Mark Zuckerberg showcases a dramatically improved Metaverse with vibrant avatars

“It’s like we’re in the same room.”

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Mark Zuckerberg’s cartoonish transformation that we’ve all bullied relentlessly maybe That’s shaping up to be something really impressive.

Podcast host Lex Friedman on Thursday released what he called “First interview in the Metaverse“, where he and Meta’s CEO have a conversation in virtual reality, using stunningly lifelike avatars.

Gone are the legless, stupid-looking Mii heists. Here, as Friedman and Zuckerberg sit in different rooms in different parts of the country wearing Quest Pro headphones, their Metaverse avatars, each a hologram from the shoulders up against a black background, smoothly chat back and forth while looking on unnervingly. . Like their real-life counterparts.

“It’s like we’re in the same room,” Friedman said on the podcast, his avatar faithfully communicating an almost impasse. “This is truly the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.”

These realistic versions, known as Codec Avatars, were… Long years of Zuckerberg’s endeavor.

They are created through extensive scans of a user’s face, which are used to form a computer model, which is packaged as coding software, Zuckerberg said. The headset then detects the user’s facial expressions and maps them to the 3D avatar in real time.

From there, “it can basically send an encoded version of what it’s supposed to look like over the wire,” Zuckerberg said, which he claims is more bandwidth efficient than transmitting video.

Obviously, all of this puts a greater load on the hardware doing the rendering, but Zuckerberg says the already available Quest Pro headset they’re using here could drive the technology.

Work in progress

Credit where credit is due: This could be a game-changer if the final product lives up to what is shown here in everyday use.

But before you get your hopes up, note that this wasn’t a live show and – if we’re being mean – it was staged using two people who aren’t very expressive.

It’s also worth noting that the avatars featured here were created using a sophisticated, hours-long scan involving hundreds of cameras, something the average consumer wouldn’t have access to.

Instead, Zuckerberg says the plan for the future is to be able to do a “very quick scan” using your smartphone.

“All you have to do is take your phone, wave it in front of your face for a few minutes, say a few sentences, make a bunch of expressions, and then produce something as good as what we have now,” he added. Friedman said.

We imagine that an avatar created using a smartphone scan would be a far cry from what is shown here. However, we have to admit that this is the most impressive project Zuckerberg has ever looked like.

More about the metaverse: There’s an interesting theory as to why Zuckerberg wasted billions on the Metaverse