Zuck's New VR Avatar Still Looks Bootleg (But it Has Legs)

Meta's Reality Labs showed off its first preview of a live-in virtual reality environment, with Mark Zuckerberg forcing his "I was human" image to be the face of Meta's attempt to create a live-in virtual reality environment The CEO said that the new avatars have their own Meta style to them, though it's not clear how they stand above the rest.

As he and Aigerim Shorman, Meta's general manager of avatars and identity, lifted their legs up and down, they were just getting used to the concept of gravity. The reason legs were so hard was because they were hard. Other virtual reality systems don't have them either.

That is false. It has had legs for years. Since users might feel weird if their legs bend in unnatural ways in virtual space, the company has worked hard to create systems to accurately mimic arms and legs.

Your brain is more likely to accept a rendering of a part of you if it's in the right place. The ability for the headset to know where your legs are is the most difficult thing to get legs to work on. An artificial intelligence model is needed to recreate where legs are when they are blocked from the headset.

The head of Meta said that these are going to be on phones, headsets, and more. Aigerim said their plan was to allow avatars to be used across all of Meta's apps. There are plans to include avatars inWhatsApp, and they will be rearing their heads in stickers. Video chat in messenger will allow for the use ofavatars. It remains to be seen if Zuck is able to increase the app's clout among the most dedicated users.

Before legs are included in Meta's other apps, they'll first be seen in Horizon Worlds

The balloon heads and dead eyes of the previous incarnation were not as good as the graphics on Meta'savatar. The pre- recorded demo that was shown in the keynote may not be the most accurate depiction of the app's capabilities. The CEO promised that cameras would be able to detect winks and outward expressions. Theseavatars use artificial intelligence to generate their movement.

The company said it will be releasing theavatar store in virtual reality later this year. Users will be able to spend real money on creator made digital goods. Meta promoted more brand tie-ins with the Avatar Store, such as withNetflix, because nothing screams individuality like a Stranger Things t-shirt.

Michael Abash, the chief scientist at Reality Labs, said at the end of the keynote that the ultimate goal is to have realistic virtual beings. What's the reason? Users need to feel like they are in a relationship with other people. He said that the goal should be to interact with the metaverse using personalized artificial intelligence that learns from users.

The company showed off a system that uses full-body cameras to track users. They are considering tying real-seeming versions of people to a dedicated account for security. What should happen if people learn to hack and steal people's virtualavatars? Considering the company only recently figured out, ahem, "legs," all that technology seems far away in the future.