MARK Zuckerberg has unveiled a brand new "mixed reality" headset – the Meta Quest 3.
And he revealed that in the not-too-distant future, we'll hang out with hologram friends – and even virtual reality AI.
The big news came at today's Meta Connect event in California – an annual tech conference hosted by Mark Zuckerberg.
Meta's new headset is "mixed reality", blending CGI with the real world around you.
And he said that in the future, more of our real world will be interlaced with virtual objects – including holograms.
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“In the future, not too far from now, you’re gonna walk into a room and there are gonna be as many holograms as there are physical objects," the billionaire Meta chief told crowds – including The U.S. Sun – at Meta Connect.
“Think of the things that don’t need to be physical things, media, games, art, workstation, any screen – could all be interactive holograms.
“Pretty soon, we’re gonna be at the point where you’ll be physically with some of your friends and others will be digitally present as avatars.”
“But some of the attendees are gonna be holograms who are AIs, and they’re gonna be at the table with you too.”
Big Re-Quest
The Quest 3 is Meta's new entry-level VR headset.
It costs $499.99 and comes with a respectable 128GB of storage.
Meta reckons it's worth buying for its new display – the highest resolution yet – plus new "pancake optics" to slim the device down.
In fact Meta says that the optics are 40% slimmer than the old Quest 2.
It's powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip.
There's improved "mixed reality" that lets you overlay computer-generated images on the world around you.
For instance, you can play virtual board games on your table at home with Demeo, or use Painting VR to decorate your living room with virtual art.
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The Quest 3 sports dual 4-megapixel RBG colour cameras and a depth sensor to get the best view of your play area.
And Passthrough mode – which lets you see the world around you – now offers up 10x more pixels versus the Quest 2.
The Touch Plus controllers have been redesigned with a sleeker look that ditches the bulky "tracking rings" that sat atop the old models.
Meta also boasted that Quest 3 is backwards compatible with the Quest 2 catalogue of apps and games – that's 500+ titles and counting.
It's available to pre-order today with shipping set for October 10.
What is the metaverse?
If you missed the memo, the metaverse is a little bit like a future version of the internet where we all live, work and play inside endless connected worlds.
It already exists in a very basic form on our smartphones and game consoles.
But companies like Meta hope that one day we’ll all be accessing it through VR, AR and mixed reality headsets or glasses.
Meta isn’t alone in making these devices: rivals have all launched “metaverse” products including Google, Apple, Samsung and Microsoft.
The metaverse has been a major focus for Mark Zuckerberg, marked by the changing of Facebook’s parent company name to Meta in October 2021.
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