Meta Cambria, aka Quest Pro: What We Expect From Meta's Next VR Headset
Virtual Reality Gaming
Speaker 1: The future of VR looks like it's going to get a lot more immersive and more expensive. Let's talk about Mest Pro or Project Cambria. Quest two is one of the most popular VR headsets in existence that's been around since 2020, but there is a new VR headset that's around the corner. Mes. Project Cambria was announced last year and according to Mark Zuckerberg, it's gonna be released or announced sometime around October timed to ME'S Connect virtual Event. Now, Mark Zuckerberg brought [00:00:30] this up recently on a Joe Rogan podcast. This headset has been detailed in some other little teases throughout the year where MES talked about some of the features and what we should expect. The Quest Pro or Cambria is something that's going to be a step up product compared to the Quest two in price and in features. The cost could be well over $800.
Speaker 1: So this is not a headset that's gonna replace the headset that most people have been buying at now, $400. The Quest two is probably gonna be the most affordable [00:01:00] option. The Quest Pro or the Cambria is going to have other additional features that pros or business users might take advantage of. This is the territory that MED is trying to get into, the business space, the workspace, the use it for more everyday things space, not just games. Also, the reason I keep calling it Quest Pro is a couple of things. First of all, Mark Zuckerberg told me last year in an interview that this headset, the Quest Pro, was going to be coming and that he was thinking about the future of [00:01:30] a metaverse for work and something with more sensors, which this device seems to be. But secondly, there's already been a very leaked, seemingly very convincing headset that looks like this Quest Pro that was found in a hotel room mysteriously leaked out there with what looks like the packaging and what the headset is.
Speaker 1: So I think we already may have a look at what this is and it looks pretty convincing where it looks like a nicer, more refined version of something like a pro type level Quest VR headset. [00:02:00] So what CBR is gonna feature a better display including something called pancake optics. Now this type of technology shrinks down the display size so that the overall bulkiness of the headset shouldn't be quite as much, hopefully making that more comfortable. The other thing is it's going to have eye tracking. Now eye tracking is something that we've seen in business headsets and it's going to be on the PlayStation VR two, which I've already tried, and Apple's expected headset may have it as [00:02:30] well. It's definitely a technology of the future where it looks at your eye movements and does a couple of different things. With this one, it's going to interpret where you're gazing to be able to possibly use that for interactions or eye contact with avatars.
Speaker 1: But an everyday thing that it'll be used for is called foviated rendering. That's where the center of what you look at is the most highly detailed spot and the rest gets a little more fuzzy. Basically the way your eyes already work. That technology has been employed [00:03:00] for years with VR and PlayStation. VR two is doing it as well. It could help get more graphics power out of a lower processor. Maybe that's something that the Cambria headset will do. The other thing Cambria is going to have, hence the name Cambria or some sort of explosion or change is more mixed reality now that is working on some sort of set of AR glasses down the road. But right now the company is working in VR and this headset could be the bridge device. Now we've already seen some ways that [00:03:30] mixed reality is used on the existing Quest two, using the pass through cameras, which are black and white.
Speaker 1: There are some experimental apps that layer VR like objects onto that black and white camera, uh, to CR to create a sense of some sort of immersiveness. But the cameras on the quest too are pretty primitive. Now the ones on Cambria may be more advanced in color and it looks like they're going to mix that reality better. Some early senses of those demos may not look all that astonishing, but in actual execution they may feel better. [00:04:00] The eye tracking is going to also go along with face tracking and that gets into avatars. Now, me has been trying to advance the idea of social avatars for all of its workspaces and play spaces in the future of the metaverse. Right now, those avatars look really cartoony. They're slowly being ramped up and what I think this Cbri headset is going to be doing is using its iron face tracking to improve how those avatars animate.
Speaker 1: Now that could mean that suddenly if you smile or if you look over there, your avatar [00:04:30] does that too. And would that be helpful? Could it create more of a sense of presence or could it create a bit of an uncanny valley? We wanna get to this point where the avatars maybe start looking photo realistic. Meta has already explored this type of experimental technology in some of its lab experiments that they've talked about. Those avatars in the highly realistic versions are not here yet, but we may see some stepping stones when it comes to Cambria. The other thing that Cambria may have are better controllers and better haptics. [00:05:00] The existing Quest two controllers for the headset that's right behind me, they're fine, but the controllers have this little basic buzz for when you interact with things that's not very complicated. The PlayStation VR two that I just got to try has a very rich sense of vibrating feedback.
Speaker 1: Now it could be that the Cambra headset takes another step up as well to try to match that to create more realistic sensations and sense of contact and immersiveness. So all of that is going to add up [00:05:30] to something that is more expensive than what the Quest two is. That's already been confirmed by Meta. Now how much more, we don't really know yet, but the space that we're looking at with VR headsets is going to get more expensive. Met is headset already went up by a hundred dollars? PlayStation VR two, we don't know, but you do need a PlayStation five, which is expensive. Apple's expected headset, probably pretty expensive. So we are seeing this kind of ramp up and it's unclear whether something like this new headset is a sign of [00:06:00] where prices are going or whether this is a new tier featuring some stuff that may eventually trickle down to the mainstream products.
Speaker 1: The other thing is that eye tracking and face tracking that stuff involves data privacy rules that haven't really been laid down yet and is a very messy landscape. We don't know how companies are gonna handle that stuff. We don't know how careful they're gonna be with that stuff and it's unclear whether meda even wants to get into that with an everyday headset or keep that at a pro here. So [00:06:30] that's what we know so far. Let me know if you have any questions down below in the comments and we'll find out soon what else is in store. Um, hope you enjoyed watching. Make sure to like and subscribe and talk to you soon.
