Meta Platforms Inc. META is working on a new technology that can turn any flat surface into a virtual keyboard, and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is already an expert at it.
What Happened: Zuckerberg showed off a new technology that uses the Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) headset to turn flat surfaces into virtual keyboards.
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Zuckerberg showed off the technology in an Instagram reel which has him sitting at a table and wearing a Quest 2 headset. When enabled, this technology uses the headset to present a virtual keyboard on the table.
In the video, Zuckerberg is seen with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, typing away furiously on the virtual keyboard positioned on the table.
It's not clear if this technology offers haptic feedback to enable users to get a sense of hitting the key, but Zuckerberg claims that he was able to hit the 100 words per minute (wpm) mark, while Bosworth was faster at 119 wpm.
An average user typically types at a speed of 40 wpm, while professional users can hit speeds in the range of 70 to 120 wpm on a traditional keyboard.
But There's A Catch: Being able to turn any flat surface into a virtual keyboard looks very futuristic and straight out of a sci-fi movie, but there's a catch here. As Zuckerberg showed in his Instagram reel, the user will have to wear the bulky Quest 2 VR headset to do this.
It's not like VR-powered virtual keyboards are new – developers can do it on the Quest platform right now, but the problem with existing technology is that it is highly prone to calibration issues and false key presses.
Meta could be planning to weed out these issues with the Quest 3 headset, which is rumored to feature a depth sensor that will generate a 3D mesh of its environment. We will know more about this headset at the Meta Connect event, scheduled to begin on September 27.
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