Google Sparring Meta Secret Project Disclosure: 300 Metaverses Deployed and Kos npe Non-Disclosure Agreement

This new tool from Google is intended to be your first purchase.

Facebook has gone meta, making it the first step into the Silicon Valley metaverse. But in fact, the loudest may not be the loudest. Apple is set to release its first AR headset this year, and Microsoft already has a very strong Hololens team (although I just dug it up on Meta).

It was Google that finally came out to join the competition. Google's metaverse layout begins with the material I wrote today and the mysterious project behind it.

The name of the project is unclear, Iris, and the most common hardware will be the AR headset. According to The Verge, the plan is confidential and requires expert evidence, although not all Google employees have access to search and build solutions. Additionally, all participants in this activity must sign a Disclaimer Agreement (NDA) with the company. However, the silent project has also received a lot of attention from Google. There are now more than 300 people on the project and many experts.

Metaverse, Google is late, but here it is

At the Google campus in the San Francisco Bay Area, about 300 Google employees use AR headsets. This is another test from Google after repeated failures in hardware R&D, especially in augmented and virtual reality products.

As with future AR headphones from Meta and Apple, Google insiders told The Verge, on condition of anonymity, that the AR headset will use an external camera that combines computer graphics with real-world video. In their description, the effect is more realistic than traditional AR hardware such as Snap and Magic Leap. Operators also said the product has a face that looks like a ski helmet, has a built-in battery, and doesn't require an external power connection.

The device uses Google processors and runs Android. However, there are rumors that Google is developing a special operating system for this purpose. For example, in September last year, Google9TO5 News reported that Google was working on an augmented reality operating system, a new feature for headset-enabled devices in the future.

Google also plans to use its archive to capture footage remotely and serve it to headset users over a network connection.

Google's Pixel team has also done some hardware work, but it's unclear if the phone will be listed as Pixel. Currently, the product is still in the early stages of development and will be completed by the end of 2024. However, it is possible that it will continue as the timeline is still uncertain.

Big ambitions and support

Project Iris is a secret project on Google. Members need a special card to enter the R&D building. Other Google employees cannot. At the same time, you must sign a non-disclosure agreement with Google.

Although there are some outside voices, the aspirations of this group are not small. This can be seen in Daniel's group alone. The main group responsible for the development of helmets already has more than 300 employees. Additionally, according to the group inside, the group plans to expand to hundreds in the future.

The Iris project is led by Clay Bavor. Now it is announced directly to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. He is also the director of Project Starline, a dazzling project with ultra-high resolution holographic video chat technology at last year's Google conference. At the time, Project Starline was also marked as the first step into Google's metaverse.

Essentially, this technology allows you to see real-time 3D images as if you were meeting a real person while you chat "online" with someone remotely. People who used Project Starline said it was a great show.

This technology will also be used by Google in telephone conversations. Google claims that using Starline externally will increase user satisfaction by up to 15% compared to using traditional video conferencing. Topic memory improved by 30% when requesting chat content.

According to The Verge, Google will release Project Starline and Iris by 2024. Specifically, Project Starline recently partnered with Paul Greco, CTO of Silicon Valley Shredder Magic Leap. With its retirement and the departure of many Magic Leap veterans, including creator Rony Abovitz, patent director David LundmARk and COO Henk Viestra, Magic Leap, once famous for its whale movies, descends almost from the historic scenes from Silicon Valley. .

It can be said that Starline has become a milestone in Google's strategy after it spread to the United States and most people are working from home. Bavor, a friend of Pichai's in the company who partnered with Google's AREA 120 incubator in 2005, was able to track "data" from VR and AR to Google's Cardboard and Daydream a few years ago. However, it should be noted that most of these products ended up failing.

This mysterious Iris project has many other industry leaders, including Bavor. People Shahram Izadi, Chairman and CEO. According to his own LinkedIn page, the former co-founder of PerspectiveIO has been acquired by Google. Most of the company's early employees came from Microsoft. Shahram Izadi's earlier work at Microsoft was also related to Hololens. Additionally, COO Mark Lucovsky, who left Meta Oculus a few months ago, has joined the Google Iris project. Eddie Chuang, who manages the Google ARcore software toolkit, Scott Huffman, who is product development manager for Google Lens, and Kurt Akeley, founder and vice president of Google Assistant, are working on Project Iris.

It's fair to say that Google includes the Iris metaverse.

Project Iris also marks Google's return to hardware related to AR and VR technology. In the past, Google was one of the giants that jumped into this space, but the downside was that almost all of its products ended up declining and failing.

When Google announced Google Glass in 2012, Microsoft hadn't yet released HoloLens, and Oculus was a Southern California startup that had nothing to do with Facebook.

Unfortunately, due to its hefty $1,500 price tag and camera and privacy features that were considered "strange" at the time, it disappeared from the public eye. ~

Then in 2014, Google became the biggest player in the famous augmented reality chicken Magic Leap.

Time jumps to 2016. Just as 2021 has been called the first year of the metaverse, Silicon Valley's tech cycle coincides with the so-called 2016 first year of virtual reality. It was Bavor who then announced Google's VR headset, Daydream, at the Google I/O conference in May of the same year.

That same year, Magic Leap was valued at $4.5 billion, and Oculus, acquired by Facebook, launched the Rift.

Since then, Facebook has rapidly expanded its team to AR and VR projects, and last year changed its name to Meta and entered the metaverse. However, Google's expansion for VR and AR hardware has become minimal. The greatest awareness of the discovery in the affected areas is that 2020 acquired smart glasses to begin the North. Currently, most of the group companies are still working for Google.

It wasn't until October last year that Google overhauled the setup in this area. In its earnings report, Pichai said the reality will be a major investment for Google going forward. The newly launched Project Iris is part of this plan and is also a response to the meta-aggressive nature of metaverse penetration.

However, the Silicon Valley metaverse war has begun. Compared to Meta spending hundreds of millions of dollars together and stealing Hololens, Apple is expected to launch thousands of AR headsets this year, so Google doesn't have time to catch up. Hopefully it's not the next Google Glass or the next Google Daydream.