from Hacker News

To Control Its Destiny, Facebook Bets Big on Hardware

by state on 12/19/19, 6:27 PM with 42 comments

• by dang on 12/19/19, 10:28 PM

  As with previous articles, The Information has unlocked this one for HN readers. Thanks!

  https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

  There's a related thread at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21836862.

• by caseymarquis on 12/20/19, 1:52 AM

  VR is neat, but I'm absolutely inspired by the idea of improved human-computer interfaces like those described and their more mundane uses. We have eye tracking, the ability to read electrical signals and positioning from hands or head, the ability to feedback to the body through vibration (or sound), and existing high quality peripherals like keyboards for high precision entry and correction. There has to be a way to combine all of this into a better vim.

  A couple binary inputs for CTRL and SHIFT from reading brainwaves seems doable. Feedback on whether they're active from different high frequency vibrations on the hands, neck, or ears.

  There are lots of easy wins here if I can just push a couple mental buttons with my brain. Trigger scrolling or text selection based on eye movement. Select a buffer or macro based the mental buttons I'm pushing. You basically get a binary digit for every mental button you're capable of simultaneously tracking.

  I'm home sick, and maybe it's the fever talking, but I think I'm going to do some basic research and start hacking something together. Very small chance of success, but I want mental modifier keys with vibrational feedback!

• by deltron3030 on 12/20/19, 11:53 AM

  FB is kinda badly positioned when it comes to man-machine interfaces, not because of their technical capability, but the lack of trust that is needed for societal acceptance in that space. People who initially supported Oculus wouldn't have done so if it came out being from FB, they wouldn't have gotten over the initial hump.

  I think that this is one of the reasons why Apple bets so heavily on privacy, they had a much better long term vision when it comes to wearables and man-machine interfaces in general. If Cook distances Apple from China they have such a big advantage there, if not FB will use Apples connection with China to their advantage.

• by jdsully on 12/20/19, 1:49 AM

  This is the age of vertical integration in technology. Truly astounding to see, and not something we've witnessed much of historically.

  Personally I think a lot of it is being driven by the comoditization of advanced chip fabrication. Now with TSMC you can actually have better manufacturing capabilities than Intel. A situation we've not been in for over 30 years.

• by artyomavanesov on 12/20/19, 12:53 AM

  There's no getting around the fact that developing AR technology requires substantial investment in R&D. Only companies such as Facebook, ones that employ some of the best engineers and also have a strong incentive to make that investment, are able to pull it off.

  Whatever product comes out of Facebook under its current business model will be optimized for serving ads. Not necessarily serving the user.

  This in itself is not bad, as it will still stimulate the growth of an ecosystem where developers can create products with different business models.

• by mark_l_watson on 12/20/19, 3:31 PM

  I don’t want to sound mean spirited, but I don’t really like or trust FB. I would check my feed briefly once or twice a month and post something whenever I finished a book and wanted to announce that.

  My attitude changed when I bought an Oculus Go and a week later when I bought an Oculus Quest. These devices use the FB platform, and all the videos that I now upload to FB can now be watched in the VR theater on the Oculus devices.

  So basically, the Oculus products are so good that I decided to give FB another chance and I use FB a bit more often now.

  EDIT: and the Star Wars Vader Immortal trilogy on the Oculus Quest is my favorite entertainment experience ever, including the industrial strength VR experiences I used to work on. My respect to the teams that did the Vader Immortal material.

• by choward on 12/20/19, 3:07 AM

  So you all have a subscription to theinformation.com? Wow. I can't just buy a subscription for every random "news" site that appears on hacker news.

• by saagarjha on 12/20/19, 12:23 AM

  It's interesting how a number of Facebook engineers are willing to comment on what they work on, while the company itself refuses to provide any official statements.

• by neiman on 12/19/19, 11:09 PM

  Where are we standing with open XR? Especially equipment, including controllers?

  I love XR (=VR/AR/MR), but I still didn't manage a good easy open source way to do that.

• by tessting on 12/20/19, 5:14 AM

  Does anyone think AR has the potential to do in the next decade what phones did in this last one?