SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Meta has begun shipping its Meta 2 Development Kit, the first augmented reality (AR) product that delivers a totally immersive experience unlike any other AR product to date. Meta 2 enables people to use their hands to interact with holograms so they can touch, grab, create and share digital content. Customers receiving Meta 2 units in this first shipment include select individual and enterprise developers who will be working closely with Meta to explore the exciting capabilities of the Meta 2 Development Kit, and to create compelling market-specific applications across a number of use cases – including product and building design, education, manufacturing and medicine.
“We are beyond excited to get the Meta 2 Development Kit in the hands of our customers, and can’t wait to see the innovative applications they will create using our ground-breaking AR technology,” said David Oh, Head of Developer Relations at Meta. “This technology will change the way we create, communicate and collaborate daily, both professionally and personally. The applications and potential for this product are endless.”
Augmented reality is changing the way we use computers, allowing users to see and interact with the digital and physical worlds simultaneously. Meta 2 was designed as a Natural Machine™, enabling people to interact with content and each other in intuitive ways using a transparent display. This approach represents a return to the most basic and productive pairing for humans – brain and hand – revolutionizing computing in the future.
Meta looks forward to working closely with developers to create compelling market-specific applications for Meta 2 across a range of industries, including medicine, education and manufacturing. The Meta 2 Development Kit is the company’s second-generation AR technology and was designed with input from nearly 1,000 users of the first-generation Meta 1 product, including developers, early adopters and academics.
Meta 2 Development Kit
Meta 2 offers numerous capabilities for AR that are only available with the Meta platform, including the widest field of view of any augmented reality product on the market, the most intuitive access to digital information, and support for direct hand interaction with digital content and holograms.
Field of View (FOV) - Meta 2 has the largest FOV of any product on the market, making it the most immersive AR experience available today. The 90-degree (diagonal) FOV and high-resolution display eliminate the limitations of screen size, making it easier for users to work, collaborate, and create or design.
Intuitive Access to Digital Information - You are the operating system. Meta 2 has been developed to work in the most intuitive way for the brain. While allowing people to use the traditional means of interacting with technology through keyboards and other devices, Meta 2 enables people to easily access, manipulate and share digital information in ways that are natural and enhance productivity and collaboration. Examples of AR applications built on interfaces designed to work like the human brain include:
- 3D modeling: Creating, interacting with and sharing true 3D models, providing significant advantages over 3D on a screen.
- Multi-monitor viewing: Spinning up multiple monitors around you to create an augmented workspace without relying on hardware.
The Meta 2 Development Kit includes a see-through AR headset that displays digital content or holograms with a 90-degree field of view and a 2550x1440 high-resolution display. Designed for comfort, the headset allows the user’s view of everything below the eyebrows to be unobstructed so they can easily make eye contact with other people or wear eyeglasses comfortably. The kit also includes a 720p front-facing camera, four speaker near-ear audio system, brightness and volume control, and sensor array for hand interactions and positional tracking. There is also a 9-foot cable for video (HDMI 1.4b), data, and power.
The headset is combined with a software development kit that is based on Unity – the most popular 3D engine in the world – enabling developers to create holographic apps quickly and easily with Unity. Meta 2 offers support for many Windows-based applications, including Microsoft Office.
Meta 2 is a tethered device that requires a modern computer running Windows 8.1 or newer that meets designated hardware specifications available at www.metavision.com/faq.
The Meta 2 Development Kit is currently priced at $949 and can be ordered now on the Meta website, buy.metavision.com.
About Meta
Born in NYC and raised in Silicon Valley, Meta has been defining the field of Augmented Reality (AR) since the company’s inception in 2012. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Meta was selected by Y Combinator (YC13) for seed funding. Meta entered the marketplace with the first see-through glasses that allowed wearers to move and manipulate 3D content intuitively, using natural hand interactions. With the introduction of the groundbreaking Meta 2 product at TED 2016, Meta is once again redefining the market and delivering a new generation of Natural Machines™ that will become a healthy, vital extension of who we are.