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Meta Cuts Ribbon on New AR Workspace

Jun 1, 2017 08:02 PM

Jun 1, 2017 10:44 PM

Meta CEO and founder — and Next Reality 50 member —Meron Gribetz unveiled a new operating environment for augmented reality called Meta Workspace for the audience at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Santa Clara, California, today.

Gribetz demonstrated several features of the operating environment. One such feature is a new gesture called Airgrab that allows users grasp holograms with one or both hands and manipulate it within the AR environment.

"This is kind of the future of maybe the PC era, where I can take anything I can do on a PC and put it around me," said Gribetz to the AWE audience, who responded with applause.

In the Meta Workspace, Airgrab allows users to grab and manipulate content.

Meta Workspace boasts its own user interface that utilizes shelves in place of folders for organization content and tools and enables users to erect virtual displays throughout the space.

In a particularly crowd-pleasing moment, Gribetz held out his smartphone and, using the Airgrab gesture, quite literally pulled content from the device directly into the Meta Workspace.

Using the Airgrab gesture, users can pull content from their smartphones directly into the Meta Workspace, and vice versa.

Jennifer Welsh/Next Reality

Using the Airgrab gesture, users can pull content from their smartphones directly into the Meta Workspace, and vice versa.

Jennifer Welsh/Next Reality

The operating environment is based on the Spatial Interface Augmented Reality Design Guidelines that the company made available for download today, as well as feedback from Meta 1 Developer Kit customers.

The Meta Workspace features shelves for organizing content and allows users to hang several virtual monitors throughout the environment.

"Our customers want to do more than chase digital critters and monsters: 80 percent of them are coming from industry, only 5 percent entertainment," said Gribetz in a news release.

They want to take their work to new heights. Design products in life-sized 3D, view holographic multiple monitors to free their traders and engineers from their screens, visualize data in ways that are far more relatable. To enable all of this, we decided our top priority was going to be creating the most intuitive AR experience possible, and gear it toward getting real world work done in ways never achievable before.
— Meron Gribetz

According to job postings for Meta Workspace, the environment is built on Unity's engine.

While the company has recently published an explanation for delays in shipping its Meta 2 devices, the company stated today that they anticipate mass shipping to commence this summer. Interested parties can order a Meta 2 Development Kit through the company's online store.