In an interview with The information, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, went on to project his bullish outlook on XR as the future of computers, saying the company is already working on Oculus Quest 3 and 4..
In a conversation published this week, The information reporters Alex Heath and Mathew Olson spoke to Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook about the company’s continued XR efforts.
Zuckerberg, as before, said he believes Quest 2 will be an outbreak product in the VR space.
‘[…] Quest 2 is in my opinion the first main product for virtual reality. The first version of Quest has already – completely sold out in just the few months it’s gone out – […]. ”
He further confirmed that the company is already working on two subsequent versions of the headset.
‘Because of how hardware is developed, you need to know what your next three products will look like at the same time. It’s not like software where we change it every week or every few weeks, ”Zuckerberg said. ‘So we have product teams working closely together on the next generations of virtual reality and what Quest 3 and 4 will look like. And then of course fundamental technology related to it in terms of improving the optics, their performance, smaller and lighter, and adding a lot of features you want. ”
Zuckerberg said many of the company’s priorities for future VR headsets are driven by the desire to provide ‘social presence’ – the feeling of being physically close to someone even from a distance.
‘For example, one of the things I’m very excited about for future releases [of Quest] is getting eye detection and face detection because if you’re really excited about social presence, you want to make sure the device has all the sensors to animate realistic avatars so you can communicate as well. ”
While nothing is known about whether such features would come in Quest 3, 4 or beyond, Zuckerberg also highlighted the varifocal optics and the high-dynamic range (HDR) as important challenges to address in future headsets.
‘[…] you have different challenges around the optics around VR than you have had before with phones or computers. Because of course the screen in VR is not just in one place. You have objects on different levels. […] in modern VR, the exhibitions basically only project things on one focus, ”said Zuckerberg The Information reporters. ‘So your eyes are trying to focus [when looking at close objects] and you can not, because they project only one distance. This is something that needs to be resolved. The problem is basically called varifocal … [you need to make] a kind of liquid lens, or mechanically moving lens that can project things at different distances. ‘
‘Probably the hardest challenge in terms of the show and making it super lively is … that’s the HDR problem. TVs have recently gotten a little better on HDR, but the brightness – measured in neat [brightness], is the unit for this – of screens we have, compared to what your eye sees in the real world, is an order of magnitude or more [insufficient], ”Zuckerberg said. ‘Which means you probably do not want to live in a world of average VR anytime soon, because you do not want to give up the brightness of what your eyes really want to see in terms of contrast and the brightness of colors if everything is just slightly dimmer is in VR. ”
Zuckerberg said these are just some of the ‘basic kinds of challenges’ the company hopes to solve for some of the upcoming releases [of our VR headsets] and so on over the next ten years […]. ”
Although Quest 3 & 4 is already underway, it may take a while before we see more advanced features like varifocal or HDR. We would expect that, in addition to getting smaller and lighter, eye tracking and mouth tracking will also make it into Quest headlines in the short term.
Zuckerberg also spoke more broadly about the company’s XR initiatives, including the Facebook smartwatches introduced this year and the input the company carries through the pulse. See The information for the full conversation.