{"id":73670,"date":"2025-07-18T21:28:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T21:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73670\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T21:28:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T21:28:11","slug":"meta-researchers-reveal-compact-ultra-wide-field-of-view-vr-mr-headsets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73670\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta Researchers Reveal Compact Ultra-wide Field-of-View VR & MR Headsets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of an upcoming technical conference, researchers from Meat\u2019s Reality Labs Research group published details on their work toward creating ultra-wide field-of-view VR & MR headsets that use novel optics to maintain a compact goggles-style form-factor.<\/p>\n

Published in advance of the\u00a0ACM SIGGRAPH 2025 Emerging Technologies conference<\/a>, the research article<\/a> details two headsets, each achieving a horizontal field-of-view of 180 degrees (which is a huge jump over Meta\u2019s existing headsets, like Quest 3, which\u00a0is around 100 degrees).<\/p>\n

The first headset is a pure VR headset which the researchers say uses \u201chigh-curvature reflective polarizers\u201d to achieve the wide field of view in a compact form-factor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Reality Labs Research<\/p>\n

The other is an MR headset, which uses the same underlying optics and head-mount but also incorporates four passthrough cameras to provide an ultra-wide passthrough field-of-view to match the headset\u2019s field-of-view. The cameras total 80MP of resolution at 60 FPS.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Reality Labs Research<\/p>\n

The researchers compared the field-of-view of their experimental headsets to that of the current Quest 3. In the case of the MR headset, you can clearly see the advantages of the wider field-of-view: the user can easily see someone who is in a chair right next to them, and also has peripheral awareness of a snack in their lap.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Reality Labs Research
\n\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Reality Labs Research<\/p>\n

Both experimental headsets appear to use something similar to the outside-in \u2018Constellation\u2019 tracking system that Meta used on its first consumer headset, the Oculus Rift CV1. We\u2019ve seen Constellation pop up on a number of Reality Labs Research headsets over the years, likely because it\u2019s easier to use for rapid iteration compared to inside-out tracking systems.<\/p>\n

The researchers point out that similarly wide field-of-view headsets already exist the consumer market (for instance, those from Pimax), but the field-of-view often comes at the cost of significant bulk.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Pimax headset, known for its wide field-of-view. | Photo by Road to VR<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Reality Labs researchers claim that these experimental headsets have a \u201cform-factor comparable to current consumer devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, our prototype headsets establish a new state-of-the-art in immersive virtual and mixed reality experiences, pointing to the user benefits of wider FOVs for entertainment and telepresence applications,\u201d the researchers claim.<\/p>\n

For those hoping these experimental headsets point to a future Quest headset with an ultra-wide field-of-view\u2026 it\u2019s worth noting that Meta does lots of R&D and has shown off many research prototypes over the years featuring technologies that have yet to make it to market.<\/p>\n

For instance, back in 2018, Meta (at the time still called Facebook) showed a research prototype headset with varifocal displays<\/a>. Nearly 7 years later, the company still hasn\u2019t shipped a headset with varifocal technology.<\/p>\n

As the company itself will tell you, it all comes down to tradeoffs; Meta CTO Andrew \u2018Boz\u2019 Bosworth explained as recently as late 2024 why he thinks pursuing a wider field-of-view in consumer VR headsets brings too many downsides<\/a>\u00a0in terms of price, weight, battery life, etc. But there\u2019s always the chance that this latest research causes him to change his mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of an upcoming technical conference, researchers from Meat\u2019s Reality Labs Research group published details on their work…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[158,67,132,68,729,730],"class_list":{"0":"post-73670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-virtual-reality","13":"tag-vr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114876363871248607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}