Thanks to Oculus products, Facebook is one of the major players in the field of virtual reality. And this week, the company is giving a preview of its prototypes, via posts from Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Bosworth, the company’s head of AR/VR (and soon-to-be CTO or chief technology officer.
“I spent the day with the Facebook Reality Labs research team in Redmond demonstrating the next generation of virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence technology.”Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post.
© Mark Zuckerberg
This is accompanied by a photo in which the Facebook chief is wearing a helmet that looks a lot like the Oculus Quest. However, according to Zuckerberg, it is a prototype that displays “retina” resolution, and therefore the human eye should not distinguish pixels.
For his part, Andrew Bosworth shared an image of another prototype with a design that looks lighter and which, according to The Verge, is reminiscent of an alleged leaked Apple prototype. It can be a helmet that allows for both virtual and augmented reality.
« […] Excited to get a glimpse of some of the technologies that will power the metaverse (we’re working on several Proof of Concept helmet prototypes, and this is one of them”We read his tweet.
Proud of the research Michael Abrash’s team is working on at FRL-R Redmond—excited to get an early look at some of the technologies that will power the metaverse (We’re working on several headset prototypes for proof of concepts, and this is one of them. Kind of. It’s a long story.) pic.twitter.com/Yi9xjy5HmG
– Boz (boztank) October 13, 2021
Unfortunately, these publications provide few details. But in any case, the message is clear: Facebook is preparing new products and its research in virtual and augmented reality is progressing.
The timing may not be trivial. Recently, the future HTC Vive virtual reality headset leaked onto the web, when its launch was imminent.
did you miss me, HTC? pic.twitter.com/hB7iPLLCHk
– E (evleaks) October 12, 2021
Moreover, after Andrew Bosworth’s publication, an HTC executive offered to replace the Facebook prototype with a final product that had just left the factory. Bosworth declined the offer.
I don’t agree
– Boz (boztank) October 13, 2021
And augmented reality company Magic Leap recently announced a $500 million increase, in addition to the arrival of new augmented reality glasses.
Facebook wants to control the platforms on which its services are used
Unable to benefit from the shift towards smartphones, Facebook now relies on Apple and Google platforms, where its services are used. And the company doesn’t want to make the same mistake when AR/VR products replace smartphones.
In fact, according to Mark Zuckerberg, in a few years, augmented reality glasses will replace smartphones. And when that moment comes, Facebook will be in good shape.
But while waiting for the release of its first augmented reality glasses, Facebook is introducing virtual reality headsets, in addition to its Ray-Ban glasses.
These are simple connected glasses, without augmented reality. However, for Facebook, this is the first step “towards full augmented reality glasses”.
