despite the ongoing difficulties in giving traction to the metaverse, Meta didn’t give up virtual reality Now. The company was formerly known as Facebook is trying to get new technologies that could make its mixed reality headsets slimmer and more immersive.
According to the Financial TimesMeta is in talks with Magic Leap Over-licensing the augmented reality company’s custom components, including its high-performance lenses and software. The company is also reportedly set to manufacture its hardware under a multi-tier deal.
Magic Leap is best known for his augmented reality glasses of the same name. The latest version of its goggle, the Magic Leap 2, offers a comprehensive 70-degree field of view, allowing wearers to see larger and taller virtual objects than competing products.
The hardware also looks a lot more like glasses than the cumbersome virtual reality headsets made today. They are also as light as headphones. The company aims to reduce the volume of its next pair of glasses by another 50 percent and offer a larger field of vision.
However, Magic Leap’s expensive hardware – the Magic Leap 2 costs £3,337 – has prevented it from worrying the mainstream. As a result, by the end of 2019, the company was forced to switch to developing products for companies. Nowadays, it mainly makes its technology available to doctors to support operations or engineers working on virtual holograms of complicated machines.
in one Blog post from last DecemberPeggy Johnson, Magic Leap’s chief executive, hinted that it’s also possible to rent technology to others. She said the company has “received an incredible amount of interest from across the industry to license our intellectual property and use our patented manufacturing process to make optics for others who want to bring their own mixed reality technology to market.”
It’s easy to see why Meta wants the technology: The company is betting on the Metaverse, a future Internet that connects the digital and real worlds. As part of that vision, Meta has released a handful of Quest VR headsets, including the Premium MetaQuest Prowhich cost £1,500 before being quickly reduced to £1,000.
News of the trial comes as Apple is preparing its first mixed reality headset: a luxury device rumored to cost US$3,000 (about £2,422), is expected to be unveiled at the WWDC developer conference next month. Anything Meta can do about it AppleThe company’s massive financial resources and marketing prowess will certainly help as the company seems to remain the dominant player in the Metaverse future it has been betting on so much.