Finnish hardware company Varjo is known for its high-end, enterprise-only virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) headsets, providing the best image quality to clients. Today, Varjo has revealed it will be expanding its reach beyond mere hardware solutions by announcing Varjo Reality Cloud, a platform designed for universal collaboration and real-time reality sharing.
Currently built around the Varjo XR-3 mixed reality (MR) headset which launched back in December 2020, Varjo Reality Cloud is the company’s own take on a metaverse, where users can come together share ideas and collaborate. Instead of a virtual world, Varjo intends to blend the real with the digital, crucially, in real-time so as if you’re almost teleporting the person you wish to speak to into your room.
Developing and packing the XR-3 with low-latency video pass-through, integrated eye tracking and LiDAR have been important steps toward Varjo Reality Cloud, enabling the headset to accurately scan and digitise a room as well as sharing 3D video feed which only generates single megabytes per second. So the groundwork has been laid over the past five years for Varjo to create an MR metaverse which could be one of the most realistic.
“We believe that Varjo’s vision for the metaverse will elevate humanity during the next decade more than any other technology in the world,” said Timo Toikkanen, CEO of Varjo. “What we’re building with our vision for the Varjo Reality Cloud will release our physical reality from the laws of physics. The programmable world that once existed only behind our screens can now merge with our surrounding reality – forever changing the choreography of everyday life.”
To help in the development of Varjo Reality Cloud the company has announced the acquisition of Norwegian software company Dimension10, which specialises in industrial 3D collaboration for architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) teams.
While this all sounds promising Varjo hasn’t released any specific feature details for the new platform, such as possible user numbers in one location or the ability to import assets to work on. This can be seen seen in apps like Spatial which support VR headsets and MR ones like Microsoft HoloLens, allowing users to interact as holograms.
Varjo’s current product lineup features the Varjo VR-3 priced at $3,990 USD (inc. a 1-year Varjo subscription) and the Varjo XR-3 which retails for $6990 (inc the subscription).
While Varjo Reality Cloud Alpha Access will be offered to existing XR-3 customers later this year, the team envisions bringing the platform to multiple headsets and to a wider array of users in the future. It’s still early days for Varjo Reality Cloud so as further details are released, VRFocus will let you know.
