We break down the future of AR (The Daily Charge, 2/20/2020)

AR is a buzzword that every tech giant like to bring it up. But where's it going? We got a lot they are news to share. So stick around three daily charts. [MUSIC] Goodmorning and Welcome to the daily chart is Thursday, February 20. I'm Roger Chang. And I'm Scott Stein. Here today's headlines. Augmented reality, Apple, Google Facebook, everyone's talking about it, even HTC. What's really what's a VR headset is jumping on the bandwagon. Scott, what's the latest? Well, I met he sees a new CEO recently, and the Vive VR headset is getting in a collection of modular faceplates. I've got one right here. And this kinda reminds you of Moto Mods. Moto Mods, yeah. Yeah, but the idea is that you could add extra features. So if you buy your Cosmos headset, you could eventually add mixed reality. Now that's not like a [UNKNOWN] lens that's putting things into the real world. It's taking stuff from the real world and putting it in VR, that's like a couple of other VR headsets that are out there, but you are blending worlds. This is not that one, but the XR version of it is coming for developers this year but they also teased another thing which is this Next pair of like future glasses called project proton. That's more like what Qualcomm and other companies have already been promising- Right. these lightweight plug into your phone, maybe 5g enabled, future mixed reality, things like that. Maybe I don't even want this- Right. But in the meantime This is what we have. Yeah, we're going to be dangling in hot swap. So you know, he sees you know made a big bet into VR. La the industry is shifting towards AR they try to like have it both ways are they shifting the AR and away from VR like what's, what do you think is the game plan there? Right? That's a word now is like it's really tough to make AR glasses and it's taking a lot longer than anyone expected. Yeah. So, The timetable keeps getting pushed back, both for cost and battery life and 5G networks that don't really fully they're not really on their feet yet. So in the meantime buying time with like a saying affordable, trying to build it into VR because it's already working- Right And get the cost down cuz Oculus, those headsets are expensive but at $400 That's actually some of the cheapest stuff out there. Some of this other stuff might be pushing 800 or $1000 and yeah [UNKNOWN]- Wow, like HoloLens and Magicleap per how much? Thousands, so you're talking about spending a level that no one would pay except for a business that's got that money to spend. And VR experiences are generally closed off or you wear this big mass it covers everything. Yeah. And I know these pass through mods or whatever are supposed to answer them. How does that work? How do you convert a VR headset into an AR headset? Well, again, it's like really about cameras. It's just handing the camera capability another company and makes us $10,000 one called vireo How is it? Also super cheap. Right, also super affordable. Yes. But spectacular. Has this one that also, if the cameras are high quality and the lag is low, you're basically just showing like the Oculus quest does this in a lower res way. You look around the real world and then you can paint things virtually into that world. Got it. But you're seeing it through, pass through cameras. Right, so it isn't Reality, it's reality is fed through a camera feed. Yes, and if it's good enough, you don't really notice too much. But the difference like how land is magicially, but where you see the real world. And then holographic ghosts are projected on it. That's a little different. All right, you also gotta take a look at a pair of slimmer AR glasses. Actually powered by my favorite topic five G. Yes. Tell me more about this. Yeah, so speaking of AR ghosts that unreal is a company that is releasing this foldable pair of like, sunglass type. They're almost like a magically but that's something you fit in your pocket, right and they're powered off your phone. So, you plug him in and you can see projected out these effects. And Spatial is a company that's already been working on creating this like holographic office of the future. Telecommuting where you can share a conference with you, Virtual Roger is here and we're looking at the same documents. And we can Put them on the table, and it's cool cuz it's cross platform. They're working on, you have a phone, a laptop, HoloLens, Oculus, like VR, AR or these glasses. They're trying to be cross platform and they're also partnering now with some international 5g carriers to test making the thing less reliant to computer and live out there. But I got to test this without the 5G, just looking at the, with the glasses. Some of it's a little wonky, but also they're trying to build that stuff that right now doesn't really exist. And if they're trying to rely on phones or other software between Microsoft, Apple and Google, they don't make it very easy to Share documents in that future world. Yeah, So we're kind of seeing like stepping stones here. And how's does that work with 5G? Good question. We have to see if the 5G promise like 5G is the big like, what's the point? Kinda like the way you'd stream movies or stream games. The amount of remote rendering that happens in 5G is going to be such that like instead of having your phone overheat or some little processor You're going to be able to do this in the cloud the idea is that you're gonna be able to push that to the headset and have it work smoothly. Right. Now that depends on how good and lag free networking was. What's the bandwidth, what's the latency, what's the connection like? Absolutely and already like my phone has a hard time like on the on the train or like Any moment Yeah. So this idea of edge computing of I've heard about it talked about a lot like the idea is like a lot of work gets done like off site. Yes. And like like Google stadia is a perfect example of that. Right? That is and still sad and might really be the beginnings of exploring some of that stuff, but starting with games, right? All right, one of the best examples of AR right now are Snapchat filters. And Snap has a new one that turns a floor into lava or water. Now Scott, these filters are fun and silly, but they really do serve as a gateway to more extensive AR experiences, right? They do, that's our office flooded with- No. AR water. Now you've seen like a tonne of AR effects and filters and things. I'm always interested in the stepping stones of this especially from companies like Snapchat or Facebook's doing with Instagram, because, or Apple because, again, these headsets are not really easy to make and everyone's looking at the tech on phones in the meantime as a stepping stone building up these tools Snap is working on a on some sort of pair of air glasses in the future.>> Right Face it, Facebook's going to be. So now it's ground recognizing filters. I mean in the short term your floor is gonna be covered in like branded pizzas and like sports stuff and That sounds both like amazing and a nightmare for me.>> Yeah, it sounds awful and sometimes wonderful [LAUGH] and kind of you're seeing all the stuff get plastered with AR As it starts to recognize and replace other things in the world, and that's kind of that weird, sort of just not sort of dystopian, slash, like, weird, futuristic world that we've been thinking about. But I just like tracking those little steps because again, you don't have the headset, but you can play with your phone app. Right right And that's available to check out. All right, lastly, we've got a little treat is courtesy of Bridget Carey and Mike Sorrentino who are busy, at Toy Fair but they left for us of a new Baby Yoda, Funky Pop, That is ridiculously [INAUDIBLE] Right there, look at that [UNKNOWN] Here. Is that, go ahead, yeah, he's not gonna bubble. Look at this amazingness. Look at that, My God. And he's super adorable. The color was a little weird, especially if you look at the primary photos for it, but actually in person it started to grow me. It's a mint green. And the metal [INAUDIBLE] Commando. Yeah. gotta have, you can't have one without the other, right? [CROSSTALK] This is the baby Yoda flood. They're actually so, Bridget and Mike are at a press conference. I think it actually just wrapped up a little while ago. On all the new Baby Yoda toys that are coming out this year. Yeah. Really capitalizing on, you know, last year's craze. Apparently, people are still into it, though. Right. Like, I wanted that last year, yeah. People are still into this, apparently. Bridget, by the way, sent us a note and said that the damn coolest toy she saw was a animatronic Baby Yoda in a pod made by Hasbro. And it blinks and coos and sleeps and has touch sensors. Of course. It has to have touch sensors? Yes! It's gotta be smart, right? It's coming in the fall of 2020. It's gonna hover around and like follow you? I mean that would be amazing. I want that. Even if it had wheels. I don't need the hovering. I get the hovering thing's kind of difficult. Hovering is tough, but we all- Yeah. Somehing. Moving around Gliding seemingly gliding around.>> There will also be a build a bear Yoda in case you're a fan of delta bear.>> It will never end.>> No it won't. And it's interesting how they got to such a late start to this, but now it's like they're making up for lost time.>> Right? You guy everything.>>They got the season two they're like they're gonna you know more Yoda more Yoda on tap the baby Yoda ride That's right, the daily charge on rocker chain. I'm Scott Stein thanks for joining us [BLANK_AUDIO]