Meta Brings StartUp Spirit To Augmented Reality

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Virtual and augmented reality look like they’re about to make a mark on the world. The big companies of the tech world certainly seem to think so. Microsoft’s augmented reality (AR) offering, the HoloLens, retails for $3000 and shows that this tech colossus is very invested in the AR game. Google’s first attempt of Glass wasn’t a great success, but it proved that the Mountain View giant is taking AR extremely seriously. Google investee, Magic Leap, has drawn some $1.4 billion in funds, to make what has been described as “a Google Glass on steroids.”

Sometimes, though, a different approach is needed. Meta, an augmented reality venture, is bringing a startup culture to the big league. With only $23 million in their cache of funds, Meta just demonstrated a brand new headset for developers, the Meta 2, that “shows bright, crisp 3-D images that you can easily and accurately nab, move, and poke,” the MIT Technology Review reports.

The headset costs just $949, less than a third of the HoloLens, comes only 18 months after the Meta 1. The headset needs to be connected to a computer, though Meta says they’re working on developing a pocket-sized portable computer for future versions.

Using Meta you get an overlay of digital objects on reality ahead of you. The field of view has been greatly improved since the previous iteration, and right now the Meta 2 offers a wider field of view than the HoloLens.

Meta plans to release the device to developers not before Q3 of this year, who they hope will come up with a range of applications to make it useful and fun to regular users. The company expects to release it to the general public in a couple of years.