PICO4Ultra: Affordable Price, Upgraded Experience, Facing the MR Future

PICO4Ultra: Affordable Price, Upgraded Experience, Facing the MR FutureWhile countless players are "facing their destiny," PICO is also facing its own destiny. On August 20th, PICO released its first MR standalone device, the PICO4Ultra

PICO4Ultra: Affordable Price, Upgraded Experience, Facing the MR Future

While countless players are "facing their destiny," PICO is also facing its own destiny. On August 20th, PICO released its first MR standalone device, the PICO4Ultra. This product, with its powerful computing platform, improved cameras, and software innovations, delivers a completely new experience, closer to the Apple VisionPro, and also brings new breakthroughs to PICO's application and content ecosystem.

The most noticeable change on the PICO4Ultra is the front of the device, which now has three cameras instead of the original single camera. They are: one iToF depth perception camera and two 32-megapixel color cameras.

The iToF depth perception camera can accurately measure spatial distances of about 3 meters and 60 degrees, providing accurate depth information for MR experiences. The two 32-megapixel color cameras simulate human eyes, arranged symmetrically. They capture the real environment and output a combined 8-megapixel, 20.6PPD (field of view) image, presenting users with a clearer and more realistic MR experience.

In addition to the MR experience, these three cameras also support the recording of spatial videos at a maximum resolution of 2048x1536 and 60fps, as well as spatial photos. More importantly, the PICO4Ultra is the first MR product based on the Qualcomm platform that supports the full chain of spatial video shooting, editing and broadcasting.

PICO4Ultra has also achieved a significant upgrade in terms of computing power, equipped with the Snapdragon XR2 Gen2 chip, bringing a 2.5-fold GPU performance improvement and an 8-fold AI performance improvement. The direct benefit of the chip upgrade is a significant improvement in game graphics. The actual rendering resolution of the PICO4Ultra is over 62% higher than that of the PICO4, reaching 1920x1920, making all images clearer.

Based on the MR experience and performance improvement, the PICO4Ultra has expanded to include more new features in different scenarios. For example, the full-screen display supports up to 20 application windows simultaneously, which will bring more possibilities to users and change their usage habits.

PICO4Ultra supports one-click switching between MR and VR modes. In MR mode, users can see the "real world" reconstructed by the cameras through algorithms in real time, maintaining continuous connection with the outside world. In VR mode, users can see the virtual world generated by computer graphics rendering, enjoying a highly immersive experience.

For the first time, PICO4Ultra supports AIGC scene generation, allowing users to experience virtual scenes built by AI. Although AIGC scenes currently have limitations in terms of detail and spatial sense, they will bring more possibilities in the future.

In terms of controllers, the PICO4Ultra has also undergone a major revolution. The original tracking ring design has been removed, making the new ringless controller lighter, and the design with the center of gravity closer to the palm of the hand is more ergonomic. With the support of cameras and algorithms, the PICO4Ultra also incorporates gesture interaction function, which can replace the role of the controller in some scenarios.

Embracing MR, PICO is also embracing openness

At the PICO4Ultra launch event, it was clear that PICO's ecosystem has changed, becoming more diverse and open, and also forming a stronger alliance with ByteDance behind it.

First, MR applications have been added. PICO4Ultra will be able to experience over 50 MR applications, over 600 VR games, and over 300 non-game VR applications, covering a variety of scenarios such as games, entertainment, music, and work.

PICO also announced that it will open its app store in the second half of this year, supporting a wider range of developers to upload applications and leveling the playing field in terms of distribution. The "Early Access Zone" will be upgraded, and services for individual developers will be gradually strengthened, providing more support for developers.

PICO4Ultra is also fully compatible with Android applications, which means you can install and use common apps such as WeChat, Feishu, Bilibili, and Douyin on PICO4Ultra, to some extent making up for the lack of richness in the XR application ecosystem.

PICO4Ultra also supports screen mirroring from mobile phones and PC platforms, allowing you to project your phone and computer screens to PICO4Ultra and display them as application windows. The accompanying keyboard and mouse support will be updated in the fourth quarter of this year.

PICO4Ultra continues to improve the streaming experience of PCVR games, supporting WiFi7 to reduce the wireless streaming transmission latency to 5ms, and the wireless streaming bitrate can reach 1000Mbps, making the image presentation more lossless. It also supports the AV1 codec with a higher compression rate.

In terms of content, spatial/photo videos are the development direction that XR manufacturers generally recognize. PICO4Ultra not only supports playback of spatial videos shot and edited by itself, but also supports spatial video formats shot by Apple devices, which means that spatial videos shot by iPhone and VisionPro can also be viewed on PICO4Ultra.

PICO has also reached a cooperation with Canon, announcing the spatial video creator plan at the launch event. In addition to cooperating with institutional creators (OGC) and top professional creators (PGC), it will also encourage individual user creators to join, providing more support for the creation of spatial video content.

AI-based 2D to 3D content is a direction that everyone is exploring, and PICO is no exception. The PICO4Ultra will launch the Douyin 2D video to 3D function later this year, which may solve the problem of too little 3D content to some extent. PICO also said that it will later open this technology to PICO3Ultra users, allowing users to convert their own 2D photos and videos.

In addition to the above features, PICO also has two "big projects" prepared, one is the MR interactive drama "Da Vinci: Wings of Fantasy" that will be launched with the new device, and the other is the "Three-Body: Expedition" VR game for which the launch date has not been announced. Both have attracted a lot of attention from the audience.

Starting at 4299 yuan, PICO aims to make a universal MR headset

Price is a key concern for many users. Unlike the 30,000 yuan price tag of the Apple VisionPro and the tens of thousands of yuan price tag of the Wanchu Mengxiang MR, PICO4Ultra, as PICO's first MR standalone device, is priced at 4299 yuan for the 12GB+256GB version. It is currently open for pre-order and will officially go on sale at 10:00 am on September 2nd.

In addition, there is a 300 yuan discount for PICO old users who buy it for the first time, and they will also receive a motion tracking sensor worth 399 yuan. In addition to providing more accurate feedback in applications such as dancing and fitness, the launch event also highlighted the support of the new generation of motion tracking sensors for the popular VR social application VRChat, which can display richer and more personalized movements.

For a price that's much more affordable than the Apple VisionPro, the PICO4Ultra has achieved many breakthroughs in MR, and even has a clear advantage in VR ecology. It is indeed one of the most cost-effective products in the current VR/MR category.

The launch of PICO4Ultra is not only a major breakthrough in PICO's products and ecosystem, but also a clear understanding and firm belief of PICO's future direction for MR development. It is believed that in future development, PICO will continue to strive to bring richer MR experiences to users, leading the arrival of the MR era.