Meta, which includes social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have not abandoned their vision of a virtual world. When Zuckerberg first announced the Metaverse world, the structure was far from what was imagined. While the virtual characters looked pretty basic and lacked detail, the VR experiences were pretty bland. Even though Meta is losing tens of billions of dollars in this business, Zuckerberg remains confident. Because it looks like the famous billionaire is on his way to reversing the bad taste you get when you hear the word Metaverse with the launch of a new technology that enables seamless communication with photorealistic avatars.

The future of communication could be photorealistic avatars

The Facebook creator sat in on a conversation with Lex Fridman to demonstrate the technology; Here, Zuckerberg and Fridman can be seen wearing the Meta Quest Pro headset and communicating with each other through photorealistic avatars from different cities. So what exactly is happening here? Zuckerberg explains that he and Fridman had to run a computer scan, which maps all of the individual’s facial expressions, muscle movements, aesthetics, and more to create a custom codec.

The scan of the individual is then placed in the virtual world, and when the user puts on the headset, this virtual avatar comes to life. Zuckerberg states that the photorealistic quality is valid for now from the shoulders up, but Meta is working on the legs. Meta’s virtual world, Horizon Worlds, has been criticized for avatars that often look like cartoon characters. It seems that Zuckerberg has stopped these criticisms and decided to take an important step towards photorealistic avatars.

So, what will this technology be used for? Zuckerberg says individuals can use this technology to communicate remotely in a very human way. Business meetings, therapy, interviews, and any other way communication is required can be done remotely using special codecs. Fridman describes the experience as “incredible” and says it’s interesting that Zuckerberg “feels” like he’s sitting across from her when he’s not in the physical world. Meta CEO also says that corporate companies can adopt this technology.

For now, these photorealistic avatars are not available for regular users. However, according to Zuckerberg, the future of this technology will be people scanning themselves with their smartphones and creating an avatar. Users will then be able to participate in a variety of communication-based events, perhaps even live events such as stand-up comedy shows, parkour events, or a variety of other events. Of course, there are a number of hurdles to overcome to achieve this level of photorealism, from being able to scan our faces with our smartphones to ethical questions around privacy.