Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook Inc., demonstrates the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset and Oculus Touch controller.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures
Meta will host its annual Connect virtual reality conference on October 11, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday.
In one Facebook announcement postZuckerberg seems to be wearing a new headset, possibly the Project Cambria, a highly anticipated and powerful mixed reality headset.
The product and how it’s received will be a key test of Zuckerberg’s efforts to pivot Facebook’s parent company toward creating augmented and virtual reality hardware. Meta spends as much as $10 billion a year on Zuckerberg’s vision of creating the next big software platform, and the company says one reason the technology hasn’t evolved is that the hardware isn’t good enough.
The timing of the product release will give Meta an opportunity to gain a foothold in the market before Apple releases its own competing mixed reality headset. as early as next year.
Zuckerberg said last month in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan that the company planned to release Project Cambria in the fall. This is a much-anticipated headset with computing power to capture the real world with an external camera and display them inside the headset in real time and in color.
Headphones, maybe $800 or morewill be significantly more expensive and capable than the current best-selling headset, the Meta Quest 2.
Meta didn’t announce the conference lineup on Tuesday, but the event is expected to last all day. It will be streamed online.
In addition to revealing Project Cambria, Meta will also discuss updates to Horizon Worlds, its metaverse social networking app that has attracted ridicule in recent weeks for its cartoon graphics. Horizon’s vice president will be leaving the company, Meta confirmed in August.
“The graphics in Horizon can do so much more – even on headphones – and Horizon is improving very quickly,” Zuckerberg posted in August.
In addition to Project Cambria, Meta is developing a series ofSerious virtual reality and augmented reality prototypes. The company believes the technology will eventually be used in a lightweight pair of glasses that can replace the user’s smartphone.
