Headsets are starting to become the expensive toys of today’s developers while the augmented reality is almost touching the world we live in. With pre-orders already on its way, Meta has announced that it is going to ship its Mega 2 augmented reality headset in fall 2016. The Meta 2 development kit, which according to Meta is the ‘most immersive augmented reality on the planet,’ will cost US$949 per headset.
“Meta is focused on turning the whole world into your desktop background, and making a truly natural machine with no learning curve that perfectly extends and complements the human experience,” Meta Vice president of sales and partnerships Ryan M. Pamplin said for TechNewsWorld.
Unlike Hololens, Meta’s specifications are more advanced and allow the user to be the operating system themselves without needing to make any gestures or learn how to control the headset. They can just focus on their next move and just take action. “We are creating an experience that merges the art of user interface design with the science of the brain, creating ‘natural machines’ that feel like extensions of ourselves rather than the other way around,” Meta CEO Meron Gribetz said during his 2016 TED talk.
Here are some details of Meta 2 Development Kit according to Business Wire:
- Augmented reality headset
- See-through headset that displays holograms and digital content, along with a software development kit built on top of the most popular 3D engine in the world: Unity.
- Create holographic apps quickly and easily with Unity and C#.
- 90-degree field of view
- 2560 x 1440 display resolution
- Designed for comfort with everything below the eyebrows completely transparent and unobstructed so you can easily make eye contact with other people. Meta 2 works while wearing eyeglasses and can be comfortably worn for hours under most circumstances.
- See-through headset that displays holograms and digital content, along with a software development kit built on top of the most popular 3D engine in the world: Unity.
- 720p front-facing camera
- Sensor array for hand interactions and positional tracking
- Four speaker near-ear audio
- Brightness and volume control
- 9-foot cable for video (HDMI 1.4b), data, and power
- Support for Windows-based applications (Mac support planned for this year), including:
- Microsoft® Office
- Adobe® Creative Suite®
- Spotify™
Focused on productivity and collaboration, Meta 2 allows users to interact with well-known control options as well, and is relatively cheaper compared to HoloLens price of $3,000.
The launch of headset development kit for developers has become a trend nowadays. Starting from today, March 30, Microsoft began shipping HoloLens Development Edition for developers in the United States and Canada who have had the chance to pre-order their kit or kits (up to two devices per applicant) since January 2016.
You can read more about it here.
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