Good morning from Perpignan, France! I’m here to do some meetings, but actually also to eat a lot of food. I’m having a great time with the VRrOOm team while I prepare to go to the US in a few days to attend AWE (don’t forget to get in touch if you want to meet me there).
While I’m gaining weight, let’s see together the best news of XR from the past week!
Top news of the week
New reports highlight some episodes of the life of Apple XR glasses
This week The Information has written a long report about the history of Apple XR glasses. Thanks to the leak reported by around ten insiders, the online magazine has been able to cast a light on some unknown details about the headset. Some of the most interesting ones are:
- Apple is working on XR since 2015/2016
- The engineers produced many prototypes in the early days: e.g. some modified HTC headsets or a headset so heavy that it had to be attached to the ceiling
- Tim Cook rarely visits the group working on it, and this focus of the CEO on other more mainstream devices like the iPhone or iPad has made it difficult for the group to hire new people or get more budget
- Some people (like Jony Ive) were scared that VR could isolate people, but their concern lifted off when the engineers created new prototypes with passthrough AR cameras to not isolate the user from his surroundings, and an outside screen on the front of the device to let the others see the eyes of the viewer. Both of these features may be included in the actual device that will be shipped
- There was an internal debate about having a fully standalone device versus a device streaming from an external box. Jony Ive was on the standalone’s side and this design decision was the one selected in the end by the CEO Tim Cook
- The headset that is in the works apparently has 14 cameras in total when including those used for passthrough, positional tracking, eye tracking, face tracking, hand tracking, and body tracking
- There are a lot of technical challenges that the engineers are trying to tackle to fit all these electronics and realize the desired features
- The main chip should be the upcoming M2
- This headset should not focus on gaming
- It should not feature controllers, but hand tracking and scrolling via a ring on the finger of the user
A report from Bloomberg instead, points to the fact that Apple’s board of directors has tried the headset and this is a signal that is close to being launched. Since the hardware is almost ready, the company is now ramping up the development of the actual rOS (Reality OS) operating system, for the launch that may happen in 2023.
More info (Report on Apple headset’s history)
More info (Report on Apple headset’s history / 2)
More info (Report on Apple headset’s history / 3)
More info (Apple’s board of directors has tried the headset)
More info (Apple’s board of directors has tried the headset / 2)
Other relevant news
Qualcomm’s new reference design is wireless
Qualcomm has released its latest reference design for AR glasses and it features an important new feature. If all the previous reference designs were about smartphone-tethered glasses, this new one is totally wireless. The glasses feature a powerful XR2 chipset and offload part of the computations to the phone, which is connected to the glasses wirelessly via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. According to the company, the added latency for wireless communication is just 3ms.
The glasses also feature 6DOF tracking via two monochrome cameras, one color camera for mixed reality, and embedded audio. The expected field of view is around 40°, like the previous models… not enough to guarantee real usability.
I think this news is pretty important because it improves a lot the usability of smartphone-connected AR glasses. If the previous ones required a cable that was uncomfortable, these new ones are totally wire-free, which is much better for the user. This is a needed step to make AR glasses comfortable enough to wear all day, and I’m happy that Qualcomm has taken it with this reference design. As usual, Qualcomm is working with selected partners to build actual products out of this reference design, so we can expect to see the first wireless AR glasses coming out in the next months.
More info (Qualcomm AR reference design / Road To VR)
More info (Qualcomm AR reference design / Upload VR)
News worth a mention
You can now buy refurbished Quest 2s for $249
Meta has started the sale of refurbished Meta Quest 2 devices. For only $249, you can get a 128GB unit, guaranteed to work by Meta itself. This is a great deal, that lowers even more the barrier of cost to enter virtual reality.
Google launches “Immersive Stream for AR”
Google has launched a new cloud service based on Stadia technology: dubbed “Immersive Stream for AR”, it lets you perform cloud rendering for augmented reality applications for mobile phones. This is very interesting because it shows that Google is actively working towards XR cloud rendering, something that may be very useful for its future lightweight AR glasses.
Baidu’s XiRang platform wants to be the foundation of the Chinese metaverse
Chinese giant Baidu (The Google of China) has announced its XiRang platform aimed at building the metaverse. The company is not trying to build a virtual world, though, but a full cloud platform that can be used by other companies to build social VR experiences. It includes services for avateering, networking, cloud rendering, and other common features. The plan is very ambitious and Baidu has already created its virtual space called Creator City to showcase what is possible to do with this framework.
eMagin and TCL are working on the XR displays of the future
Display companies are working on displays for the future generation of headsets.
At Display Week 2022, eMagin presented a 4K OLED microdisplay. Its size is 2.1 inches, so more or less like one of the displays used in present-day devices, but it features an impressive 3600×4000 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and 1000 nits of brightness.
At the same event, TCL showed one of the smallest LCDs ever presented. It has a 2160×2160 resolution, like the one of the HP Reverb, but it is just 1.77’’, while the one of the Reverb is 2.89’’. An impressive improvement, which could lead to the development of smaller headsets.
More info (eMagin display)
More info (TCL display)
Meta releases v40 runtime for Quest
Meta has released the v40 update for the Quest runtime. It doesn’t bring huge improvements, but some welcome features like:
- Encryption for text and voice chats through Messenger
- In-headset 3D Secure payments
- More supported physical keyboards
- App-based lock feature, which lets parent prevent their children from using certain applications installed on the headset.
The last feature is the one that makes me happier, because it shows that Meta is doing its best to add more parental control tools for the Quest and solve its “kids issue”.
Tooz releases reference design for prescription smartglasses
Tooz has announced ESSNZ Berlin, a reference design for smartglasses with prescription correction. The secret is in the optical system: “the curved, ophthalmic lens is comprised of the waveguide, incoupling surface and the prescription layer in one monolithic piece”. Thanks to this, you can have prescription glasses with augmentations.
This sounds very interesting, but the field of view of just 15° shows that there is a lot of work to do for this product to become truly usable.
Croquet launches “operating system for the metaverse”
Startup Croquet has launched what it has called “an operating system for the metaverse”, which is completely cloud-based and can run on the browser of every device. I admit I haven’t understood exactly what it does mean, but it sounded cool, so I’m reporting it here in case you are smarter than me and can understand it (and maybe explain it to me).
More info (Croquet)
More info (Croquet OS)
Some news on content
- 3D puzzle game Shores of Loci is set for an Early Access release on Quest 2 via App Lab and SteamVR on May 24th. Road To VR went hands-on with it and reported it is a nice game with gorgeous visuals
- The Last Clockwinder is officially slated to land on Meta Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets on June 2nd, 2022. The studio behind it has also released a new trailer of the game
- Demeo’s last update lets you paint some game figures in VR. It is an amazing idea and it emulates what some players of board games like to do
- Eolia, the sequel of Rhythm of the Universe: Ionia, is going to be launched on June 9
- In Death: Unchained is launching its Demonic Trials update, which offers a new season in which the players don’t compete one against the other on a leaderboard, but all the players of the world contribute with their scores to a common goal to unlock some features. This is a very cool idea
- We have a new trailer (after two years!) of the physics-driven VR adventure, Lonn
- Game studio Joy Way has canceled Outlier to focus on its two other games Stride and Against
More info (Shores Of Loci)
More info (The Last Clockwinder)
More info (Demeo)
More info (Eolia)
More info (In Death: Unchained)
More info (Lonn)
More info (Outlier)
Other news
Zero Latency ditches backpack PCs in its VR arcade to use Vive Focus 3. The LBVR system is transitioning to standalone…
People working on XR/metaverse are now 21% of the total Meta employee. The number is constantly increasing
Meta has detailed the technical details of the LCD display of the Quest 2
Upload VR has gone hands-on with the accessories for Meta Quest 2 produced by Kiwi and found them to be pretty good
Niantic Lightship Visual Positioning System seems to be able to enable a new type of augmented reality experience
NVIDIA’s new AI system can reconstruct 3D models from photos in an impressive way
Youtuber Cai VR has made its own haptic vest for VRChat. A very cool DIY project
News from partners (and friends)
Loco Dojo gets a new update
Party game Loco Dojo has just got a new update featuring Quest Party support and new unlockables. Check it out!
Learn more
Some XR fun
What the “metaverse” really is.
Funny link
Reality vs virtual reality helmets
Funny link
Meditate and then draw… whatever you want
Funny link
When two people quarrel, the third one…
Funny link
I love when fun PR people answer to my memes…
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate for my blog, but to the poor people that are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:
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And now here you are the link to donate: