Meta, the former Facebook, announced new “metaverse” developments at its Connect event. According to the company, this metaverse is the next evolution of the Internet and will be realized in several years.
during the event I showed CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that from now on, Facebook will continue to live as Meta and with this new name change, the company wants to emphasize that the development of the “metaverse” includes a large part of the company’s activities. According to Zuckerberg, these are no longer just about Facebook which is why the company had to change its name. Also the brand name “Oculus” will kick. Starting in 2022, the Oculus Quest headphones will be renamed Meta Quest.
During the event, Zuckerberg showed his plans for the so-called metaverse. It also showed innovations in platforms that are currently under development and will be rolled out “soon”.
horizon
The horizon is one development. Under this title, Meta will offer plenty of must-have VR apps that bring the metaverse closer. Among other things, Zuckerberg introduced Horizon Home, an extension to the home environment of the Oculus 2 VR headset that gains new features so that users can create a more personalized VR space, invite other people into VR, and start virtual activities together. With Horizon Venues, Meta wants to focus more on virtual events. In addition to concerts and other virtual reality events, it will also be possible to watch NBA basketball games from the Horizon Venues app from November.
in a Horizon work rooms, the VR application in which remote work in virtual reality should become a reality, according to Zuckerberg, will soon be possible to decorate virtual spaces, among other things. To make working in virtual reality even easier, the Oculus Store will soon support 2D progressive web applications. Slack, Dropbox, Facebook and Instagram will be available soon. Finally, the CEO mentioned that it will soon be possible to log into the Oculus Quest headset with other work accounts, outside of Meta. It will also be possible to manage the headsets on a large scale for enterprises. It is not yet clear when these options will be introduced.
Developers
During the presentation, Zuckerberg and his team also showed off new tools for developers. They will soon be able to convert hand gestures more easily via the Interaction SDK using a digital library of frequently used hand gestures. The Voice SDK allows voices to be given interactive functionality in games and applications. These SDKs will be offered first as a beta option before they are finally released. Soon, developers will also be able to implement automatic cloud backups in their apps so that users’ progress and settings are not lost.
Users who want to start developing themselves will soon be able to do so using the Polar iOS app from Meta. This app will soon be able to create AR effects and objects without the need for coding. With the Polar app, Meta mainly focuses on technical files. More experienced developers will also be able to create geo-linked objects that can be linked to real-world locations, among other things.
Project Cambria
Zuckerberg also mocked during the event Project Cambria. This is a new VR and AR headset that, in addition to high-end features, will also have a high price tag. Not many details have been revealed yet, but it has been said that the glasses will contain cameras that can capture the environment in color. With Quest 2, recordings are made in black and white and at low resolution. The headset will also have cameras to track eye movements and facial expressions. The user’s body movements can also be convincingly displayed in virtual environments, Meta claims. The company will share more about this product next year. The company also showed a demo of realistic avatars that look lifelike. Zuckerberg also talked about using neural inputs to control virtual environments. Such features are unexpected in the short term, Facebook demonstrated the technologies in the context of a roadmap for developments in the coming years.
