Today's announcement by Facebook showed that Meta, the company it rebranded as, was a big play to virtual reality and augmented reality technologies in an attempt to replace reality wholesale.
Facebook executives demonstrated impressive augmented reality models of their bodies in a tech demo. Credit where credit is due, with uncanny renderings that were detailed down to their skin's pores.
Although it is a wild vision of an augmented reality future and CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that it is years away, the technology will still be possible if the laws governing physics allow.
According to Facebook insiders, this will take time. According to a tweet, breakthroughs in Physics, etc.
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Facebook may have overstated its promises regarding hanging out with your closest friends in a Facebook-hosted metaverse. Facebook will not be able to launch its products on the market until it faces physics challenges that are so complex, they'll need new understandings.
Facebook is without hardware and doesn't have much to show its parallel reality. It will most likely want complete control of this walled garden at the end.
That's only a small number of employees speaking to one reporter. It does seem that Meta, or Facebook, is going to invest a lot of resources in this effort.
It is worth noting that Facebook has experimented with virtual and augmented realities over the past few decades, bringing to market some highly-respected headsets for virtual reality under its Oculus brand. The best headsets, however, are still cumbersome and come with limited apps and experiences. The company must go further to succeed in the metaverse.
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Did we mention that Facebook has retired this brand?
Facebook recently attempted to enter the mainstream wearables market by collaborating with Ray-Ban. The product was quite different from what Facebook displayed today. The glasses are made of plastic and have a smartphone camera attached. This isn't going to fool anyone into believing their best friend is on their couch next to them.
Zuckerberg may be trying to distract from an ugly truth with today's tech demo. In 2021, the Facebook brand has been severely damaged by regulators, lawmakers and entire governments for failing to rein in hate speech and even intentionally encouraging it.
Maybe Zuckerberg is trying to show off tech that can replace reality, as Facebook's current reality looks pretty grim.
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Facebook Announces VR Layer over Reality
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