Pico 4 Ultra with Advanced MR Features Unveiled
The Pico 4 Ultra, the latest generation of standalone virtual reality (VR) headgear from Pico Interactive, a ByteDance affiliate that creates business and consumer VR solutions, was released recently.
With major hardware improvements intended to provide users with an improved mixed reality (MR) experience, the Pico 4 Ultra expands on the basis of its predecessor, the Pico 4, and establishes the headset as a strong rival to Meta’s Quest 3 device.
The Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor from Qualcomm powers the Pico 4 Ultra, which the company claims delivers 20% better CPU performance than the prior iteration. In addition, the smartphone has 256 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM.
For crystal-clear visuals, the Pico 4 Ultra features two 2.56-inch displays with a refresh rate as high as 90 Hz and an image dimension of 2,160 × 2,160 pixels per eye.A 105° field of vision (FoV) is another feature of the headset. According to Pico, the Pico 4 Ultra offers a 62% improvement in resolution rendering and a 25% boost in screen brightness over the device’s predecessor.
The Pico 4 Ultra boasts passthrough capabilities that enable full-color passthrough and 3D environment meshing, thereby delivering excellent mixed reality experiences. This is achieved through the use of two 32 megapixel (MP) colour passthrough cameras and an iToF depth-sensing camera. The headset reduces the 32MP camera output to an effective resolution of 8MP while viewed in passthrough mode, but Pico said that this is still more than sufficient to provide a high-quality colour passthrough experience with little distortion and a refresh rate of up to 72 Hz.
The headset’s 5,700 mAh battery, which supports 45W rapid charging, is housed in the back padding for optimal weight distribution. This would make it possible for the gadget to charge from empty to 100% in less than an hour, which would be a major advancement over earlier versions.
The controllers for the Pico 4 Ultra have also been modified. According to Pico, the ringless form of the controllers is 50% shorter in height than the previous generation, making them lighter and more pleasant to handle.
The addition of Pico’s “PanoScreen” workspace, which enables users to launch and manage several expanding windows inside a 360° virtual environment, is another helpful feature of the Pico 4 Ultra.
With the help of the brand-new PICO OS workspace function, users may build a personalised virtual desktop that can hold up to three separate displays at once. The tool allows flexible window resizing up to 280 inches. Users may mirror material straight to the headset from their iOS or Android mobile devices, Mac, or Windows PC by using the PICO Connect app.
Moreover, users may effortlessly transition between several interaction modalities to accommodate diverse situations using the PanoScreen workspace feature, which facilitates interactions via external keyboards and mouse, controllers, or hands.
In addition to the headgear, Pico has unveiled new Motion Trackers that provide full-body tracking to improve the VR experience. With their lightweight design and easy pairing with the headset, these trackers only weigh 27 grammes, enabling users to engage with virtual reality settings with their whole body.
According to Pico, the trackers’ 12 infrared sensors and IMU sensor provide 6DoF tracking with a latency of under 20 ms, enabling precise and responsive movement tracking over 24 distinct skeletal locations.
