLD THIS POSE FOR A FEW SECONDS.

FROWN NATURALLY UNTIL THE CALIBRATION IS COMPLETE. YOU MAY NEED TO HOLD THIS POSE FOR A FEW SECONDS.

SHOW A SURPRISED EXPRESSION UNTIL THE CALIBRATION IS COMPLETE. YOU MAY NEED TO HOLD THIS POSE FOR A FEW SECONDS.

FAILED TO CALIBRATE THE EXPRESSION. RETRYING…

FACE MOVEMENT ESTIMATION COMPLETE

Reggy is not the first to discover eye tracking & face tracking – YouTuber Basti564 found similar references back in June.

Lens Depth Adjustment

Reggy also found a reference to a “depth button” for adjusting the longitudinal distance between the lenses and your eyes:

PRESS AND HOLD THE DEPTH BUTTON AND MOVE THE HEADSET CLOSER OR FURTHER AWAY FROM YOUR FACE. THE LENSES SHOULD BE CLOSE TO YOUR EYES, BUT NOT CAUSE DISCOMFORT.

ADJUST LENS DEPTH

Lens depth adjustment, present in headsets like Valve Index, allow the wearer to balance the comfort of pressure with the wider field of view afforded by closer lenses.

A depth button already existed in the PC-based Rift S, but this firmware is for the Android-based Quest range.

Baobab Studios Nabs 9th Emmy Award Thanks To Baba Yaga

From uploadvr

Baba Yaga won an Emmy for Outstanding Interactive Media for a Daytime Program at the 48th Annual Emmy Awards, bringing Baobab Studios’ total Emmy awards wins to nine.

Baba Yaga also previously won two other Emmy awards — Outstanding Directing Team for Animated Program (Eric Darnell, director, and Mathias Chelebourg, co-director) and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for Character Design (Karl Athannossov).

“It was already such an honor and thrill for Baba Yaga to be awarded Emmys for both character design and direction,” said Baba Yaga director and writer Eric Darnell. “And now, to be honored with the award for best interactive is truly spectacular and a reflection of the team’s monumental efforts to give the audience the opportunity to be the hero of their own story.”

The immersive VR movie released in January exclusively for Oculus Quest after premiering at various film festivals in 2020, including the Venice Film Festival almost exactly a year ago. In our review at the time, we found it to be entertaining but slightly safe. It certainly wasn’t the ambitious step-up we were hoping to see from Baobab’s next offering:

This is a likable, sweet but ultimately safe adventure, highlighted by some great VR novelties but also equally limited by them. I want to see something from this studio that feels truly dynamic — like my presence has genuine impact in the stories it creates. Baobab remains one of VR’s most promising storytellers but, four years on from its debut, I feel like I’m still waiting for it to really hit its stride.

You can read our full review from last year here.

Baba Yaga is available now on Oculus Quest for $5.99.

Oculus Quest 2 ‘Space Sense’ Guardian Intrusion Feature Found In v32 Firmware

From uploadvr

Twitter user Basti564 has found updated graphics and settings options for the ‘Guardian Intrusion Detection’ interface, first found back in March, which is now referred to as ‘Space Sense.’

Basti564 posted a video on Twitter showing new graphics and an explainer video within the Quest running on v32. We’ve been able to get the graphics too. In Settings, under Device, we can see ‘Space Sense’ — a currently dormant feature, which shows an outline of people and objects that move in front of you while using a roomscale boundary.

The feature and the menus depicted above are not accessible natively to Quest users on v32. However, UploadVR was able to test the adb commands to bring up the menu on a Quest 2 and enable the feature. The menus seem to just be a placeholder for now — in our testing, the feature didn’t work even after it was enabled via hidden menu.

Here’s a transcription of the text from the dialog box:

Enable Space Sense to see outlines of people and things inside your Roomscale boundary. Staying aware of what’s around you while in VR helps keep you and others safe. 

You can see outlines up to 9 feet away, as long as it’s still within your boundary and directly in front of your headset. You can turn this feature off at anytime in Settings. 

Basti564 also posted a clear capture of the new explainer animation, which shows a Beat Saber player who is alerted by a ghost-like visual of someone entering their play area and walking across the player’s field of view. It also shows a user who is able to see visualizations of objects in their play area. The Quest can currently detect objects during guardian setup, but this feature looks to show a visualisation of them during regular use.

Evidence of this guardian intrusion feature was first found back in March by Basti564. At the time, it had graphics in the style of the older Quest UI and evidence suggested that it had been dormant in the Quest since v20.

While it’s still unclear whether the feature will release soon, the updated Space Sense name and the newer Quest 2-style animated instructional clips would indicate that the feature is perhaps still being actively worked on. If nothing else, the graphics look more polished than they previously did and the inclusion of a settings menu, where you can adjust the sensitivity of the feature, bodes well.

Would you use this guardian intrusion feature if it came to Quest? Let us know in the comments.

First Of Its Kind ‘Outer Space Camera’ Captures Astronaut Spacewalk For VR

From uploadvr

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide stepped outside the International Space Station today for a spacewalk unlike any other.

What is special about this one is that you will soon be able to join them as Felix & Paul Studios’ new Outer Space Camera captured a real spacewalk in an immersive 3D, 360-degree virtual reality format. 

While Pesquet and Hoshide laid the groundwork for more additions to the solar arrays outside the ISS, an international team collaborated to capture some footage for new episodes of Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios EMMY Award-winning Space Explorers: The ISS Experience. The team had one shot to get it right, and time for just a single short simulated space walk inside the ISS ahead of the actual capture outside the station. Felix & Paul Studios co-founders Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël directed the filming from the Canadian Space Centre. The camera was mounted and powered by the Nanoracks’ Kaber MicroSatellite Deployer and maneuvered by The ROBO team at NASA and the Canadian Space Agency who were responsible for moving Canadarm2 to capture the shots. In parallel, TIME Studios documented the filming operations as part of a making-of documentary they are producing on Space Explorers: The ISS Experience. The entire spacewalk was planned to happen over seven orbits, during which the crew experienced seven sunrises.

Unfolded 360° still, produced from the 3D 360° VR source footage. View of the International Space Station, from a forward position, with a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to Node2.

Outer Space Camera

The Outer Space Camera has already been capturing footage ahead of the spacewalk. With 16 sunrises that can be seen every 24 hours from the ISS (which travels at 17,100 miles per hour), this footage will be integrated into the series as well. The Outer Space Camera is made for a literal out-of-this-world environment.

The Outer Space Camera inside the International Space Station, ahead of the spacewalk

Lajeunesse explains that the camera “is constantly exposed to extreme temperature variations.” External temperatures range from -250° F to +250° F.  “No atmosphere means radiation…sun heat and deep space cold…microgravity [means] no dissipation of heat which is challenging when you are cramming together not one camera but multiple high res sensors, so we had to develop a heat dissipation system. We had to develop a way to manage light exposure and minimize flares.

The camera is a customized Z-Cam V1 Pro camera with nine 4K sensors. Nanoracks has specially hardened the camera to allow it to withstand harsh conditions such as solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation, charged particle (ionizing) radiation, plasma, surface charging and arcing, temperature extremes, thermal cycling, impacts from micrometeoroids and orbital debris (MMOD), and environment‐induced contamination from micrometeoroids and orbital debris (MMOD), and environment‐induced contamination. It also has custom lenses that can manage being directly exposed to the Sun. 

In history, just about 230 astronauts have had the opportunity to do a spacewalk. Not even all astronauts that visit the ISS get the chance, but our chance to step into the actual footage is coming soon.

Lajeunesse says what was captured today “in the vacuum of space” will be integrated into the upcoming third and fourth episodes of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, available in VR for Rift, Quest and Quest 2, and in mobile 360° on 5G-enabled tablets and smartphones through telecom partners including LGU+ (South Korea), KDDI (Japan), AIS (Taiwan), Orange (France) and Deutsche Telekom (Germany.) As well, the best of that imagery will also be integrated into THE INFINITE – a large-scale traveling interactive exhibit produced in partnership with PHI Studio, which will premiere in the US December 2021.

Oculus Quest 2’s SteamVR Lead Shrinks Slightly During Paused Sales

From uploadvr

A month of paused sales seems to have detracted from the Oculus Quest 2’s usage lead in the latest Steam Hardware Survey.

August’s results put Facebook’s standalone headset at 32.15% of the overall headset usage on SteamVR. That’s 0.42% less than last month, and perhaps the first time we’ve seen Quest 2’s lead actually shrink since its launch late last year. Note that it is possible these figures might be changed in the coming days. Valve usually irons out any errors earlier in the month, but overall headset usage on Steam is down to 1.74%, which may well indicate there are changes afoot.

Either way, remember that this doesn’t necessarily mean there are fewer people using Quest 2 on Steam, just that more people using other headsets have taken some of that share.

Oculus Quest 2 Steam Lead Shrinks

Whatever the case, there’s good reason for a possible reduction in Quest 2’s share. In late July, Facebook paused sales of the headset as it participated in what it called a “voluntary recall” of devices in response to a small group of users reporting issues with skin irritation using the packed-in facial interface. Sales of the device didn’t resume until August 24, with a new silicone cover included in the box. It also removed the original 64GB, $299 iteration of the device from sale and replaced it with a 128GB version for the same price.

This pause in sales likely explains the decrease given that other headsets still on sale would have been free to increase their share of usage during that time. That said, Valve’s Index headset also went down to 15.99%, a decrease of 0.24% this month. Overall, however, Quest 2 is still comfortably in front of other devices and still accounts for nearly 1-in-3 headsets on Steam. There aren’t any other significant shifts to talk about this month.

2021 will likely round out quietly on the VR hardware side. Sony’s PS5 VR headset won’t be discussed at this week’s big showcase event and, although Facebook is holding its Connect developer conference in late October, it’s looking increasingly like this year’s big reveal will be its smartglasses made in partnership with Ray-Ban.

Don’t expect a significant shakeup in the Steam Hardware Survey results anytime soon, then.

Spatial Launch 5.0 Update With New Avatars, Oculus Subscriptions & More

From uploadvr

Spatial launched a big 5.0 update for its remote work application on Oculus Quest this week, including improved avatars, Oculus subscription support and much more.

The updates arrives just a week after Facebook announced its own free remote work solution and Spatial competitor, Horizon Workrooms.

The new avatar bodies include “improved movement, greater fashion detail, [and] improved engine performance,” which the company says should make them feel a bit more natural and real than before. Users who join outside of VR, through the Spatial web app, will now have preset animations for their avatars, along with floating webcam bubbles above their avatar, so you can still see a live view of the user’s face and expressions.

There’s also been UI improvements, particularly to the Spaces window, allowing you to find, join and switch between Spaces quicker and easier than before. There will also be a new explore tab, which will let you find and join public rooms.

Likewise, the new Portals feature lets you create ‘portals’ between rooms that let you and others move between two virtual areas with ease. It’s not quite as glamorous as you might hope — you won’t be walking through a Doctor Strange-style sling ring portal — but it will let you create a small portal token that you or others can click on to quickly travel to the portal’s assigned destination.

When it comes to teleportation, you’ll have an easier time getting around in Spatial 5.0 — multiple levels are now supported in custom environments, giving more freedom to those who create their own areas to work in.

spatial oculus quest

Spatial is also changing its pricing tiers and model. Previously handled externally, Spatial is now moving over to Oculus Subscriptions, which wasn’t available when the app launched last year. This means users can handle their subscription completely within VR and don’t need to take off their headset to sort out payment plans.

Additionally, the pricing tiers have changed and now consist of a free tier, a $25/month pro tier, a $25/user/month Team tier (with 20% off 5 users or more) and an Enterprise tier that can be scaled appropriately and organized by contacting the Spatial sales team.

Spatial is available now on Oculus Quest and other VR, AR and traditional platforms. You can read a full list of all the new changes and features in the 5.0 update here.

Facebook Connect Conference Date Set For October 28, 2021

From uploadvr

Facebook will host the 2021 edition of its “Connect” developer conference on October 28.

The event will occur virtually with more updates, like registration details, to come soon. The date was posted to the FacebookConnect.com website.

Facebook typically holds its F8 developer conference early in the year for updates on tools for its existing social networking service while the “Connect” conference has been held late in the year for deep-dive updates related to the company’s ambitions in VR and AR. The conference, originally called Oculus Connect, was first held in 2014 after Facebook acquired the Oculus startup. Last year it was rebranded to “Facebook Connect”.

In previous years Connect has served as a platform for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to lay out his vision for VR and AR technology — he personally announced the unmatchable price of Oculus Quest at one of the events — while Facebook’s research experts often lay out the long-term path to technologies like codec avatars, varifocal optics, and haptic hands. Meanwhile, product leads at Facebook often host sessions to explain the tools the company plans to offer developers in the coming year.

Facebook is firing on all cylinders with Quest 2 selling soon at $299 with upgraded storage capacity and ambitions toward a “Quest Pro” device that’s likely to put more sensors inside a VR headset. The company is working on making VR headsets and eventually AR glasses a generalized personal computing platform. So Facebook Connect on October 28, 2021 will offer the world a glimpse at the company’s next steps.

Back in 2019 I wrote up a summary charting Zuckerberg’s path to the Oculus Quest and I’d recommend giving that article a read if you’re looking to catch up.

Check back with UploadVR for updates on Facebook Connect.

Facebook’s Bosworth ‘Convinced’ Oculus Will Reach 10 Million Users Earlier Than Expected

From uploadvr

In his latest ask me anything (AMA) on Instagram, Vice President of Facebook Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth said he’s “convinced” that Facebook will reach its goal of 10 million VR users sooner than initially anticipated.

Back in 2019 at Oculus Connect, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that VR platforms would need to reach a threshold of around 10 million users in order to be a sustainable and profitable ecosystem for developers.

“Once we get to, and cross, this threshold [of 10 million users], we think the content and the ecosystem will just explode,” Zuckerberg said in the OC5 keynote speech. He then went on to announce the original Oculus Quest headset, which marked a huge shift in Facebook’s VR strategy, moving away from wired PC VR experiences and focusing predominantly on the new standalone Quest platform.

With the success of the original Quest and the seemingly even greater success of Quest 2, Bosworth is almost certain that the all-important 10 million threshold will be met earlier than the company expected. Here’s a transcription of his response and full answer:

When will Oculus have 10 million users?

Bosworth: You know, I’m not going to answer this question, because I don’t know the answer to it, but we are doing really well. When we set that goal and talked about it at Connect, we had a timeframe in mind that it would happen on, and I’m very convinced it’s going to happen earlier than we had initially expected.

Back in January, Zuckerberg said that Quest 2 was “on track to be the first mainstream virtual reality headset.” While he didn’t give any concrete sales numbers, a more recent recall listing revealed that 4 million Quest 2 facial interfaces (included with both the Quest 2 headset and the Fit Pack accessory kit) were shipped in the US. Although it’s still not a direct sales unit, the 4 million number does give us a rough ballpark of how many Quest 2s have shipped in the US.

Combined with sales of the original Quest headset, you can start to put together a picture of how Facebook might be heading towards 10 million users on the Quest platform sooner than it anticipated.