Since 1999, the MIT Technology Review magazine has selected the world's most innovative Innovators under the age of 35 each year, covering medical and health, artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, and new energy sources. Communications, network security, and more. This list is divided into five categories: Visionaries, Inventors, Entrepreneurs, Pioneers, and Humanitarians.
Among this year's TR35 figures, Meron Gribetz, CEO of AR Meta, has been named. He is known as the “ Augmented Reality Dreamer †and the outside world also agrees that the Augmented Reality Meta Head is a product that rivals Microsoft’s Hololens.
The 30-year-old Gribetz was born in Israel and has worked in a number of startup companies. He went to Columbia University in 2009 to study computer science and neuroscience. He hopes to understand his own ADHD condition (attention deficit disorder). However, with the idea of ​​developing Meta, he dropped out of school.
When it comes to the creation of the company, Gribetz hopes to create a way to communicate digital information to the real world and make information more accessible to people. In 2011, when the high-altitude glare sun penetrated the aircraft's glass window and shot into his sunglasses, he realized what he was supposed to do.
Then in 2012, he set up Meta, which started a crowdfunding campaign for $667 a year after Meta1, followed by the pre-sale of Meta Pro, and in 2015 won A round of financing of $2,300. Obviously, VR/AR has once again received attention in the past two years, which has also made Meta stand out among the many startup companies in Silicon Valley. In February of this year, Gribitz demonstrated Meta 2 to the audience at the TED speech in Vancouver. He projected the holographic portrait and gave it to the human brain with a holographic projection. It was also amazing to the audience. Demonstrations such as this, most of them previously appeared on the scene of Microsoft's demonstration Hololens.
Meta 2 sells for $ 949, which is one-third the price of Hololens. It allows you to grab 3D images by hand or remotely video chat with another Meta user. In April in Shenzhen, Meta CTO Raymond demonstrated separately In the "helmet design" process, the function of grabbing a hologram by hand, and talking to a 3D virtual sister.
Shortly afterwards in June, Meta announced that it had received 50 million U.S. dollars in rounds of financing from B. Lenovo, Tencent, and Takahashi Capital were among the investors. After this financing, it was thought that Meta's valuation reached 300 million U.S. dollars. The media unanimously regarded it as a Hololens competitor, but unlike Hololens, it also needed to connect to a PC. The official website gives the specific parameters, as follows:
90 degree field of view
resolution
The lower part of the eyebrows, completely transparent, can easily see the virtual scene;
Can wear myopia glasses, can be used for hours in most environments;
720p front camera;
Sensor arrays enable hand interaction and position tracking
4 horns at the ear
volume control;
App development supports Unity 3D graphics engine;
Need to connect to a computer and run under Windows 8 or 10.
As for the difference between Hololens, Gribetz told the media that,
What HoloLens wants to do is similar to Meta in many places. It can also be manipulated by gestures, but simply moving your finger does not represent the future. The HoloLens model is fundamentally still a Windows-based interaction, and future interactions. The way must be a more natural way. Your brain is your operating system.
In his view, augmented reality technology allows people to merge devices such as laptops, smart phones, and tablets into a single packaged super mobile device. Within five years, the AR headline will be greatly reduced to the appearance of glasses and will be “almost invisible†to the eyes.
Meta is developing software whose purpose is to let people operate instinctively rather than through windows and charts. Gribetz believes AR’s prospects. He also encourages his employees not to use computers and mice next spring. The company will rely on Meta 2 and its hand tracking to help employees complete their work.