Big XR News from Meta, NVIDIA, Luminous, Microsoft

Connect is around the corner. While not the biggest event of the year, it generally draws more mainstream attention to XR in spaces than more niche but larger overall events like MWC, AWE, and CES.

With the broader audience that comes with Connect, expect new product announcements from firms looking to join the moment, such as HTC VIVE, which is also readying a new product.

Already, the stage is being set for a busy two months ahead as event season returns.

Meta’s Year-on-Year Revenue Drops

Meta has released its Q2 2024 earnings call, providing essential insights into the company’s operations ahead of Connect 2024. In the earnings call, Meta revealed that its overall revenue reached $39.07 billion, a 22% increase from the previous year.

The company also reported total costs and expenses at $24.22 billion, marking a 7% increase year-over-year, along with Q2 capital expenditures of $8.47 billion. Meta’s Reality Labs division is expected to continue experiencing increasing operating losses due to XR product research and development cycles.

Meta’s Connect 2024 technology showcase, scheduled for September 25 – 26, 2024, will feature its latest digital solutions from its social media and XR umbrella.

NVIDIA and Meta’s CEOs Reveal Bombshell

Meta Connect is approaching, and in this year of significant change for XR, Meta needs to stay focused on a plan to help the company maintain its lead in XR despite increasing competition. While the future is uncertain, Meta seems determined to offer XR headsets, smart glasses, and open XR operating systems.

Recently, SIGGRAPH 2024 began by showcasing the latest innovations in similar emerging technologies, such as smart glasses and AI, through its expo floor and presentations. During the event, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke in a keynote address about Meta’s future XR hardware ambitions and the direction of the technology alongside AI integration.

Zuckerberg noted that his firm’s use of AI, LLMs, and XR allows Meta to build an open ecosystem when it needs to establish a unique selling point for its XR investments. With hardware giants like Samsung eyeing the growing XR space, these interested companies bring pre-existing device ecosystems that could enhance the potential of new devices from Meta.

Zuckerberg doesn’t believe that XR devices will completely replace the need for other traditional devices, such as smartphones or laptops. In terms of future-leading XR devices, Zuckerberg said, “When we think about the next computing platform, we break it down into mixed reality, the headsets, and the smart glasses.”

Luminous Gains £1 Million

After a successful funding round last year, UK XR training leaders Luminous received approximately £1 million from the North East Venture Fund. The firm is seeking to develop an enterprise Metaverse platform for health and safety upskilling.

Thanks to the European Regional Development Fund’s award, with support from Mercia Ventures, Luminous can now pursue its Metaverse ambitions and explore XR usage in the region and beyond. Moreover, with the funding, Luminous can expand its global reach and marketing potential to new customers, bringing its valuation to around £3.55 million.

Notably, Luminous has experience in providing solutions to the oil and gas sector, and the most recent funding will also allow the firm to expand its reach into new sectors. Chris McCourt of Mercia Ventures noted that Luminous’ systems “enable companies to recreate real-life scenarios and offer more effective training at a lower cost.”

First Look at Microsoft Co-pilot AR Smart Glasses?

According to a report by Windows Latest, Microsoft has recently filed a patent request that offers a potential first look at a pair of augmented reality smart glasses. The USPTO filings “Composite Poes Estimate For Wearable Computing Device” and “Resolution Enhancement in Spatial-Frequency Space” indicate that Microsoft may develop AR smart glasses with Co-Pilot genAI integration.

It’s important to note that patents don’t always confirm a company’s plans for upcoming products or hardware. However, they can provide insight into a company’s interests in specific technology markets, similar to how Apple filed numerous Vision Pro patents years before the product’s official announcement.

The recent Microsoft patents indicate that the company has been working on this potential product since at least 2023, based on the patent filing information. The filings reveal that Microsoft is experimenting with a unique Windows OS for spatial computing, possibly Windows Holographic, which can detect a user’s environment and interactions, similar to Apple’s Vision Pro spatial computing framework.

The patents also demonstrate Microsoft’s use of AI to process spatial information captured by the device’s camera, suggesting integration of CoPilot for Meta Ray-Ban-style virtual assistant services.

While the details are limited, the filings highlight Microsoft’s efforts to make the device accessible, including support for low-light conditions. Aside from some technical details, the filings do not reveal much more about Hololens’s potential success.