It’s an understatement to say that Meta’s Connect 2022 event was expected. And with it the launch of the Quest Pro virtual reality headset. While the widely leaked product came as no surprise, Meta’s (ex-Facebook) emphasis on professional applications of the new hardware was disappointing, especially in terms of the hardware needed to appropriate them. If the American giant has delivered a flurry of announcements (including new partnerships with Microsoft, Adobe, Zoom and others), its most ambitious projects are still promising prototypes.
Meta first introduced its Meta Quest Pro headset, designed from the ground up for businesses and professionals. While the improved visual clarity and auto-tracking controllers could just as well be used to enhance your Beat Saber gameplay, Meta instead hopes to attract many professional customers to the Metaverse for the first time.
Aside from the Quest Pro, the longest-running part of Meta Connect 2022’s presentation focused on the company’s efforts to turn its now-mocked Horizon Worlds offering into a must-see for network, collaborate and have fun in the Metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, promised updates during this event in one of the messages he published in reaction to the negative reactions to the simplicity of the graphics of Horizon Worlds, and his company held his promise.
Microsoft and Zoom part
Not only do avatars in virtual worlds gain autonomy, but they also benefit from an all-new framework for collaboration in the form of Horizon Workrooms. These collaboration spaces are at the center of the company’s business strategy, providing a place where wearers of VR headsets and people just sitting at a desk, or even using their smartphone, can come together to discuss, view 3D models , collaborate and work.
Partners in this particular announcement include Microsoft, which will support Breakout Rooms through Teams integrations, and Zoom, which will soon allow users to appear as their Meta Avatars in Zoom meetings.
In the longer term, Meta hopes that features like Magic Rooms (mixed reality spaces where cross-platform collaboration will enable even larger meetings), virtual whiteboards (with support for Quest Pro’s pen controllers), and other features will convince the business world that the Metaverse really is the best place to host their next meeting.
Besides the collaborations with Microsoft and Zoom mentioned and seen above, Meta has also announced partnerships with several other tech brands. These include a partnership with Accenture, which will help expand the Meta Quest and Horizon Worlds ecosystems through that company’s ISV program; an agreement that will bring Autodesk’s 3D modeling technology to Meta Quest Pro; and plans with Adobe to introduce its Substance 3D modeling software to Meta Quest Pro and Quest 2 next year.
Pro-oriented applications
To make it easier for businesses to manage all of the hardware, applications and services that these deployments will require, Meta has announced Meta Quest for Business, a “bundled subscription for Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2 that includes essential administration such as device and application management, premium support and more”. The company hopes this singular offering, which includes contributions from some of the third-party vendors mentioned above, will ease customers’ path to the Metaverse.
As usual, Meta concluded its event with a segment showcasing upcoming projects. This year’s list of ambitions is focused on two key areas: controlling AR and bringing real-world objects and people into the Metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg himself showed off a new prototype augmented reality headset that he says will evolve into a product that users can wear anywhere.
Combined with AI-based learning technologies, the result is a wrist-worn system that can adapt to any wearer to help them control augmented and virtual reality content with little more than a thought. During the presentation, the company demonstrated impressive interactions with augmented reality apps and basic games controlled by wristbands.
Slower takeoff than expected for Meta
Meta also shared some of the ways it hopes to bring its fledgling Metaverse closer to the real world. These included Meta’s “Neural Radiance Field” 3D scanning technology, which can use something as simple as a smartphone camera (and significant AI processing in the background) to create compelling 3D representations of objects in the Metaverse. The company also introduced a reverse rendering technique that achieves a similar result, while applying real-world physics to the created object.
Finally, the social networking giant presented the latest version (2.0, more precisely) of its Avatars Codec. These ultra-realistic Metaverse avatars were sometimes hard to discern from live video of the subject used to create them, and should silence any naysayers if they ever start populating the Metaverse.
That said, even Meta recognizes that the next Metaverse population boom might not happen for several years. However, the company also introduced another swipe technology based on the phone, which already allows for an avatar to be created that has come most of the way in just a few hours. No timeline was mentioned as to when either of these technologies might be made available to the public.
Source: ZDNet.com