News of TikTok owner ByteDance making a mixed reality headset will probably not be surprising. After all, the company does own PICO, the brand that made the PICO 4 headset and its Ultra variant. But the company is working on a new one that does things a bit differently – the processing is not done within the headset itself.
The Information reports that PICO is indeed the one making this new mixed reality headset for ByteDance. But the report notes that the company is keeping the new headset lightweight by offloading most of the processing work to a separate puck. This is then connected to the headset itself via a wire. This concept is similar to a patent Apple filed, having a headset tethered to an iPhone. The project was later reworked to require a Mac instead before ultimately being cancelled.
Speaking of Apple, ByteDance may be taking an additional page from the bitten fruit’s book. According to the report, PICO is working on “specialised chips for the device that will process data from its sensors to minimise the lag or latency between what a user sees in AR and their physical movements”. For context, the Vision Pro has an R1 chip that’s dedicated to real-time processing of sensory data.
For now, things may be early enough in development that there’s no word on when the headset will be released. Locally, there’s a chance this new one also gets brought to our shores, if it does get completed. After all, PICO has brought the 4 and 4 Ultra over.
(Source: The Information via Engadget)
