Extended Reality (XR), encompassing Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR), is a transformative technology bridging the physical and virtual world and it has diverse potential which will be ubiquitous in the future. This review examines XR's evolution through foundational framework - hardware ranging from monitors to sensors and software ranging from visual tasks to user interface; highlights state of the art (SOTA) XR products with the comparison and analysis of performance based on their foundational framework; discusses how commercial XR devices can support the demand of high-quality performance focusing on spatial intelligence. For future directions, attention should be given to the integration of multi-modal AI and IoT-driven digital twins to enable adaptive XR systems. With the concept of spatial intelligence, future XR should establish a new digital space with realistic experience that benefits humanity. This review underscores the pivotal role of AI in unlocking XR as the next frontier in human-computer interaction.

We introduce HOT3D, a publicly available dataset for egocentric hand and object tracking in 3D. The dataset offers over 833 minutes (more than 3.7M images) of multi-view RGB/monochrome image streams showing 19 subjects interacting with 33 diverse rigid objects, multi-modal signals such as eye gaze or scene point clouds, as well as comprehensive ground-truth annotations including 3D poses of objects, hands, and cameras, and 3D models of hands and objects. In addition to simple pick-up/observe/put-down actions, HOT3D contains scenarios resembling typical actions in a kitchen, office, and living room environment. The dataset is recorded by two head-mounted devices from Meta: Project Aria, a research prototype of light-weight AR/AI glasses, and Quest 3, a production VR headset sold in millions of units. Ground-truth poses were obtained by a professional motion-capture system using small optical markers attached to hands and objects. Hand annotations are provided in the UmeTrack and MANO formats and objects are represented by 3D meshes with PBR materials obtained by an in-house scanner. In our experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness of multi-view egocentric data for three popular tasks: 3D hand tracking, 6DoF object pose estimation, and 3D lifting of unknown in-hand objects. The evaluated multi-view methods, whose benchmarking is uniquely enabled by HOT3D, significantly outperform their single-view counterparts.

Elon Musk's Boring Company pitched that its Vegas Loop, underground tunnels built below Las Vegas, would reduce gridlock in some of the busiest parts of the city, offering a new transport solution that isn't a monorail. People are transported by ordinary Tesla vehicles in tunnels and terminals that are often difficult to get to. It hasn't been the transport game changer the company promised, though. A report from Fortune elaborated on what's actually happening in those tunnels, saying there have been at least 67 trespassing reports since 2022 and 22 instances of other vehicles following Teslas into the tunnels and stations. Boring's monthly reports to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also showed several instances of "property damage, theft, technical issues or injuries, near-misses and trespassing or intrusions."

Meta Connect is over for another year, leaving nought but some paper plates on the floor and a raft of new AR/VR gear on the table. Because we're nice, we've prepared a comprehensive list of all the goodies announced at the show for you to peruse at your leisure. The headline act is the Quest 3S, a stripped-down version of the Quest 3 that's 200 cheaper than its namesake. Getting the base price down to 300 has meant some compromises, however, like removing the pancake lenses, dropping 4K and reducing the storage. The 3S seems like a smart idea, since cost remains the second biggest barrier to getting VR/AR gear into people's homes.

Although Meta Connect 2024 lacked a marquee high-end product for the holiday season, it still included a new budget VR headset and a tease of the "magic glasses" Meta's XR gurus have been talking about for the better part of a decade. In addition, the company keeps plowing forward with new AI tools for its Ray-Ban glasses and social platforms. Here's everything the company announced at Meta Connect 2024. Today's best mixed reality gear -- like Apple's Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3 -- are headsets with passthrough video capabilities. But the tech industry eventually wants to squeeze that tech into something resembling a pair of prescription glasses.

In the past, the biggest AR/VR event of the year has been known alternately as Oculus Connect and then Facebook Connect. Much like last year, we can likely predict the biggest news coming out of Meta Connect 2024 with just two acronyms: AI and AR. Like every other big tech firm this year, Meta will be desperate to demonstrate how it plans to stay relevant in a future powered by AI. And now that we're seven months beyond the launch of Apple's Vision Pro, which arrived alongside a short-lived spike in interest in augmented reality (AR), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is likely eager to show off his own plans to make AR a reality. While Zuckerberg isn't as hot on the metaverse as he was when he renamed his company, the union of AI and AR is one way he can still make the dream of persistent virtual worlds come true.

It used to go by at least two different names -- Oculus Connect and then Facebook Connect -- but whatever the moniker, Meta's fall event is still a big showcase for the company's latest and greatest achievements in the virtual reality and mixed reality space. Much like last year, we can likely predict the biggest news coming out of Meta Connect 2024 with just two acronyms: AI and AR. Like every other big tech firm this year, Meta will be desperate to demonstrate how it plans to stay relevant in a future powered by AI. And now that we're seven months beyond the launch of Apple's Vision Pro, which arrived alongside a short-lived spike in interest in augmented reality (AR), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is likely eager to show off his own plans to make AR a reality. While Zuckerberg isn't as hot on the metaverse as he was when he renamed his company, the union of AI and AR is one way he can still make the dream of persistent virtual worlds come true.

It used to go by at least two different names -- Oculus Connect and then Facebook Connect -- but whatever the moniker, Meta's fall event is still a big showcase for the company's latest and greatest achievements in the virtual reality and mixed reality space. Much like last year, we can likely predict the biggest news coming out of Meta Connect 2024 with just two acronyms: AI and AR. Like every other big tech firm this year, Meta will be desperate to demonstrate how it plans to stay relevant in a future powered by AI. And now that we're seven months beyond the launch of Apple's Vision Pro, which arrived alongside a short-lived spike in interest in augmented reality (AR), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is likely eager to show off his own plans to make AR a reality. While Zuckerberg isn't as hot on the metaverse as he was when he renamed his company, the union of AI and AR is one way he can still make the dream of persistent virtual worlds come true.

Take this week, instead of detailing the disgust I feel towards this'meaty' rice, this week's Morning After sets its sights on Mark Zuckerberg, the multimillionaire who's decided to review technology now. Does he know that's my gig? The Meta boss unfavorably compared Apple's new Vision Pro to his company's Meta Quest 3 headset, which is a delightfully hollow and petty reason to'review' something. But hey, I had to watch it. We also look closer at Waymo's disastrous December, where two of its robotaxis collided with a truck.

Are you waiting for an even more powerful Apple laptop? Well, you might have to hold on a little longer. Apple's M3 MacBook Pro may arrive at the beginning of 2024, with the M3 MacBook Air likely to follow a few months later. That's according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who had predicted that a MacBook Air with the new chip could appear as early as October. Gurman reports the 13-inch and 15-inch M3 MacBook Airs are now in the engineering verification test (EVT) stage.