Exclusive rumor: is Oculus preparing to announce a new (mixed-reality) headset?

During these days at GDC, Oculus has showcased the Oculus Go (that will be officially released during the F8 in May) and has provided some new insights on the Oculus Santa Cruz. But are we sure that this is enough? It seems that there is another headset coming to light behind the curtains… follow me and you’ll discover everything!

But… before starting, I want to warn you that you are reading ABOUT A RUMOR. Everything contained in this article may represent a disruptive news that you will discover in preview or absolute bullshit or something in the middle. Be careful about that… anything here may be proven false in the future. Now that I’ve warned you about that, you can go on reading.

Yesterday evening I was super super tired and I was managing my e-mails and social media channels when I got contacted by a person that started telling me a news he has heard privately about Oculus. I won’t tell you his name, so let’s say that the news has been revealed to me by Mr.Potato.

Mr. Potato has said me that Oculus has another headset under the work and it is not the Go and it is not the Santa Cruz. I immediately remembered that, some times ago, Upload VR analyzing the jobs listing of Oculus found the reference to a Monterey headset. The article quoted how Monterey was also the name of a prototype regarding an updated version of Santa Cruz but ended up saying that may also be the name of another device (or maybe it could also be a prototype from which stemmed up both the final Santa Cruz and this other new headset). Since I remembered about this other rumor, the news was a bit more reliable, so I listened carefully to Mister Potato.

Mister Potato went on saying that one of the capabilities of this new device would be that it has a frontal camera that can see what there is in front of you and a feature to switch wast from VR mode to real-world mode. This way you can switch super-easily between being in VR and being in the real world doing your normal things in a completely effortless way. You are in VR, you press a button and you can see all the world around you, as if you had not the headset on your head… then you press the button again and you are again in VR. This would be very comfortable because you could keep your headset on for a lot of time: removing it to drink or go to the bathroom would become unnecessary. Even for business scenarios, it would be useful, and in fact, there would be already some selected companies giving it a try.

I answered Mister Potato that Facebook is already preparing to sell two devices this year, and maybe next year will release the CV2… adding another headset just to have a fast switching of the real and virtual world would be a nonsense. But then I thought that this thing may have a big sense if the device would be a mixed reality headset: you could use it as a VR device or you can switch to AR mode and have screen-through augmented reality. Screen-through AR is less appealing than the one of HoloLens and Magic Leap, but it would allow for:

• Embedding AR and VR on the same device, that is the future of XR that we are all expecting;
• Allow for high-FOV AR, since you can use the same FOV of a VR headset in AR… that is 110°, something that is impossible with all current AR headsets.

And if you remember well, it is the same technology used by Vrvana, the startup recently acquired by Apple. Anyway, Mister Potato told me that he has no actual news about the mixed reality feature, he has only one regarding a new headset with the fast VR/real world switch. But he agreed that it would have a lot of sense.

This new (Monterey?) headset should be announced very very soon, most probably at F8 and should cost just a bit more than the existing devices. Facebook has teased a big AR/VR announcement for F8 and the Oculus Go and Facebook Camera are some important news, but they don’t seem to me BIG announcement. The one of an AR/VR headset, with VR powered by Oculus and AR powered by Facebook Camera, would be instead an explosive announcement because it would change all the rules of the current market.

Being doubtful about this rumor, I decided to ask to someone else, someone that I know has relationships with a lot of companies… someone that I will call Miss Potato.

I asked Miss Potato about this rumor and she has told me that among various companies in VR and gaming there is this rumor of a 3rd headset to be announced by Oculus… and half percent of people thinks that is true and the other half thinks it is bullshit. She added that at the moment there’s no way to know if it is true, outside Oculus few people know the truth. But she confirmed that the rumor is real. And IMHO this was enough to write the article to notify you. But again, take that as a possibility, but not as a certain news or a reliable rumor, because IT IS NOT.

I really hope that some people from Oculus will read the article and will tell us the truth: in any case, knowing if there is or there is not a Monterey headset in Oculus plans is very interesting for all of us innovators. I’ll try triggering some debate on Twitter to try to catch more considerations… In my opinion, if there is this rumor, there is something true about it: maybe it is just an internal prototype that Oculus is making external companies try; maybe it is a headset for the far future; maybe it is an add-on for the Oculus Go, like the ZED Mini Camera; or maybe it is a true new headset. I don’t know… what I’ve learned during these years is that usually, rumors contains at least a part of the truth. What I know is that I’d really hope to see a working XR headset… it would be awesome!

In the meanwhile, I hope you liked dreaming with me regarding this new marvelous and shining Monterey headset! If it is the case, share the article and subscribe to my newsletter to sustain my VR magazine!

(Header image obtained modifying an Oculus image)