The transience of virtual and augmented reality was matched at CES 2023 by the ubiquity of the technologies.
It honestly felt like the mid-1990s when every tech company had an internet strategy. Now, almost all have a way to either overlay images in the real world or immerse you in fantasy.
The driving force behind this is hardware, and CES 2023 was packed with it. There was a lot of it on the floor — so many AR glasses companies, not afraid to jump into the risky breach that once swallowed up Google Glass.
But the real leaders are Meta, Magic Leap and HTC. While the once-secret and now-new Magic Leap was on the show floor in the Metaverse space, encouraging everyone to whiz through a series of enterprise scenarios, Meta and Vive were showing off their latest gear in a nearby hotel ballroom. were offering invitation-only demos.
I started with a Magic Leap visit, where I met Julie Larsen Green, the company’s CTO, a once-retired Microsoft Windows legend, who is working on Magic Leap’s industry, a practical and purpose-driven AR headset for factories. Helping transition from magical and over-promising wunderkind. , Disaster Response, and more.
As we chatted inside a packed booth about Magic Leap’s early promise, Green told me, “The technology was very early, and the consumer landscape wasn’t that clear.”
Enterprise however is a different story. industry, factories, and even medical theaters, “they’re used to wearing things on their faces.”
Green encouraged me to conform with the latest headset, the Magic Leap 2, which is 50% lighter and smaller than the original. There’s also a powerful new custom AMD SoC.
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Unlike the new HTC Vive XR Elite and Meta Quest Pro, the Magic Leap 2 retains its massive size by keeping the battery and processor in a separate puck that you can wear on your belt. This makes the headgear lightweight and very comfortable to wear. It also means you’ll have a cable running from the puck to your head, and I could feel the puck on my hip.
As promised, the Magic Leap 2 headset was comfortable to wear. I tried out a scenario in which I was standing in a replica of the Hoover Dam, and we were playing our emergency for an explosion. Graphics were good, and the -70-degree field of view meant that a slightly cartoonish dam was visible all around me. Using the controller, I placed police cars and officers around the virtual landscape. All the while, I could still see my real world.
Larson said Magic Leap is working with NVIDIA on its “Omniverse” idea, but buzz aside, the partnership has helped bring ray tracing support to the headset.
Whereas the original Magic Leap was often discussed in hushed, awe-filled tones and only a select few saw demos in person, this version of the company and its new leadership is all about utility. Based on my experience, I think they’re heading towards the useful part and even at $3,299, it may have a chance in the enterprise.
Where Magic Leap has shed its magician’s robes for a suit, HTC is at the pinnacle of immersive and augmented experiences for everyone.
It’s been a while since I’ve worn a Vive VR headset. The original device I tried was VR-only and required beacons placed around a room to know your position; The HTC Vive XR Elite is completely self-sufficient. It has also been redesigned to be lighter and to support AR as well as VR.
HTC set up a half-dozen experiences for me to try, but first I had to get used to the new headgear, which now looks like glasses attached to cushioned head rings. You tighten it on your head with a large knob at the back. Like the Magic Leap headset, I had to remove my glasses to use it. Around the lens are small dials on the HTC Vive XR Elite that let you adjust focus, and you can slide the eyepieces apart or together to match your own pupillary distance. In the display, you see a green grid visual to help you position the lens correctly.
None of it was difficult or took more than a moment. For more headset support, there’s a thin rubber band that runs over your head. I found the fit extremely comfortable.
The demo did an excellent job of highlighting the HTC Vive XR Elite’s specs and capabilities.
I used the included dual controllers and my hands to interact with the games. During something called Maestro in which I conducted an orchestra, I had a remote in one hand that I held, tapped, and waved a virtual baton. My other hand was free, and I used it to gesture, in line, in different sections of the orchestra. I was surprised to find that the Vive XR Elite recognized the movement of all five fingers of my free hand. I’m sure the quad cameras and the 3D depth sensor play a role here.
I played a game called Hubris, which was most notable for how intuitively the system read my swimming, grabbing, and climbing speeds.
In the AR area, I played Yuki, a game in which aliens emerge from holes in walls. I tried my best to knock them all down with one hand as the other was useless in the game. The mixed reality effect was quite compelling.
I also drew in three dimensions with Gesture AR, which was like Tilt Brush.
My favorite was Kayak. For this experience, they sat me down in a chair, gave me a real kayak fitted with trackers near each yellow paddle, and then let me paddle around. Again, holding the impact and speed makes me feel like I can kayak in the real world.
Part of the reason everything looks so good is the HTC Vive XR Elite’s 2K per eye LCD screen. It also gets points for having an excellent pass-through camera that helps make AR experiences more compelling.
At two hours, battery life is surprisingly good, but I was more impressed that the battery is hot-swappable. When you pull it out, the device stays on because the system has a small, 10-minute backup battery.
When the system ships in February for $1,099, it’ll beat its closest competitor, the Meta Quest Pro, by a few hundred dollars, but then that system has a beautiful charging dock and that explains why it now has LED rings around them. Not needed.
Look, I’m still not ready to say the metaverse is a thing, but VR and AR are making substantial leaps forward every six months, if not every year. Hardware is getting lighter and more powerful all the time and software is keeping pace with ever-solid and immersive experiences.
And to think, we haven’t even seen what Apple has.
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