Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shown off virtual reality (VR) headset prototypes to demonstrate how the business is competing to make immersive experiences more realistic to people. Meta's Reality Labs branch is creating new gear to overcome the current hurdles in the VR area. The prototypes demonstrate that work while also indicating that a full-fledged headgear capable of transporting us to a virtual world as lifelike as its physical counterpart has yet to be constructed.
Zuckerberg demonstrated four new VR headset prototypes produced for research reasons in a one-and-a-half-minute video broadcast on Facebook and Instagram.
Butterscotch is the codename for the first in the series. It is an effort to achieve near retinal resolution and is marketed as allowing users to see the tiniest characters on a virtual vision chart comfortably. This overcomes the challenge of providing near to the 60-pixel-per-degree resolution that Meta regards to be a human retina norm.
However, the headgear falls short of making the virtual experience as realistic as the real one. As a result, Meta has created Half Dome prototypes.
According to Zuckerberg, the Meta's Half Dome prototypes let users focus on any item at any distance. This is due to varifocal lenses and eye-tracking technology, which allows the device to shift its focus based on which item a user wishes to view in a virtual world.
However, Half Dome prototypes, like Butterscotch, are not now commercially viable.
"We also need to rectify optical imperfections in software in such a way that they are unnoticeable to the human eye," Zuckerberg writes.
Starburst is the codename for Meta's Reality Labs' next prototype. It is intended to be an HDR VR system.
"Nature is sometimes 10 or 100 times brighter than contemporary HDTVs and the most expensive displays, and we need those colors to be just as vivid to feel authentic," Zuckerberg argues.
The headgear, however, is rather cumbersome to handle and features components such as outside fans that make it nothing like a standard VR headset.
Nonetheless, Zuckerberg claims that the purpose of testing prototypes like Starburst is to fit all of the technologies in development into a device that is "lighter and smaller than anything that presently exists."
Holocake 2 is one step closer to that goal. It is a "functioning experimental gadget" featuring holographic displays for playing PC VR experiences without the need for any extra gear.
Nonetheless, the headset is not intended for business use.
"We still have a long way to go," Zuckerberg emphasizes.
Meta's most recent commercial VR headset is the Quest 2. However, that model does not contain the features and enhancements that the Menlo Park, California-based startup hopes to incorporate to improve its VR products. As a result, continuing prototyping is anticipated to aid in the development of improved hardware shortly.
Meta is developing both hardware and software to reach the market of professional-grade solutions, in addition to creating VR experiences for consumers. Testing several prototypes is also likely to benefit the organization in this regard.
In addition to Meta, Apple and Google are said to be working on native VR products. Early steps by Facebook's parent company, on the other hand, are likely to provide it with an advantage over the competition.
