A PC on your head, does that turn you on? We knew for a few days that Meta was aiming to make its next VR headset an alternative to a personal computer. The Informationwho was able to consult the roadmap of the next launches hardware from the firm, provides us with some additional information on this mysterious Project Cambria, scheduled for this year, and the devices that will succeed it.
We first learn that the future high-end helmet should be expensive, very expensive. The Information advances a price of 800 dollars (about 760 euros). But according to a Meta official contacted by RoadToVr.comthis figure would be well below the actual price of the product, which will be “ significantly higher “. It is therefore a safe bet that the helmet will easily exceed 1000 dollars when it is marketed.
A not so surprising price, which is explained by the use of advanced technologies, in particular high-definition screens – sufficient to read comfortably or even code, according to internal sources of The Information– and a mode « pass through » in colour. It will allow, through the integrated cameras, to perceive the real world through the headset, and thus to offer mixed reality experiences. Finally, Project Cambria will also benefit from new eye and facial movement tracking technologies.
Meta Cambria (SeaCliff) will release later this year
Got confirmation from the supply chain and sourced who’ve tried the device that this is exactly what the final PVT model looks like pic.twitter.com/FQnKDyyjDA
— Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) April 13, 2022
Supposed renders from Project Cambria.
A trial run?
Meta cannot decently make this expensive device a simple game console like the Quest. He therefore imagines it as a work tool, so much so that it is considered internally as ” a Chromebook for the face ».
Why a Chromebook? Because despite this cocktail of technologies, Project Cambria would be far from equaling the performance of a high-end PC. It will turn under the fork Android developed by Meta for the Quest, and will favor web-apps rather than native apps for productivity.
It remains to be seen whether this somewhat crazy promise – swapping your computer for a VR headset – is really realistic, or whether Project Cambria is not rather a trial run before more mature … and cheaper devices. Technologies that could be found in the successor to this model, already planned for 2024… Even, to a lesser extent, the next versions of the Meta Quest, which should be launched, according to The Information, in 2023 and 2024.
Source : The Information, The Verge