Posts Tagged: grow

Meta’s avatars finally grow some legs

It's been nearly a year since Meta announced at Connect 2022 that it would give its weird Caspar the Friendly Ghost-esque metaverse avatars some legs to make them appear slightly more human. The day of reckoning is almost upon us as Quest Home avatars now sport extra limbs in the latest beta version of the Quest software.

You won't see legs on your avatar when you look down, as UploadVR points out. They'll only be visible in third-person or when you're looking at a virtual mirror (much like in many first-person shooter games). This makes sense, as there's no leg tracking option on any current consumer virtual reality system. It means Meta doesn't have to worry too much about having accurate leg animations instead of, I don't know, wacky QWOP-style physics?

In addition, it seems your avatar's legs won't crouch in third-person view when you bend your knees or sit down. That could make things a little awkward when you're trying to maintain eye contact (as much as that's possible in VR spaces) with another user.

The legs are not in the VR version of Horizon Worlds as yet, though you should see them in the mobile and web versions if you're one of the folks testing those. Curiously, Meta said last year that "legs will roll out to Worlds first" before making their way to other avatar-friendly experiences. UploadVR also notes that Meta hasn't publicly updated its software development kit for avatars, so external developers using that toolset can't play around with legs in the company's virtual spaces yet either.

This could all come to a head next month when this year's Meta Connect takes place. Perhaps the company will have more to say about its virtual legs then. One thing we know for sure about the event is that Meta will reveal much more about the Quest 3.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-avatars-finally-grow-some-legs-211016742.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Smile and take a selfie, and you’ll feel your confidence grow, study suggests

A small team of researchers from the University of California have detailed a small study showing that taking daily selfies can actually improve one’s confidence over time.

The post Smile and take a selfie, and you’ll feel your confidence grow, study suggests appeared first on Digital Trends.

Mobile–Digital Trends

Huawei’s U.S. footprint to grow with new Seattle R&D center

huawei_seattle_facility_rendering

In another sign that Huawei is continuing its march into the U.S. smartphone market, reports are out that the Chinese company is preparing to open a new engineering facility in Seattle to conduct research and development activities. Although the company is just reaching the point where they can open their own facility, Huawei already has about 40 employees working in the Seattle area and LinkedIn has several job openings listed. The new Huawei R&D center is expected to employee around 100 when fully operational in 2017.

Huawei will be joining companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Uber with a base of operations in the Seattle area. Sources think Huawei may be particularly interested in collaborating with Microsoft and Amazon, especially if they have employees in such close proximity to each other. Huawei just announced a new Windows 10 tablet at MWC 2016. In the future, they may look to Amazon for insight on global supply chain management.

Huawei’s CEO Richard Yu expects the company to continue to grow with a 30% increase in smartphone shipments during 2016. Huawei has already jumped into the top five in the global smartphone market and has their eyes on both Apple and Samsung in the next 2 to 5 years. Much of the past growth they experienced was done without benefit of a presence in the U.S. market. However, during 2015 they did manage to secure a partnership with Google to produce the Nexus 6P, a device that was well received in the market.

source: Bidness Etc

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