Introduction to Virtual Reality
Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the web was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. The future is coming, and now we have a likelihood to construct it together. It’s now been 10 years since Mark Zuckerberg announced the acquisition of Oculus and started pushing forward his vision of the metaverse in earnest. That’s a decade of investment in Reality Labs, including futuristic research, continuous product development, and an entire lot of prototypes.
The Early Days of VR
It all began with a dev kit, a dream, and a healthy amount of duct tape. Over 9,000 enthusiasts pledged a combined $2.4 million to assist make the dream a reality. The Oculus team transported people from their living rooms to face on top of a skyscraper and look a Tyrannosaurus rex in the attention — and we were just getting began. Oculus Rift kicked off the trendy VR era in March 2016, followed by our first-generation Touch controllers in December of that yr. Touch opened up a brand new world of possibilities, like scaling a cliff face along with your own hands in The Climb and gesturing to forged spells in The Mage’s Tale.
Major Milestones in VR Development
Oculus Go was our first standalone VR product, shipped in 2018. Starting at $199 USD, it offered dramatically improved visual clarity. Oculus Go gave people a front-row seat to concert events, movies, and sporting events, while also letting them hang around with friends in ways in which wouldn’t be possible with today’s smartphones. Oculus Rift S launched in May 2019, incorporating the inside-out tracking technology that eliminated the necessity for external sensors.
Embarking on an Epic Quest
Then got here Quest — the world’s first standalone VR headset — in 2019. For the primary time, people could freely explore virtual worlds, no wires required. We welcomed much more people into the fold with Quest 2. And we allow them to explore and interact with the virtual world using their very own hands, because of AI breakthroughs in hand tracking. We saw technological developments like Passthrough and Air Link in 2021, which lets people stream their PC VR games wirelessly to Quest over WiFi.
Advancements in Mixed Reality
With Quest Pro in October 2022, we introduced the world to driving mixed reality, complete with eye tracking and Natural Facial Expressions. And only a yr later, we introduced Meta Quest 3, the world’s first mass-market mixed reality headset — letting people world wide seamlessly mix the virtual and physical worlds. From learning piano at your kitchen table to dancing in a virtual Zumba studio or getting a courtside view of NBA games out of your couch, Meta Quest 3 transforms your property right into a space for infinite latest experiences.
A Portal Into New Forms of Connection
Portal, Meta’s smart home device, served up information, entertainment, and more with a screen and AI-powered Smart Camera to maintain people within the frame during video calls. An award-winning playwright used Portal to collaborate with actors and a director from 3,000 miles away. Military families used Portal to remain connected and revel in Story Time during deployment. And families living across the country used it to spend quality time together throughout the pandemic.
Smart Phones Meet Smart Glasses
In September 2021, we launched Ray-Ban Stories, our first-generation smart glasses produced in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. With open-air audio, they were ideal for listening to music, catching up on podcasts, and taking calls on the go. Ray-Ban Stories gave people a brand new method to capture the moment while staying fully present in it, because of hands-free capture of high-quality photos and videos. In October 2023, we introduced the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses collection. We integrated Meta AI on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses within the US and optimized it for a hands-free experience.
The Future of Smart Glasses
And because of AI, the glasses will keep improving and smarter over time. New AI experiences are coming soon, including multimodal AI, so the glasses can understand what you’re seeing to offer helpful answers. Let’s say it’s dinnertime and also you’re out of ideas. You’ll give you the chance to put out some ingredients on the counter and ask Meta AI to present you recipe suggestions. Or say you’re traveling and are available across a register German. You’ll give you the chance to take a look at the text and ask Meta AI to translate it for you on the fly.
Relentless Research
Reality Labs Research was founded with an understanding of the importance of creating big bets on prolonged time horizons. Our research teams are dedicated to pushing the cutting-edge forward: from display systems to haptics and beyond. And we often publish our work, sharing it with the broader research community in order that they have a possibility to increase it. Our research and product teams are continuing to explore latest areas that might turn out to be industry standard within the years to return, including EMG, hyper-realistic Codec Avatars, and contextualized AI — all of which we consider will help people seamlessly interact with their devices and one another as the following great paradigm shift in computing takes hold.
And Speaking of AI
This is where our two big bets as an organization come together. While Quest 3 offers compelling mixed reality experiences, from fully immersive to people who allow you to interact with the physical world and digital content in tandem, and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses offer you access to the utility and entertainment of Meta AI, AR glasses will deliver the very best of each worlds as these two technological paths converge. Just just like the smartphone didn’t eliminate the laptop or desktop computer, AR glasses won’t be the top of mixed reality headsets. Rather, we see a constellation of devices forming the material of the long run.
Conclusion
We’re constructing a brand new type of computing platform that may enable you higher connect with the people and belongings you care about in a way that’s far more natural and intuitive than what’s possible with today’s 2D screens. That means experiences that enable you sync up with family and friends to work, learn, play, shop, and create — in addition to completely latest experiences that don’t easily fit into the mold of how we use computers and smartphones today. Technology — especially technology that connects people — needs to be available to as many individuals as possible. That’s the muse of what we do, and it’s core to our DNA. Innovation is all about delivering latest breakthroughs — and to really do this, you have to bring those breakthroughs to the masses. We’re committed to continuing to construct out within the open with partners who help pave the way in which. And we are able to’t wait to see what the following 10 years have in store.
