22 Nov 2024 | Mike Boland
AWE Talks: Meta Reaches Beyond Fun & Games
AWE EU 2024

Welcome back to AWE Talks, our series that revisits the best of AWE’s conference sessions. With a fresh batch of footage from AWE EU 2024, we have a treasure trove of on-stage insights to dive into.

We continue the action this week with Meta's drivers and directions in XR. Though it's most known for gaming and social connection, it's investing heavily in more utilitarian pursuits in XR, such as education and collaboration.

See the summarized takeaways below, along with the full session video. Stay tuned for more video highlights each week and check out the full library of conference sessions on AWE’s YouTube Channel.


Speakers
Amone Gbedemah, Meta

Key Takeaways & Analysis
– Meta's metaverse ambitions happen along two main vectors: mixed reality and wearables.
   – The former can be seen in the latest batch of VR headsets, such as Quest 3 and 3s.
   – The latter manifests in Ray-Ban Meta Smartglasses and multimodal AI (more on that later).
– In both cases, the evolutionary trend is being more immersive and less insular. 
   – In doing so, Meta expands XR use cases well beyond the focus so far in gaming. 
– For example, mixed reality expands the utility to things that are more world-immersive. 
   – That means more opportunities for physical world interaction and human connection in VR. 
   – Results include better collaboration between colleagues and connection between friends.  
– Education and immersive learning is another big area of development, says Gbedemah.
   – This is already resonating among Generation Alpha students who will be XR-native.
   – And it's more effective in terms of immersive learning's brain encoding and memory recall. 
– Back to wearables, Ray-Ban Meta Smartglasses have been a breakout hit. 
   – This represents an important direction for Meta in low-friction forms of immersion. 
– Like much of the above RBMS also brings Meta into more utilitarian directions. 
   – Multimodal AI engenders utilities like identifying objects for education and shopping. 
– There are also societal benefits, such as helping the visually impaired sense surroundings.
   – For example, a partnership with Be My Eyes will cultivate this capability in RBMS. 
– Altogether, XR use cases continue to broaden well beyond fun & games.
   – This has business and altruistic ends, advancing XR's market and its societal impact. 


For more color, see the full video below...




  Want more XR insights and multimedia? ARtillery Intelligence offers an indexed and searchable library of XR intelligence known as ARtillery Pro. See more here.  

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