Meta launches a 4-year hardware roadmap and is committed to creating the 'Holy Grail' AR glasses, burning $13.7 billion

Now, who is talking about the metaverse?

In 2022, Meta Labs Reality Labs has lost $13.7 billion in AR/VR R&D investment.

More than last year (nearly $10.2 billion), which is simply jaw-dropping.

Also see, the explosion of generative AI, a wave of ChatGPT craze, let Meta The interior center of gravity is also tilted.

Just some time ago, during the company’s quarterly financial report conference call, “Metaverse” was mentioned only 7 times. And "AI" has 23 .

# Doing business that is almost losing money, is the Yuan Universe so indifferent?

No No No!

Meta recently announced its VR/AR hardware technology roadmap for the next four years.

In 2025, the first smart glasses with a display screen and a "neural interface" smart watch that controls the glasses will be released.

In 2027, the first AR glasses with mature technology will be launched. Zuckerberg calls it the "holy grail" that will redefine humanity's relationship with technology by the end of this decade.

It can only be said that on the road to the metaverse, Meta becomes more and more courageous with every setback (manual thumbs up).

The codenames of three new headsets have been revealed

In a roadmap presentation on Tuesday, Alex Himel, vice president of AR, laid out the plans for 2027 There are plans to release a series of devices this year.

According to internal employees, Meta will launch its flagship product later this year Quest 3 (codenamed Stinson) .

Compared with the previous generation Quest 2 ($400), it is thinner and lighter, and even has at least 2 times the functionality.

#Of course, the price goes without saying, it is definitely more expensive than the previous generation.

#Like the Quest Pro, a machine worth 10,000 yuan released last year, Quest 3 more prominently demonstrates the function of mixed reality experience.

#This experience does not completely immerse the wearer, mainly thanks to the Quest Pro front-facing camera that can see through the screen to see the real world.

Mark Rabkin, vice president of Meta’s VR department, said,

“Mixed reality will Is a huge selling point, the new headset will have a "smart guardian" to help users navigate the real world while wearing the device.

#The team’s main goal is to make users feel more comfortable and natural because of mixed reality from the moment they put on the new device.

# "You can stay in the headset longer, walk across the room effortlessly, put cats and objects on the table, and even Hold the coffee.」

Quest 3 will support 41 new applications and games, which can maximize the performance of the newly upgraded hardware and allow people to experience more profound mixed reality scenes.

In 2024, Meta will also launch a cheaper and more convenient head display code-named "Ventura" .

#The purpose of making this headset is very simple, which is to create a strong product of Meta at the same price in the virtual reality consumer market.

#As for whether the second generation of Quest Pro will be launched soon is still unknown.

The most likely "successor" at present will come out after the head display code-named Ventura, code-named La Jolla.

#This is a state-of-the-art headset equipped with the Codec Avatars system that can bring photorealistic VR avatars.

Rabkin’s expectation for La Jolla is that “it has a higher resolution for work and the ability to Really get the job done with work, text, and other similar tasks. At the same time, we also hope to get a more comfortable experience from Quest Pro."

At the same time, Rabkin acknowledged that Quest currently needs to work hard to keep new users engaged.

This is the third year since the release of Quest 2, and its new buyers do not like it as much as early buyers and wear it as often as they did.

8 years of research and development, AR glasses "holy grail"

In addition to the Quest series of headsets, thousands of Meta employees are building a Future AR glasses, and wrist devices to control them.

The main difference from VR headsets is that Meta plans to launch AR glasses that can be worn all day long to replace smartphones.

#Xiao Zha’s ambition is to make the next generation iPhone.

Himel said that by 2025, the third generation of smart glasses will be equipped with a "viewfinder" display for viewing incoming text messages, scanning QR codes and real-time translation of text in another language.

In addition, the glasses will be equipped with a "neural interface" strap that allows the wearer to control the glasses through hand movements.

#For example, sliding your finger upward in the air will instantly make you feel like "Iron Man".

The wristband also allows the wearer to use a virtual keyboard and can interact with Cell phone speed to type the same words per minute.

# Also integrates with Meta’s social media apps and provides health and fitness features.

Himel confirmed that while Meta plans to launch a smartwatch with a detachable display and camera, it is currently working on another smartwatch. Eyewear to match the year 2025.

“We don’t want people to have to choose between a wrist input device and their preferred smartwatch features, so we’re building a neural interface watch .》

Himel showed employees a demonstration of the glasses, in which the camera on the glasses shows the wearer's front-on view during a video call, while Show selfie view from camera on watch.

Meta’s first true pair of AR glasses has been developed within the company for 8 years, codenamed Orion.

# Not only is the technology used advanced, but it is also very expensive, aiming to project high-quality Avatar holograms into the real world.

According to Himel, the company will conduct an internal release in 2024 to allow employees to test the glasses. The first version will not appear until 2027.

At that time, Meta will launch innovative AR glasses and the “Scale” series of second-generation neural smart watches.

Himel said that the nearly 2 billion pairs of ordinary glasses and hundreds of millions of smart watches sold every year are a huge opportunity for Meta.

When you put on AR glasses, ads will appear in the air, which will be a huge business.

This way, the company can make money relying on its existing advertising business model. Higher revenue can be achieved by selling virtual goods, optional add-ons such as cloud backup, and AR advertising.

#To date, Meta has sold nearly 20 million Quest headsets.

Yuanverse, do you still want to go on?

The Metaverse has already pointed towards the next generation form of the Internet, and competition among major technology companies to become the giants in the Metaverse era is fierce.

Among them, Facebook can be said to be the most radical, directly changing the company name to Meta and turning to a new computing platform based on virtual reality.

In the field of VR hardware, Oculus is the leader. Meta acquired it in 2014 to make up for the shortcomings of the hardware and hold the key to the door to the metaverse. in hand.

The VR headset Quest 2 has helped Meta gain a dominant position in VR hardware.

Since then, Meta has released its latest VR headset, Quest Pro, and announced that it will launch its first AR glasses, Orion, in 2024 and continue to develop hardware.

Starting from the launch of Horizon Worlds, Meta has officially taken the first step to make the metaverse a reality. In this virtual world platform, relying on Meta’s long-term efforts With the Codec Avatars project, users can create a realistic 3D avatar (albeit without legs) and start gaming in a custom world.

Meta continues to take advantage of its former advantages as a social platform and strives to enhance the user experience in the Metaverse world sense of experience.

For example, in delineating private boundaries in the metaverse, users bring their own one-meter string; introducing 3D avatars on platforms such as Instagram, and Xiao Zha himself is also satisfied with the change superior.

Meta’s confidence in the Metaverse is inseparable from its long-term hard work.

The artificial skin, pneumatic gloves and mechanical bionic eyes that have been secretly developed for many years have jointly opened up the three major human beings of vision, hearing and touch on Meta's journey into the metaverse. Sensory experience.

Joined with NVIDIA to launch AI supercomputer RSC, Builder Bot that generates metaverse scenes through speech, "World Model" that allows AI to catch up with human intelligence, and super AI assistant CAIRaoke, the new view synthesis framework HVS-Net and other technologies will also make Meta even more powerful on the journey to the metaverse.

## Meta can be said to have entered the metaverse field with determination to burn all boats. Faced with a large number of layoffs, Despite the huge losses, he said "we still believe in the future" and will continue to invest 20% of the funds in Reality Labs, the VR department, and insist on the Metaverse plan unswervingly.

#Since Meta officially announced the Yuanverse, tens of billions of dollars have been invested.

You must know that the development of Metaverse hardware still requires continuous accumulation of technology in order to achieve breakthroughs .

#The four-year hardware roadmap formulated by Meta is also paving the way for itself.

When it comes to the next boom in the dimensional universe, Meta will definitely become the leader in the VR/AR industry.

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