Meta, formerly known as Facebook, shows-off latest VR headset prototypes

Tech giant Meta's Reality Labs division has revealed new prototypes in its roadmap toward the lightweight, hyper-realistic virtual reality graphics.

The breakthroughs remain far from consumer-ready, but the designs, codenamed Butterscotch, Starburst, Holocake 2, and Mirror Lake, could add up to a slender, brightly lit headset that supports finer detail compared to its current Quest 2 display, reported media sources.

Also read: Meta’s Avatars Store will let you purchase your avatar's outfit online

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Reality Labs chief scientist Michael Abrash, with other Reality Labs members, presented their work at a virtual roundtable last week. The event focused on designs that Meta refers to as time machines, which are bulky proofs of concept meant for testing one specific feature, like a super-bright backlight or super-high-resolution screen.

"I think we're in the middle right now of a big step forward towards realism (sic)." Zuckerberg was quoted as saying. "I don't think it's going to be that long until we can create scenes with basically perfect fidelity (sic)." he added.

Zuckerberg reiterated plans to ship a high-end headset codenamed Project Cambria in 2022, following its initial announcement last year. Cambria supports full VR apart from mixed reality, thanks to high-resolution cameras that can pass a video feed to an internal screen. It will also have eye-tracking, a key feature for future Meta headsets.

Also read: Is TikTok planning to enter the VR space?

Recently, Meta added parental controls to all Quest VR headsets allowing parents to keep a tab on underage users' screen time and receive approval requests for purchases. "This is just a starting point, informed by careful collaboration with industry experts, and we will continue to grow and evolve our parental supervision tools over time (sic)." the company said in a blogpost.

Mark Zuckerberg also said that Meta, formerly known as Facebook, will launch Avatars Stores,  a digital clothing store that will let users purchase outfits for their avatar. The shop will be launched on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.