I was invited to Meta HQ to watch a live stream of Meron Gribetz, CEO & Founder of Meta reveal the next gen Meta product at TED. The Meta 2 or code-name ‘Galileo’ as we called it in the office for the last few years.

Personally, I have been waiting for this day for a long time. I previously worked at Meta and although I can’t share everything I know about it just yet I can help answer a few questions and highlight just what Meta has shown and why it is so amazing.

First off. The Display.

I can’t give numbers on it yet, but I can tell you this is the biggest see-through display we have seen yet! The Meta 1 Developer Kit display was 23-35deg, similar to Hololens. This blows that out of the water. The display is my favourite part about the Meta 2.

A FOV so large, that a wide angle camera is needed to capture it!

It is large enough to render a life-sized human, a few feet in front of you. Awesome! This is a big jump over all other AR devices currently available.

High Res display. Check out the quality here.

And this is shot with a camera behind the meta 2 optic’s. No CG, it’s not even a screen grab (this is how most AR/VR products show off their content). It’s an actual photo!

Resolution is another one of the biggest problems with all other AR devices available at the moment.

Meron says all of his 100 employees will be using this as a monitor replacement before the end of the year. It’s coming. Early versions of this app above are currently avalibling in the Meta Dev Center open-source for developers.

What does this new display mean for us devs? Now our apps we have been building are so much more usable! More room to play with, and a much better experience. The apps will be easier to use, and more appealing to a much larger audience.

Interactions

Gestural Interactions.

Meta was already doing this much better than most other headsets out there, with more complex hand tracking. With the ease and precision in which Meron demoed on stage, I think it is fair to say some more exciting stuff is on its way. I don’t have much in terms of GIFs to show that off, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for the TED video to be public for the stuff I really enjoyed in this department.

Marker & Positional Tracking.

Currently Meta’s tracking isn’t the greatest. It is usable for most applications. For those that require more advanced real-time tracking, it will work for building proof of concepts and you can do some hacks to make it much better. From what we have seen at TED, better tracking is definitely on its way.

Currently Meta has three types of tracking.

Developers have access to a very basic SLAM tracking, as of mid last year. It is best described as a demo of what is to come, rather than a useable tool right now.

Surface tracking, which is markerless flat object tracking using the Depth Camera, IMU & color feed. This is pretty cool tech, Meta developed entirely in house. This will be even more valuable when combined with the SLAM tracking, although that is not currently possible.

Marker Tracking based on the open-source April Tags, the most reliable and usable of the current Meta Tracking.

But from their videos it looks like we can expect something much better to come. Meron’s vision has always been in Markerless tracking, to make UI easier, more natural and less cluttered. A fantastically ambitious goal, and something I hold a lot of respect for. Although, I do believe Markers have their place in the next few years and hopefully we will see some updates for them, or room to plug in our own.

So far nothing has been said about how the tracking in the videos is done, but it is exciting nonetheless!

Sleek design

This is great for adoption for end users. The sensors are hidden, so people won’t be worried about cameras pointing in their faces. Of course, us devs just want the tech to work. Functionality is the key for us, but you can’t argue having it look nice too!

Meta 2 is product #2!

That says a lot in itself. Meta has an active developer community! We are publishing apps, making open source projects and Meta is engaging with us, through webinars, video tutorials, and more!

Meta has made mistakes. Meta has run into the same problems as Hololens and worked through them. The most common problem being the FOV (Which is clearly fixed).

What does this mean for us devs?

Meta has stepped up its game with the Meta 2, and will hopefully have something out very soon. Something miles beyond the high price & small FOV of hololens, and hopefully comparable with its tracking. Although, tracking that comes from 10 years at NASA is going to be hard to beat. As for Magic Leap, who knows when they will show off their tech, and I’m sure further still until it’s in our hands. Regardless, for us developers it’s a win! Another step closer to allowing us to bring the technology we want to make!

Comment any questions below or drop me a line at brennan@siliconvagabond.com

Thanks to Upload VR for releasing some of the on stage live stream, and Robert Scobel for the pictures