A key characteristic from Meta’s $1,499.99 Quest Professional headset will make an look — in some type — in a extra reasonably priced consumer-focused headset coming later this yr, CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned within the firm’s newest earnings launch. That key characteristic is help for Meta Actuality, the know-how that’s designed to permit digital actuality headsets to even be used for augmented actuality, leading to a so-called blended actuality headset.
Meta confirmed in a earlier earnings name that the headset, prone to be referred to as the Meta Quest 3, is deliberate for launch in late 2023. Zuckerberg expects it to price between $300 and $500, round a 3rd of the enterprise-focused Quest Professional.
“The MR [mixed reality] ecosystem is comparatively new, however I feel it’s going to develop rather a lot within the subsequent few years,” Zuckerberg mentioned on this week’s earnings name in feedback pulled out by UploadVR. “Later this yr, we’re going to launch our subsequent technology shopper headset, which can characteristic Meta Actuality as effectively, and I anticipate that that is going to ascertain this know-how because the baseline for all headsets going ahead, and ultimately in fact for AR glasses as effectively.”
“Our subsequent technology shopper headset… will characteristic Meta Actuality”
What’s unclear in the intervening time is strictly what type the Meta Actuality characteristic will tackle a extra reasonably priced headset. On the Quest Professional it combines two digital camera views to reconstruct a 3D view of the true world round you to make it simpler to work together with, however who is aware of if the know-how will work the identical means on the Quest 3. The present-gen Quest 2, in the meantime, provides extra fundamental video passthrough that reveals a low-resolution monochromatic view of the world outdoors the headset. A earlier report recommended the Quest 3 may have a depth sensor to measure the house in entrance of you or doubtlessly enable for hand-tracking.
It’s value noting that regardless of Meta’s advertising and marketing, Meta Actuality actually wasn’t that spectacular on the Quest Professional. “Meta’s shade passthrough doesn’t look remotely like the true world,” my colleague Adi wrote in her damning Quest Professional evaluation. “Video footage is fuzzy within the Quest Professional’s grainy show. The feed is murky in low mild, washed-out or flickery in vivid mild, and typically luridly saturated in between. Studying real-world telephone or pc screens via it’s just about unattainable. It’s a effective system for dipping into the bodily world when you have a dialog or get a cup of espresso, nevertheless it’s not vastly extra helpful (or nice) than the Quest 2’s black-and-white passthrough.” Ouch.
UploadVR experiences that different rumored options of the Quest 3 embody the usage of pancake lenses, which might enable for smaller show panels and a extra compact headset general, and be unpinned by a extra highly effective Qualcomm processor.
