A number of job listings at Meta Platforms suggest the company is exploring next generation VR and AR headsets with cellular connectivity features.
Here are some of the positions listed by Meta under its Oculus or Facebook Reality Labs branding:
Meta’s Reality Labs division is responsible for a growing slate of products including Quest 2 as well as the Portal video calling devices, with a new high-end VR headset featuring more sensors and a slimmer profile planned for later this year. Meta is also reportedly planning a watch to release this year as well and Facebook is the virtual assistant inside the Ray-Ban camera sunglasses.
While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees VR and AR as the future of personal computing and long-distance communication, the weight of the glasses and heat produced by their components impose severe limitations on what functionality designers can pack into a given device, and in turn which use cases the gadgets are best suited. Today, the Quest 2 is meant for indoor use only and connects to your local Wi-Fi network to download games, surf the Web, start an audio chat with friends, or play online games. The slimmer Ray-Ban Stories glasses connect over even shorter range using Bluetooth and your phone to offload images and videos captured on it.
Could a Meta headset or glasses one day ring with a call from a faraway friend using a cellular connection to a more distant tower network? It’s possible the people Meta is looking to fill these positions may be instrumental in making a vision like that come true. Meta is also in a battle for talent as it staffs up to build Zuckerberg’s vision, with incumbent competitors like Apple reportedly offering unusually lucrative stock options to keep key employees from jumping ship. Meta lists the salary for the “Cellular Firmware Engineer” starting at “$209,000/year + bonus + equity + benefits”.
A Meta representative declined to comment.
Thanks to @SanbornVR for the initial tip about one of the positions Meta is looking to fill.
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Ian Hamilton is a journalist based in Arkansas and managing editor at UploadVR. He's covered VR full-time since 2015 as well as Oculus VR since 2012. He is interested in the people creating VR and AR hardware and software, their motivations, and how that work affects the people who spend significant time in simulations. If you have information to pass along you can send him a direct message on Twitter, Facebook or via email.
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