Welcome to this first episode of the podcast I prepared for you, where the developments that caught my eye in the virtual reality sector over the past week are compiled.

  • (1) A photo of the new version of Oculus Quest was leaked by a Twitter account.
  • (2) Oculus released a social interaction-focused update for its VR headsets.
  • (3) An update featuring full hand and finger tracking has arrived for the Oculus Browser.
  • (4) A Korean news site leaked LG’s augmented reality glasses plans.
  • (5) Augmented reality company BlippAR held the world’s first AR-supported live launch for a mobile phone company.
  • (6) Facebook is working on a holographic display for VR glasses. They even published a technical document explaining how it works.
  • (7) Oculus Quest and Rift Store have now started accepting VR applications made with OpenXR instead of Oculus SDKs.

Podcast: TBA

(1) The first and breaking news of this week was the leak of photos on the internet thought to belong to the Oculus Quest 2.

The Twitter user with the pseudonym WalkingCat, who shared photos of the HP Reverb G2 virtual reality headset from his account a few days before it was introduced in May, leaked photos belonging to the Oculus VR headset this month as well. Moreover, after the photo was shared, it didn’t take long for other more detailed photos taken from almost every angle to appear, this time in Reddit’s Oculus discussion forums. By putting forward the date of September 15, WalkingCat also leaked the introduction date of the VR headset, which had become widely known to be entering production at the end of July.

The first striking detail in the photos is, of course, that the upcoming headset will be white in color. Apart from this, the head strap and wider-angle camera placement give clues about the new design. It is also one of the notable details that the headset, which seems to have a stereo sound system, no longer requires headphones.

(2) Meanwhile, Oculus continues to develop its existing headsets. With the Oculus platform receiving an update on multiplayer and social interaction features, ‘Public parties’ and ‘Travel together’ features have now been introduced as new features in the context of social interaction. By making voice calls, you can throw public parties with your existing friends or people you are about to meet, play games, travel in the virtual reality world, and have voice chats. The system allows interaction for up to a total of 8 people for all of these. Oculus, which also went for improvements on the Facebook side, has made finding friends easier and also made improvements on some privacy controls.

(3) Oculus, which also updated the Oculus Browser, quietly added an experimental feature to its new browser. With this update, full finger and hand tracking support has arrived for WebXR projects. This feature was released within the latest Oculus Browser 10.2, which comes with a hand tracking API and timewarp layer support, both of which are currently considered ‘experimental’.

Oculus Browser Product Manager Jacob Rossi announced the news on Twitter and gave some examples via a WebXR test page demonstrating Web tracking and page tracking layer support, respectively. It would not be wrong to think that the use cases of this technology, which clearly works quite well, will increase.

(4) A Korean news site leaked LG’s augmented reality glasses plans. According to the Korean technology news site etnews , it seems likely that super lightweight (said to be less than 80 grams) AR glasses will come from LG towards the end of 2021. According to the news, LG Electronics, which collaborated with Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo, will launch its augmented reality glasses in Japan towards the end of next year. It is even said that a prototype of the augmented reality glasses developed under the leadership of LG’s CTO is ready.

(5) Augmented reality company BlippAR held the world’s first AR-supported live launch for mobile phone company OnePlus’s new model, Nord. The launch, which required an invitation code, an iOS or Android phone, and a comfortable armchair to lean back in before attending the event, attracted a lot of attention by coming right to the middle of your home’s living room with augmented reality.

On the other hand, looking at the press side of things, I think it is quite significant for next-generation journalism that getting information, which editors previously tried to convey by traveling from one end of the world to the other and struggling with hundreds of other editors, now requires only a comfortable armchair, a fully charged phone, and a stable internet connection.

(6) Facebook is working on a holographic display for VR glasses. They even published a technical document full of mathematical formulas explaining how this impressive technology works. I didn’t understand a thing, but you can try your luck if you want. As an end-user, if there is one thing we need to keep in mind, I think it is the fact that one of the topics Facebook’s R&D center works on the most is VR-related technologies.

Coming to the details of the research, they published research on the thinnest VR glasses concept to date using holographic display technology. Facebook Reality Labs managed to create functional VR glasses that are only 9 mm thick with the help of polarization-based optical folding and holographic lenses. It is said that the research, which is still in the ‘proof of concept’ stage, has the potential to use almost the entire visual capacity of the human eye. VR glasses in the form of sunglasses are the dream of every company in the industry. This story is just beginning, and I will continue to follow the developments.

(7) I saved the best news of this week for last. At least the development has the potential to quickly enter the lives of VR headset users. With a new update it released, Oculus has started accepting VR application submissions made with OpenXR instead of Oculus SDKs. App developers rejoiced the most at this news.

OpenXR, supported by many companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Nvidia, Sony, Valve, and AMD, is a royalty-free standard that aims to unify the core connection between VR and AR hardware, game engines, and content, and create an interoperable ecosystem. A developer will make the application they write capable of running simultaneously, for example, on Oculus Quest, Rift, HTC Vive, SteamVR, HoloLens, and many compatible headset platforms. In this way, developers will be able to kill a flock of birds with one stone, so to speak.

The fact that a standard supported by the world’s largest technology companies is starting to be officially accepted by the industry’s best-selling VR headsets is a highly promising development. The increasing sales figures in recent months support what I am saying.

See you in the next episode…

Stay healthy…