XR News

Have Your Own Personal Boundary in Horizon Worlds & Venues

February 4, 2022 From vrfocus

Meta’s vision of its metaverse is a safe happy place where you can socialise with friends or make new ones. However, that’s not always the case and there will always be a small contingent who’ll try and ruin it for others. To that end, Meta has just announced Personal Boundary for Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues, a feature that’ll prevent avatars from coming in close proximity to one another.

Meta Personal Boundary example — An example, not how it’ll look as the boundaries are invisible. Image credit: Meta

Essentially, Personal Boundary is an invisible shield that stops anyone from getting too close. You won’t notice it and there’s no haptic feedback to indicate the fact, it’s just there as your unseen security guard.

Whilst it is a shame such features are required, having them there is better than not. Plus the Personal Boundary does have one customisable setting. By default, it is always on but you can turn it off if you so wish, if you’re in a private setting with real-world friends and family for example. The boundary extends two feet from your avatar so there can be a total of four feet between you and someone else.

There’s no way to adjust the boundary yourself if you want to make it bigger or smaller. Those kinds of customisation options may arrive at a later date as Meta fine-tunes the feature.

Meta Personal Boundary — Image credit: Meta

Meta adds in a blog post that: “Note that because Personal Boundary is the default experience, you’ll need to extend your arms to be able to high-five or fist bump other people’s avatars.” So there might be a few odd moments where two people lean in for a fist bump.

Personal Boundary is rolling out today for Horizon Worlds and Venues. Actually accessing Horizon Worlds is another matter. Currently, under development as Meta’s core metaverse experience, the app was in beta for ages until it opened up to adults in the US and Canada in December 2021. There’s still no indication as to when other territories will gain access.

For continued updates on the Horizon family of apps, keep reading gmw3.

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.

HalfDive VR Cancels Kickstarter After Hitting Funding Goal

January 31, 2022 From vrfocus

If you love the weird and wonderful ideas XR creators come up with then you’ll have likely caught wind of HalfDive, a virtual reality (VR) headset that’s used whilst laying down. Designed by Japanese startup Diver-X, the company launched a Kickstarter back in December to help fund the project. As unusual as the headset is this story gets even more bizarre, Diver-X canceled the campaign after hitting its initial funding goal.

Issuing a statement today to its backers, Diver-X CEO Yamato Sakoda gave three reasons for the sudden withdrawal of the campaign. The first was a “major change in product direction,” going on to say: “we came to the conclusion that HalfDive’s current specifications were not the best way to realize our goals of “completing life in-bed”.”

The biggest issue Sakoda mentioned revolved around the interface rather than the headset itself. Even focusing efforts towards gaming, this wasn’t enough to provide the innovative experience Diver-X was looking for. “We became skeptical of the current concept of HalfDive, our test-product, and its mass production,” Sakoda adds.

Reason two stems from the company’s own organizational structure, outsourcing the design of key components. This increased costs, especially where the optical system was concerned, attributing to around 50% of HalfDive’s cost. “We found out it would be extremely difficult to manufacture within an appropriate price range hardware components that meet our expected-quality.”

Lastly, as with a lot of startups, it comes down to cash flow. Even with the Kickstarter funds, Diver-X isn’t “in a financially stable position” to go into mass production. However, the company has sufficient funds to continue development so it’s not the end of HalfDive. Diver-X aims to address issues mentioned before coming back with an updated design.

The Kickstarter looked to raise ¥20,000,000 Yen (around $176,000 USD) and actually hit ¥24 million before the campaign was canceled. Due to the cancellation, the 248 backers weren’t charged so at least there’s no refund to chase and Diver-X has been honest about what’s occurred.

When gmw3 learns more about the future of the company and its unusual HalfDive headset we’ll let you know.

What is an NFT?

January 28, 2022 From vrfocus

As we move closer to embracing Web3, there are more and more terms for new technologies emerging. Getting to grips with a new technology or phrase can be daunting. Perhaps you’re one of the millions of people who began to hear the term ‘NFT’ in 2020-21 and thought, “what the heck is an NFT?” Or maybe you know a little but would like to learn more. We’ve got the basics covered!

Fungible ?

What does the word ‘fungible’ actually mean? Fungible is “an item which is replaceable by another identical item; [an item which is] mutually interchangeable” Let’s use clothes shopping to illustrate this meaning.

We love a particular pair of sneakers, we can order these from an online retailer or buy them from a physical store. When we buy them, the retailer can pick any box and sell them to us. It doesn’t matter which pair they pick off the shelf as they’re exactly the same. Once they’ve been worn, and worn out, we can buy another identical pair. We could even stockpile them because we love them so much; there are thousands of pairs in the world, after all.

So, fungible = replaceable.

Shopping — Photo by © Odua Images – Shutterstock.com

Non-fungible ?

Now to look at the opposite – non-fungible. As you’ve probably guessed, this means something which is irreplaceable. For example, the painting ‘Sunflowers’ by Vincent Van Gogh is irreplaceable – there is only one of these in the entire world. Were this painting to be destroyed, there would be copies of it in existence, but they are not the Van Gogh masterpiece.

So, non-fungible = not replaceable.

Token?

An NFT is a strictly digital item, it only exists digitally, there is no physical version, though it can represent something from the physical world. The NFT is basically a token; an alphanumeric code that tokenises the digital item turning it into something you can own. Imagine it as a signature on a painting, the token represents Van Gogh’s signature declaring the NFT as the original.

The token exists on the blockchain and, via the alphanumeric code signature, it can be tracked and traced via public records to show that you own it. We’ll come back to the blockchain soon.

Right-clicking?

One of the major arguments against NFTs is that the image or gif can be ‘right-clicked’ and saved to a PC or mobile phone. This argument is usually used to show that you can’t ‘own’ the item within the NFT.

Hopefully, you’re old enough to remember film-based cameras because we’re going to use them in this example (if not, it’s time to imagine!):

Before digital cameras became mainstream, film cameras were used by everyone. Once you snapped a photo the image would be stored as a negative on the roll of film. You’d send off the film for printing and receive a package of photos along with the original negatives.

Using that negative, you could feasibly produce hundreds of thousands of copies of a particular image, but only you own the negative – the original source of the image. That photo could be given to everyone in the world, be photocopied, scanned and reprinted infinitely, but the negative is the original and you own it. So, if for example, those millions of copies somehow were destroyed, you’d still have your original negative.

Buying an NFT of a tweet, or a digital Banksy, doesn’t stop others reproducing the image, but the token in the NFT declares to the world that you own the original as bought from the creator, you hold the negative. It’s no different to the physical art world; Sunflowers is hanging in the National Gallery London and it can never be replaced, but the gift shop sells imitation posters to take home. Remember:

Sunflowers = Non-fungible.

Poster of Sunflowers = Fungible.

How does the blockchain work?

For an in-depth look at blockchain technology, please see our accompanying tutorial [we’ll need a link here]. For a fast and dirty explanation, we’ll get into it now.

The blockchain is a huge spinal cord, where each vertebra is a computer. Those computers are owned by people the world over. These computers exist to crunch numbers and verify transactions. When somebody buys something, the computers all talk to each other to establish the buyer has the money and the seller has the product. Once the purchase is complete, it adds a new block to the chain filled with information about the transaction.

Where this differs from a centralised business is in the public records. Every single transaction on the blockchain is open to the public, plus there is no middle man. There is no art gallery to take a cut of the profits. It’s also incredibly difficult, on the largest blockchains, to steal or commit fraud, because if just one computer notices a bad transaction, it won’t create a block and the money will not be transferred.

What can be an NFT?

Pretty much everything. Yes, an NFT can be a computer-generated image of an ape or a kitten; it can also be a music track, a short video or gif, or it can simply store information and data. If it’s digital and, most importantly, original, then it can be an NFT.

Because of this, you’ll have noticed that NFT marketplaces are overflowing with NFTs of varying media and seemingly every major company is looking for a way into the market. It’s also very easy to mint (create) an NFT, meaning a lot of people are hoping to create the next big movement in the space.

Gas fees?

Whenever a transaction is started on a blockchain – it can be any of the blockchains, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Tezos, etc – an amount is paid to the miners who own the computers computing the transaction. Imagine it as tipping your waiter. They didn’t cook the food, but they were an integral part of the chain in bringing it to your table.

Miners usually receive a small fraction of the transaction cost, though this is determined by the cryptocurrency prices. If a crypto is generally expensive to use, then the cost in gas fees will feel more expensive, because it’s a percentage of the crypto price.

In some instances, gas fees can be lower for the buyer. A general rule of thumb is: if you want the transaction to be computed swiftly, the gas fees will be higher, as it will take up more energy to process at speed. Slower transaction checking means lower gas fee totals. In many situations, the gas fees will be proportionately lower than usual middleman fees found in transactions today.

What are the Upsides?

NFT technology has the potential to completely revolutionise the internet and the way data is stored and transferred. Because anything can be an NFT, the blockchain can store the data forever, and that data can be constantly referred to. The technology can vitally change the sale of goods.

For example, we want to buy a house from our friend. Our friend owns the property – the deed has been digitised and minted as an NFT – and they want 23 crypto for the selling price. We have 23 crypto in our digital wallet and begin the transaction to buy the NFT deed.

Once the blockchain has confirmed that our friend indeed owns the house (digital deed) and we have the 23 crypto, the exchange is done and recorded on the blockchain. Everyone can see we now own the deed to the physical house, our friend has their funds which can be withdrawn or spent and now we can move in. In this example, the agency that would usually deal with this transaction is completely removed. There’s no need to pay fees or fill out reams of paperwork.

NFTs can also open up creator economies, allowing artists, musicians and millions of other creators to sell directly to their audience. They can also be used by governmental bodies to track information in utilities, population, building and traffic data, eliminating email chains, paper backups and miscommunication.

What are the Downsides?

Firstly, NFT technology can be very confusing – hopefully, we’re helping to eliminate this. There’s blockchain, tokens, types of cryptocurrency, wallets, gas fees, minting… the list goes on. Any emerging technology is going to feel initially overwhelming, but with time these processes will become easier to deal with or be streamlined.

Secondly, the NFT market and cryptocurrency generally, can be very volatile. One minute prices are low, the next minute they’re very high. Like the stock market, there will be fluctuations constantly. Buying an NFT isn’t only about whether you like or appreciate the content, it’s also about getting a fair price. Whenever you want to buy an NFT, you must research the artist, the market, the crypto costing, the gas fees, all to ensure you’re getting the best deal.

Lastly, there’s the environmental impact. All those computing decisions and transaction checks use energy and, of course, that energy is normally generated by burning fossil fuels which spew carbon into the atmosphere and impact the Earth via climate change. However, we are at a crossover point – if this technology begins to be used widely, other systems like gold mining and global banking will depend on fossil fuels less, hopefully balancing the usage.

We also need to remember that as the energy industry changes and embraces cleaner options the environmental impact will decrease. On top of that, some blockchains are using much less energy than others – for example, the Tezos network – or applying a carbon offset into their business.

We can see the yearly approximate energy breakdowns as follows (TWh = TerraWatthour) for 2021:

Gold industry – 240.61 TWh
Global Banking System – 238.92 TWh
Bitcoin Network – 113.89 TWh
Ethereum Network – 44.5 TWh
Tezos Network – 0.001 TWh

Hopefully, this has helped you learn more about NFTs. Now you should be able to navigate this new phase in the evolution of the internet and the digital economy. If you’d like more information or want to go into more detail with NFTs and Web3, 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.

Google Reportedly Building AR Headset Codenamed Project Iris

January 21, 2022 From vrfocus

Google has quite the chuequered history when it comes to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices. Most have failed to gain any momentum like the original Google Glass or Daydream View – Google Cardboard had it time in the sun though – but it seems the company hasn’t dropped those hardware aspirations. A new report this week suggests that Google is working on a new AR device codenamed Project Iris.

Google Glass Enterprise Edition2 — Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 uses Kopin’s nHD Display. Image credit Kopin

As reported by The Verge, Project Iris is an AR headset in early development that sports outward-facing cameras to supply video of the real world that can then be combined with computer graphics for a mixed reality experience. There’s a suggestion that it’ll be more immersive than Magic Leap.

The prototype is rumoured to currently resemble a pair of ski goggles and that the device will be entirely standalone, requiring no external power source. That puts it more in line with Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 device rather than Magic Leap 2 or Nreal Light which require an external processor puck or smartphone respectively.

It’s powered by a custom Google processor, runs on Android but if recent job listings are anything to go by it’ll have its own unique UI. There’s also the indication that the AR device will support cloud streaming, utilising Google’s data centres to help improve the fidelity. That’s to be expected as it means the onboard processor doesn’t need to be hugely powerful. Cloud streaming has been accelerating in the XR space, last year Google Cloud revealed a collaboration with NVIDIA CloudXR and Varjo announced the feature for its Reality Cloud platform this week.

How Project Iris will stack up against more vocal tech giants in the XR space such as Meta remains to be seen but just like Apple and its secretive plans, Google is trying to keep the project a secret. Supposedly the Pixel team are involved and the core team involved in Iris numbers around 300 people with more being hired, all overseen by Google VR boss Clay Bavor.

The sources familiar with Project Iris claim that 2024 has been earmarked for its launch. For continued updates on Project Iris, keep reading gmw3.