Hands-On: Meta2 Augmented Reality Headset
A VIEW OF THE FUTURE:
Monday I had a unique opportunity. I spent an hour and a half talking to the people at Meta who are developing a technology that will revolutionize our world. They have created an augmented reality headset that in a few years will replace all of our computer screens. But for developers, designers, engineers, visual artists and other ‘makers’ their world changes today because the Meta2 AR headset just launched this morning for under $1,000. Watch the video or visit http://www.metavision.com to get the full story.
THIS IS NO GOOGLE GLASS OR OCULUS RIFT
Don’t confuse Meta with Google Glass which was a ‘notification engine’ for everyday life. Don’t think of Meta as a closed ‘virtual reality’ headset like Oculus Rift either. Meta allows you to view the real world around you as you use it, while presenting holograms of objects you elect to view. Meta is ‘natural computing’ using hand gestures to design a new product, bring a game character to life, or explore an interactive model of the human body in school…all while continuing to operate in the real world with an ‘overlay’ of augmented reality objects.
‘IRONMAN’ AND ‘MINORITY REPORT’ DISPLAYS ARE HERE
You’ve seen Tony Stark in his IronMan garb navigating the world with the help of his virtual assistant Jarvis. You’ve also seen Tom Cruise in ‘Minority Report’ throwing informational displays into the air, manipulating their data fast and furiously. This is precisely what Meta does, presenting a toolkit for developers to create an overlay to our real world, augmenting it with informational displays or objects as desired.
META WILL KILL THE FLATSCREEN
Being able to reach out and grab a virtual basketball while demoing Meta on Monday was pretty mind-blowing. As was being able to spin, scale and ‘bounce’ it off of a real-world table. But what really blew my mind was how I could create and ‘pin’ informational screens anywhere within my vision and have them stick there. For example, I could turn to the left, stick an email window on what was the north wall of my real world, and then turn back forward to keep doing what I was doing. If I wanted to read my email, I could just turn left to where my email display was pinned, touch the display and read my mail as desired. I could just as easily touch and create a new email while then typing on a real-world keyboard on my desk. The implication of this is that soon we will no longer need a screen for our computers. And, we will be able to have as many virtual screens as we wish. Besides the huge boost in productivity, just think of the positive impact to the environment getting rid of all those flat screens, in every office, along with the power they consume! This is not science fiction, I experienced it Monday.
CALLING ALL DEVELOPERS, STORYTELLERS & ARTISTS
Meta has a huge jump on competitors like Microsoft’s HoloLens because they have over 1,000 Meta1 AR glasses in the field with a developer community today and have been refining their software platform and hardware for the past two years. Also, the Meta2 field of view is so large and high-res that it tricks the brain into believing your augmented world is all around you without limitation. From what I read, competing AR headsets have not advanced the technology far enough to have a field of view or resolution high enough to achieve the suspension of disbelief, and in my mind this makes Meta the right platform for developers to jump on right now. The company is also well funded, has an absolute who’s who of augmented reality luminaries and scientists already on staff, and will in my prediction, be THE ONE to watch in this product category.
The video is well worth the watch, and the technology is real today, although Meta2 headsets will ship in Q3 2016. Developers can pre-order today for $949.
