Meta
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| |
| Information | |
| Type | Private |
| Industry | Augmented reality |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founder | Meron Gribetz |
| Headquarters | San Mateo, California, United States |
| Notable Personnel | Meron Gribetz (founder and CEO), Steve Mann (chief scientist) |
| Products | Meta 1, Meta 2 |
Meta was an American augmented reality company that developed and sold optical see-through augmented reality headsets, including the Meta 1 developer kit and the Meta 2. It was founded in 2012 by Meron Gribetz and was based in Silicon Valley.[1] The company positioned its products as "holographic" or spatial computing devices aimed at professionals such as engineers, architects, and surgeons, and was an early competitor to Microsoft's HoloLens.[2] After failing to raise sufficient funding, Meta ran out of money in 2018, declared itself insolvent in early 2019, and had its assets sold by its primary lender. The intellectual property was acquired later in 2019 by a new, unaffiliated entity, Meta View, backed by Olive Tree Ventures.[3]
Meta is not to be confused with Meta Platforms, the social media company formerly known as Facebook.
History
Meta originated from work by Meron Gribetz while he was a student at Columbia University, where he built an early prototype headset by combining a pair of Epson 3D glasses with a depth camera capable of tracking hand movements. The underlying "extramissive spatial imaging digital eye glass" technology was credited to Gribetz and Steve Mann.[1] Gribetz founded the company in 2012, and in 2013 Meta was accepted into the Y Combinator seed accelerator program.[1] That same year the company ran a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that raised roughly $194,000 for its first product.[1]
Meta promoted its vision of replacing conventional screens with holographic interfaces. Gribetz presented the company's technology at a 2016 TED conference, demonstrating the ability to view, grab, and move virtual objects with the hands.[4]
Products
Meta 1
The Meta 1 (sometimes marketed under the "Spaceglasses" branding) was the company's first developer kit, with shipments beginning in September 2014. It used optical see-through displays that allowed users to view and manipulate computer-generated images overlaid on the real world.[1]
Meta 2
The Meta 2 was unveiled in 2016 as the company's flagship augmented reality headset. Unlike the standalone Microsoft HoloLens, the Meta 2 was tethered, requiring a connection to an external PC. Meta presented the tether as a deliberate trade-off that enabled higher visual quality.[5] The headset used inside-out tracking and recognized hand gestures, letting a wearer close a fist to grab a virtual object and use two hands to rotate or scale it.[5]
A defining feature of the Meta 2 was its field of view, which was notably wider than that of the HoloLens, while the device sold at roughly half the HoloLens price.[2]
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Field of view | 90 degrees[5] |
| Display resolution | 2.5K[5] |
| Tracking | Inside-out, with hand-gesture recognition[5] |
| Connectivity | Tethered to a PC via cable[5] |
Meta 2 was offered at a launch developer price of $949, undercutting the $3,000 HoloLens Development Edition.[1] An engineering review of the shipping unit later listed a price of $1,495.[5]
Funding
Meta raised a total of approximately $73 million over its lifetime, substantially less than rivals such as Magic Leap.[2] A 2015 Series A round raised about $23 million from investors including Horizons Ventures, Tim Draper, BOE Optoelectronics, Garry Tan, Alexis Ohanian, Danhua Capital, Commodore Partners, and Vegas Tech Fund.[1] In 2016 the company secured an additional $50 million in venture capital from investors including Lenovo, Tencent, Banyan Capital, Comcast Ventures, and GQY.[1]
Decline and asset sale
By 2018 Meta was unable to raise the further funding it needed, in part because an anticipated Chinese investment round failed to close amid trade tensions and tightened Chinese rules on foreign investment.[2] In September 2018 the company furloughed roughly two-thirds of its approximately 100 employees.[1] Meta declared itself insolvent in early 2019 after its primary lender foreclosed, and the lender conducted an auction to sell the company's assets.[1][2]
In May 2019, Meta View, a newly formed and unaffiliated spatial computing company backed by Olive Tree Ventures and BNSG Capital, announced that it had acquired Meta's intellectual property assets and hired Jay Wright, formerly of Qualcomm, as CEO.[3][6]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 "Meta (augmented reality company)". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_(augmented_reality_company).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "The Story Behind Meta, the AR Startup That Just Had Its Assets Sold to a Mystery Buyer". 2019-01-17. https://variety.com/2019/digital/features/meta-ar-startup-asset-sale-1203111585/.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Meta View acquires assets of augmented reality pioneer Meta". 2019-05-28. https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/28/meta-view-acquires-assets-of-augmented-reality-pioneer-meta.
- ↑ "A glimpse of the future through an augmented reality headset". 2016. https://www.ted.com/talks/meron_gribetz_a_glimpse_of_the_future_through_an_augmented_reality_headset.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 "First Look: The Meta 2 AR Headset". https://www.engineering.com/first-look-the-meta-2-ar-headset/.
- ↑ "Meta View, Inc Announces the Acquisition of Meta Company Assets; Hires Jay Wright as CEO". 2019-05-28. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190528005182/en.