Meta’s latest prototype headset, Flamera, looks ripped straight from a sci-fi action flick—and it quickly turned heads at SIGGRAPH 2023 , where Flamera won the coveted Best in Show award.
The Flamera headset , bug-eyed and glowing ominous red, is an intimidating piece of kit that looks radically different from its peers. And the look is not just for show. The headset debuts a new lens design that could solve augmented reality’s most pressing problem: “passthrough,” or the use of external cameras to provide a headset user with a view of the world around them. ...
Meta’s bug-eyed Flamera presents a novel solution. It ditches the array of external cameras favored by current headsets for a unique “lightfield passthrough” design that pairs image sensors with apertures that physically control the light reaching the sensors. Light that would contribute an incorrect perspective is blocked, while light that provides an accurate perspective is allowed to reach the sensors .