Meta unveils new glasses that create a mixed world between the virtual and the real

On Tuesday, Meta Platforms unveiled its Quest Pro mixed reality headset, marking a significant development in CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to break into the extended reality market, which includes virtual and augmented reality.

The new glasses, which were shown off at the annual Metaconnect conference, will go on sale on October 25. Users will be able to interact with virtual environments in real time against the background of where they are.

Quest Pro was an important step for Zuckerberg, who last year announced plans to launch the device, which was then called Project Cambria. At the same time, he changed the name of his company from Facebook to Meta to show that the social media giant was becoming a company that manages a world of augmented virtual reality known as Metaverse.

Zuckerberg has spent billions of dollars since then to make that transformation a reality. Realty Labs, the Meta unit in charge of Metaverse management, lost $10.2 billion in 2021 and nearly $6 billion this year.

The company has added numerous updates to Quest Pro compared to the current model of virtual reality glasses Quest 2 on the market.

The new glasses have cameras on the outside that send a live, three-dimensional feed of the real world around the person wearing them. 

This makes it possible to create a mixed reality between the real and virtual worlds. For example, the user could hang a virtual painting on a real wall or make a virtual ball bounce off a real table.

The Quest Pro is also lighter and thinner than its predecessors, thanks to thinner lenses and a battery relocated to the back of the glasses, which distributes weight more evenly while reducing the overall size.

Meta has added sensors to Quest Pro that can mimic the eye movements and facial expressions of users. This makes it feel like avatars are making eye contact with people, just like real people do.