HTC presents the Metaverse vision and new products

Picture: HTC

UPDATE

• Added MWC announcements

Update of February 28, 2022:

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​Cher Wang, CEO of HTC, details the Viverse-Metaverse vision and a range of new or updated products:

• Vive Browser: VR-based web browser
• Vive Connect: a “portal” to the Viverse
• Vive Guardian for Vive Flow: Teachers or parents can use the software to control what content young people see in the glasses.
• Vive Avatar: tool for creating cross-service avatars according to the VRM standard

“Viverse is our version of the metaverse: a vast, limitless universe with amazing new experiences and a seamless gateway to other universes in collaboration with our partners – from waking up in the morning to falling asleep at night,” writes HTC.

HTC also announces its cooperation with the German car VR start-up Holoride. In the local multiplayer game Yullbe Go at Europa Park, five players can compete simultaneously with Vive Focus 3.

Original article from February 25, 2022:

With the revival of virtual reality since 2015, HTC has been there since the beginning. Of course, the company also has a metaverse vision, which it now presents as “Viverse”.

With the first Vive glasses and accessories such as the Vive wireless adapter and various Vive trackers, HTC shaped the early years of virtual reality and was one of the leading companies.

Recently, however, things have not gone smoothly: the Cosmos VR series could not repeat the success of previous glasses, the rescue attempt via Vive Pro 2 did not work, at least in the segment of end customers, and the really brave Vive Flow VR glasses are still looking for a target group.

With the Vive Focus 3, however, HTC has shown that it can continue to build powerful VR hardware and also has innovations in its lineup with accessories such as the wrist tracker for Focus 3.

Viverse: How many klickibunti does one person need?

Since Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg brought the XR industry into the Metaverse obligation last fall, HTC must of course also show its own Metaverse vision: The “Viverse” is a very colorful future concept in which VR , AR, AI, 5G and NFT converge.

In some places, HTC is integrating scenes from its own VR meeting software Vivesync and VR event environment Enagage, both of which are part of Vive Business Suite. In part, the video depicts realistic scenarios. They can be recognized by the fact that they visually lag behind other ideas.

Distant visions of the future are… far away

Many scenes in the video, however, are taken from the imagination. And they raise similar questions to Meta’s Metaverse presentation this fall, particularly about the technology that makes it all possible, like photorealistic avatars or wine glass tracking. Not impossible, but extremely complex.

From my point of view, the most important questions arise at the societal level: do people even want this metaverse vision that encompasses all areas of life, should it really be achievable one day? Are the visions presented in the video worth the technical effort – for developers and users?

Or should the XR industry better focus its communication on application scenarios that are already possible or soon will be, in which the technology significantly complements and expands people’s lives?

Learn more about the metaverse:

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