The ‘Tiramisu’ and ‘Boba 3’ headsets offer a glimpse into what Reality Labs is working on behind the scenes

Meta’s Reality Labs is offering a rare glimpse into the future of virtual reality, unveiling new research prototypes that push the boundaries of what VR headsets can do.

Similar to when the brand has teased its Aria Gen 2 smart glasses prototype, these devices aren’t destined for store shelves.

Instead, they demonstrate two very different paths towards the ultimate goal: passing the ‘visual Turing test’ by creating a virtual experience that’s indistinguishable from the real world.

Besting the human eye… with Tiramisu

The first prototype, codenamed ‘Tiramisu’, is all about hyperrealism. It boasts a visual clarity that is, in technical terms, beyond what the human eye can even resolve (90 pixels per degree, compared to the Quest 3’s 25).

Credit: Meta

In simpler terms, this means text and fine details are incredibly sharp. Combined with brightness and contrast levels that Meta compares to a high-end HDR television, the result is a stunningly realistic image. The trade-off? This incredible quality is delivered through a limited field of view, making it feel like you’re looking through a small (but unbelievably realistic) window into a virtual world.

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The wraparound experience

Taking the opposite approach is ‘Boba 3’, a prototype focused on an ultra-wide field of view.

Where most VR headsets give you a sense of looking through goggles, Boba 3 expands to cover 180 degrees horizontally—filling your peripheral vision and covering roughly 90% of what your eyes can naturally see.

This is a massive leap from a consumer headset like Meta’s Quest 3, which covers less than 50%. This prototype uses technology that exists today, but it’s very expensive and requires a top-of-the-line PC to power its high-resolution, super-wide displays.

The Wareable take

Again, as we’ve seen with its glasses project, this is the latest example of Meta flexing its formidable R&D muscles and showing where the billions spent on Reality Labs are going.

These prototypes represent the two holy grails of VR display technology: perfect clarity and total immersion. However, the fact that they exist as two separate, bulky devices highlights just how far we are from achieving both in a single, affordable consumer headset.

Still, by showing off these “time machines”, Meta is essentially laying out its roadmap for the next decade of VR—and that in itself is pretty neat.

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