Meta’s Reality Labs division has unveiled new prototypes in its roadmap to lightweight, hyper-realistic virtual reality graphics. The breakthroughs are far from ready for consumers, but the designs – codenamed Butterscotch, Starburst, Holocake 2 and Mirror Lake – can add to slim, brightly lit headphones that support finer detail than the current Quest 2 display.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Reality Labs chief scientist Michael Abrash, along with other Reality Labs members, presented their work at a virtual roundtable last week. The event focuses on designs that Meta calls “time machines”: voluminous concept evidence designed to test a specific feature, such as a super-bright backlight or a super-high-resolution screen. “I think we’re in the middle of a big step towards realism right now,” Zuckerberg told reporters. “I don’t think it will be as long as we can create scenes with perfect fidelity.” Display technology isn’t the only unsolved piece of the puzzle, but it’s an area where Meta’s intensive VR hardware research is giving it a try.
A wall of prototype designs from Meta Reality Labs
Zuckerberg has reiterated plans to deliver high-end headphones codenamed Project Cambria in 2022, following its initial announcement last year. Cambria supports full VR as well as mixed reality, thanks to high-resolution cameras that can transmit video feed to an internal screen. It will also come with eye tracking, a key feature for future Meta headphones. From there, Zuckerberg says Meta is planning two lines of VR headsets: one that will remain cheap and consumer-focused, like today’s Quest 2, and one that will include the company’s latest technology aimed at the “professional or professional” market. . This is followed by reports that the company is already planning updates on Cambria and Quest 2, although these prototypes were not discussed during the conversation.
The prototype of Butterscotch high definition headphones.
Meta’s VR headphones sit with a separate range of smart augmented reality glasses that are designed to project images into the real world instead of blocking it with a screen. Meta recently reduced the release of its first-generation AR glasses, and overall VR screens reached consumers much faster than AR holograms. But Meta’s prototypes show how far the company thinks it remains.
Butterscotch is an attempt to display headphones with almost a retina – something you can find in high-end headphones from companies like Varjo, but not in the current Meta range. The design is “nowhere near delivery” and requires approximately halving the 110-degree field of view of Meta Quest 2. But it offers about 2.5 times the resolution of Quest 2 (something like) 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye , allowing users to read the line of sight 20/20 on an eye chart. Zuckerberg says it offers about 55 pixels per degree of field of view, slightly less than Meta’s retinal standard of 60 pixels per degree and slightly lower than Varjo’s 64 pixels.
The prototype of the Starburst headphones.
Starburst ships even less than Butterscotch, but is testing an equally impressive upgrade. The three-dimensional design uses a powerful lamp – requiring handles to maintain its weight – and produces high dynamic range (HDR) lighting with 20,000 nits of brightness. “It’s extremely impractical to look at it as a first-generation product line, but we use it as a test field for further research and studies,” Zuckerberg said. “The purpose of all this work is to help us identify which technical pathways will allow us to make significant improvements so that we can begin to move closer to visual realism.”
“The jury is still unaware of a suitable laser source.”
Holocake 2 is moving in the opposite direction, exploring Meta’s options for making VR headphones thinner and lighter. It is the successor to the 2020 design, built on holographic optics, a light bending technique that allows an almost flat panel to stand on a thick refractive lens. The result may be as thin as sunglasses, but Meta is still working on developing a stand-alone light source to power them – almost certainly a laser, not the OLED that is commonly used today. “We will have to do a lot of engineering to achieve a consumer-friendly laser that meets our specifications: safe, inexpensive and efficient, and that can fit thin VR headphones,” says Zuckerberg. “Honestly, to date, the jury still doesn’t have a suitable laser source.”
The presentation also discussed Half Dome, a lengthy series of prototypes that can displace focal planes depending on where users look. These varifocal optics began as a cumbersome mechanical system in 2017 and later switched to a set of liquid crystal lenses, and according to Meta’s internal research, they can create a more compelling (and physically comfortable) illusion of VR depth.
The prototype of Holocake 2.
Meta described Half Dome technology as “almost ready for prime time” back in 2020, but today Zuckerberg was more measured. “These things are a long way off,” he said in response to a question about the prime-time comment. “We are working on it, we really want to put it in one of the upcoming headphones, I am convinced that at some point we will do it, but I will not announce anything in advance today.”
Reality Labs will discuss more research, including how to capture more real-world shots of mixed reality, at SIGGRAPH in August.
The designs above exist as actual hardware, which Zuckerberg briefly demonstrated during the event. But Meta also unveiled a prototype called Mirror Lake, which is essentially ambitious and was never built. The design is more like a pair of ski goggles than Meta’s bulky Quest hardware and would include Holocake 2’s slim optics, Starburst’s HDR capabilities and Butterscotch resolution. “This shows what a complete next-generation display system might look like,” Abrash said.
In addition to these features, Mirror Lake will include an outward-facing display that projects an image of the user’s eyes, reducing the feeling of physical separation for people outside the headphones. Meta unveiled this slightly strange feature in a prototype last year, and may not be the only company interested in the concept: Apple has reportedly considered a similar feature for its hearing aids. The idea is adapted to a world of mixed reality, where Meta has pledged much of its future – but today the company is focusing on gradual steps along the way.
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