At Meta's recent Connect event, the highlight was the long-anticipated AR glasses, codenamed Orion. While the technology is still in its experimental stages, with reports stating the prototype costs around $10,000, it's clear that Orion is not ready for public release yet. However, in the meantime, Meta is pushing the envelope with other advancements, particularly in the realm of holographic avatars.
A Glimpse of the Future: Holographic Avatars
Alongside the AR glasses, Meta showcased its latest development—lifelike holographic avatars that enable users to communicate via hyper-realistic 3D avatars in augmented reality. This innovation is part of Meta's Codec Avatar technology, a project the company has been refining for several years. These avatars aim to replicate users' appearances in a way that fosters greater immersion during digital interactions.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously previewed the Codec Avatars during a podcast held in the metaverse last year, and now it seems the technology is closer to widespread use than many anticipated.
The Creation of Codec Avatars
Following the keynote at the Connect event, Meta's VP leading Horizon OS and Quest, Mark Rabkin, shared more details about the avatars' development. According to Rabkin, the creation of these avatars has become significantly simpler. While previously sophisticated camera setups were needed to generate the 3D models, Meta now allows users to create avatars using regular phone scans, making the technology much more accessible.
Rabkin described how these avatars are created through extensive data collection, from high-quality camera images to basic phone scans. This data is used to train machine learning models that continuously improve in accuracy. One of the main challenges, Rabkin explained, is ensuring the process is fast and cost-effective enough to handle large-scale use without compromising quality.
He explained, "The process is similar for both our stylized avatars and Codec Avatars. You gather the data, refine the model, and keep improving it. The key challenge is making it efficient enough to scale up for millions of users."
VR Integration on the Horizon
Though Meta's AR glasses might be some time away, Rabkin hinted that these Codec Avatars will also be part of the company's VR ecosystem, specifically the Quest series. However, current Quest 3 and 3S models lack some of the necessary hardware—like eye-tracking sensors—that would enable the full potential of these realistic avatars in VR.
Rabkin suggested that future Quest headsets could include these features, allowing for more immersive and realistic avatars. "We're aiming for this in the next generation of headsets if everything goes according to plan," he remarked.
Meta's Future of AR and VR
Meta's investments in AR and VR technologies, particularly in lifelike avatars and AR glasses, are key steps in realizing the company's vision of the metaverse—a fully immersive digital world where users interact with each other and their surroundings in real-time. Although Orion AR glasses might not be available for the general public anytime soon, Meta's progress with holographic avatars suggests that its broader metaverse ambitions are steadily advancing.
With Meta's ongoing innovations, from avatars to VR hardware, the future is quickly moving toward a time when digital interactions will feel as natural as face-to-face conversations. Whether through AR holograms or photorealistic avatars in VR, Meta's future is poised to redefine how we experience and engage with virtual worlds.