When it comes to meta-universe, it deserves to be one of the hottest terms in the technology field in these years, and even influenced the CEO of a technology company to change the name of the company to meta-universe.
That’s right, said Meta, formerly known as Facebook.
Apparently, the change of the company’s name also indicates that Meta will enter the new industry of “metaverse” in a big way in the future, and has already launched related products.
However, industry insiders are not optimistic about Meta’s move, not only its stock price has been sluggish after the name change, but also the controversy about VR ecology has been ongoing.
In such an environment, proving itself became Meta’s top priority, so in recent days, Zuckerberg released a new video on his personal social media, showing several prototypes of VR devices that Meta is developing.
Four VR prototypes, to solve four technical problems
In the video released by Zuckerberg, a total of four prototypes of VR were shown.
Although the same VR equipment, but as a prototype they look quite rudimentary, you can see a variety of lines haphazardly arranged, the chip, fan and other hardware is exposed without cover, and even a device even headband is not, need to rely on hands like lifting a telescope in front of the eyes.
However, since it is a prototype, it does not matter how it looks, what matters is the technical challenges it is working on.
According to Zuckerberg’s introduction, the four VR prototypes shown in the video correspond to the four technical problems that Meta is trying to solve.
Which four technical problems?
There are concerned about the VR equipment partners may wish to open their brains and summarize their guesses.
For the small black, the biggest problem of the current VR devices, one is the lack of display effect, the second is the size and weight of the problem, the third is the lack of ecology and content.
According to Zuckerberg’s introduction, Butterscotch’s resolution can already reach 55PPD, very close to retina level. As a comparison, the resolution of Oculus Quest 2, the latest VR device of Meta and the most popular VR device in the market, is only 33PPD.
Of course, you can also see devices with a resolution of up to 70PPD on the market, but the high price makes it prohibitive for ordinary users.
As a cost, Butterscotch achieved 55PPD while shrinking the viewing angle to about half of Quest 2, only 60 degrees of the visual center of the range. Meta clearly has a long way to go to reduce the price while balancing resolution and viewing angle.
After Butterscotch, the Half Dome, which has been developed for a long time within Meta, was shown.
According to the people involved, the Half Dome prototype on display is not the newer second and third generation, but the Half Dome 1 that was shown back in 2018.
Half Dome this research direction is the main focus of the eye focusing technology, this technology, once mature, will allow users to use the VR headset, and the naked eye to watch the real world in general, when looking at different items with the gaze switch focus.
Obviously, the technology used in Half Dome 2 and Half Dome 3 is far more advanced than the first generation, so why is the video showing the first generation instead?
Again, according to the analysis of the people mentioned above, the original Half Dome prototypes on display needed to be connected to a PC via cables, while Meta’s current definition of a VR device is a completely independent piece of hardware. Therefore, although the Half Dome 1 on display may not be as good as the 2nd and 3rd generations in terms of eye focus technology, it may be the first prototype in this series that can operate independently.
The third device on display is the Starburst, a prototype device that needs to be held up like a telescope, as previously mentioned by Black. the first picture in this article is of this device.