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Meta releases new $1500 Meta Quest Pro VR Headset

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled the all-new Quest Pro(formerly Project Cambria), a premium $1500 Meta Quest Pro VR Headset, at Meta’s annual Connect conference.

Meta Quest Pro
Image Source: laptopmag.com

The $1,500 headset, which was presented at Meta’s Connect Conference, will be available to buy from October 25. Users can also place pre-orders on the Meta website. The launch is a part of Meta’s strategy to grow its user base.

Since its release in 2020, the Quest Pro’s predecessor, the Quest 2, had a sale of around 15 million units. Unlike its predecessor, Quest Pro supports mixed reality, allowing users to view digital content overlaid on the actual world.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, called mixed reality “the next major step for VR.”

Meta Quest Pro is the first in a lineup of cutting-edge headsets designed to increase the potential of mixed and virtual reality. The headset’s pancake lenses compress light multiple times, resulting in smaller overall dimensions and crisper sights. Overall, the Meta Quest Pro headset is more ergonomic and balanced because of the new, flared battery on the back.

The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ processor. It offers 256GB of internal storage and 12GB of RAM. In order to provide users with a full-color mixed reality and virtual environment, it features ten high-resolution sensors, five of which are located within the headset and five outside.

There are two LCD panels that provide richer, more vibrant colors due to the local dimming and quantum dot technology. Meta Quest Pro’s design enables users to switch between the physical and virtual worlds while using their peripheral vision. If the user desires an immersive experience, magnetic partial light blocks are included in the box. It contains sensors for detecting the eyes and capturing facial expressions.

For a richer virtual experience, if the person raises an eyebrow, grins, or just engages in eye contact with somebody, their avatar does the same. To track the user’s position in 3D space independently of the headset, the headset contains three built-in sensors for each controller. In comparison to Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro provides 10% more pixels per degree and 37% more pixels per inch.

Additionally, users will notice a 50% improvement in the periphery of the screen and a 25% rise in full-field visual acuity in the center. The color spectrum has also increased by 1.3 times from the previous version. The device comes with rechargeable batteries and a TruTouch Haptics system.

The Quest Pro has a battery life of one to two hours, though users can also use the device while it’s charging. According to Meta, a complete battery charge will take about two hours.

Microsoft CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella also joined Zuckerberg to reveal a brand-new partnership that will bring potent new work and productivity features to Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2 in the coming years. These tools include apps for Microsoft Teams and Windows 365 as well as the capability to attend a Teams meeting from within Meta Horizon Workrooms.

Most likely, Apple’s rumored AR/VR headset will compete with Meta’s newest headset. The advancement of Meta’s headsets is essential to the company’s plans for the Metaverse, wherein Mr. Zuckerberg envisions a brand-new internet where users can play and work together.

Metaverse is a virtual environment where users may both conduct their daily lives as avatars and explore fantastical virtual worlds. Although several IT companies are developing their metaverses, it will probably be years before any are materialized. There have been conflicting reviews of Meta’s current virtual reality environment, Horizons, and there have also been allegations of sexual assault and violence committed by avatars there.

UploadVR Reveals the Detailed Features of Sony’s Upcoming PS5 Next-Generation VR Headset

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Sony announced its PlayStation5 next-generation VR headset in February 2021 and talked about some of its advanced features like a better field of view and higher resolution. But now, a story from UploadVR have given detailed information about these features of the VR headset by Sony. According to UploadVR, the new Sony VR headset will boast a 4K resolution, eye-tracking, and a vibration motor to enable the haptics.

The Announcement by Sony

In February, Sony announced that it is working on a next-generation VR headset for the PS5. The company did not give any information on the release date for the same but confirmed that 2021 won’t be the year for its launch. According to Sony, the headset will be a single cord high-resolution headset, with an improved field of view. The announcement from the company also included the release of the new development kits for its next-gen VR headset as well as the new VR controller, including some of the DualSense PS5 controller’s features.

The In-depth Reveal of the Features

Though the announcement by Sony did not include much about the features of the upcoming VR headset, the latest story by UploadVR gives a more extensive view of its major highlights.

The Resolution: UploadVR first talk about the high resolution of the headset, as it will boast a 4k resolution of 4000 x 2040 providing each eye with the 2000 x 2040 pixels experience. The first PlayStation VR only featured a 960 x 1080 pixels per-eye resolution. The resolution is even higher than the 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye resolution of the Oculus Quest 2. The higher the resolution better it will avoid the “screen-door effect” for the users giving them an even more realistic experience.

Separate Adjustable Dial for IPD: According to UploadVR reveal, the new Sony VR is also including a more adjustable dial for matching the IPD (interpupillary distance), i.e. to precisely measure the distance between the pupils of the eyes of the users. This way, the VR captures a perfect 3D image for the users.

Eye Movement Tracking: The new VR headset is enabled to track the eye movements added with the Foveated Rendering feature. According to UploadVR, the new headset will use eye movements as the input. The eye input of the users will also make the eye movement of their Avatar’s in the game look more realistic to the other players in the game.

Foveated Rendering: Then comes the super-popular graphical technique foveated rendering, which will render a more powerful GPU to the point the user is looking at. This way, GPU will be used majorly on the part where the user is focused, providing them more detailed scenes, and lesser GPU resources will be used on the other parts of the scene.  

The Oculus Quest and Quest 2 also have included such feature with a similar name, ‘fixed foveated rendering’. But the said feature is selected manually, and the user though gets a better vision where their gaze is focussed, but the rest of area lacks in resolution and the user can see that. But the foveated rendering included in the Sony VR headset is capable of adjusting the resolution wherever the user gazes.

Inside-Out Tracking: The previously launched VR sets are known for having “outside-in tracking”, which means that there had to be some sensors set up in the play area to track the controllers and their position while playing. But the new Sony VR headset will include special cameras to track the controllers, eliminating the need of setting up external sensors.

Other than that, according to the alleged sources, the new VR headset from Sony is also going to feature haptic feedback via an inbuilt motor to provide the users with a better in-action experience. Also, the company has eliminated the juggling with wires as the headset is connected to the PS5 system only through a single USB type-c cord.

It has been four years since Sony came with its original VR headset and looking at the new features of the upcoming one, we can clearly say that the company has put all its learning from the past in improving the new gadget for its users in every which way. Now, we just need to wait for the launch of the actual headset and see if it works as expected or fails the expectations of its users.

Facebook Unveils the Latest Standalone VR Headset Oculus Quest

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Oculus Quest
Image Source: businessinsider.com

Oculus Connect conference took place in San Jose, California, on Wednesday. The Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s latest VR headset, during the event. The VR headset is called the Oculus Quest. Facebook had already unveiled its prototype two years ago that gave a hint of its being similar to the Gear VR pro or the Rift lite.

Now, when it has been showcased, in the yesterday’s event, we found it most similar to the Rift, but without having a PC base. The new Quest is a wireless, independent VR box that lets you move across 4,000 square feet of space. The Oculus Quest is embedded with the inside-out tracking technology, i.e., the headset has its inbuilt movement detection sensors, rather having it on the external bases.

The Quest supports the 6DOF (Six Degrees of Freedom), i.e., the headset can measure the user’s position in 6 different directions, in the virtual environment, with accuracy. It has a 1600×1440 resolution display that makes the experience more realistic.

Along with the Quest headset, Facebook also unveiled the Touch Controllers, a set of controllers. The controllers are similar to the Rift’s handheld motion Touch Controllers and are made compatible with 50 existing Oculus applications.

Facebook also previewed new and more realistic Avatars for the VR developers. The Avatars will be more expressive with their eye movements and lip sync properties. The Oculus Quest is Facebook’s first all-in-one standalone VR system, that doesn’t need any computer-based setup and gives you the freedom to walk around freely. This amazing product will cost around $399 (Rs. 28000) and will come in the market by the spring of next year.