Metas Codec avatars are getting closer, job postings suggest
Recent job postings suggest that Meta's photorealistic Codec Avatars are on their way out of the lab and into products.
Meta currently has several open positions related to Codec Avatars. The company is looking for a design prototyper and an iOS developer, among others.
Journalist Janko Roettgers first spotted the postings in his Lowpass newsletter.
According to the description, Meta wants to build an "internal XR calling service":
"With our team, you will explore, prototype, and build experiences that define the future of how people interact through immersive telepresence with Codec Avatars. You will work closely with engineers, scientists, and research product managers to build and scale an internal XR calling service and solve user and researcher challenges that are unique, complex, and nuanced."
In the case of the iOS developer, Meta is looking for someone "with experience in user interfaces, infrastructure, and/or tools supporting applications on the iPhone or iPad using the iOS SDK."
Codec Avatars: Sci-fi tech on the road to productization
Meta has been researching Codec Avatars for many years; the research was first presented to the public in 2019.
In 2023, podcaster Lex Fridman conducted an interview with Mark Zuckerberg using Codec Avatars.
What Meta did not reveal was that workstations with 4 GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards were used to render the avatars in realtime. And that's not the only hurdle to commercializing the technology: people have to be meticulously scanned in a dedicated studio.
However, in March 2024, research director Yaser Sheikh said at a presentation that an older, less realistic version of Codec Avatars was already running on standalone headsets, and that the avatars could be created with a one-minute smartphone scan of the face. Meta calls these Instant Codec Avatars.
The iOS developer's task could be to create a smartphone app that guides users through the scanning process and enables XR calls with future Quest headsets.
There have also been recent hints of upcoming Codec Avatars on another front, as code strings indicating their implementation have been accumulating in the Quest firmware. It is unclear for which headsets these might be coming. Currently, only Meta Quest Pro supports face and eye tracking; a device like Quest 3 would have to guess facial expressions based on other factors such as voice.
Meta will be eager to finally commercialize the technology, as Apple beat Meta to the punch with Spatial Personas. Hopefully, there will be a first preview at Meta Connect 2024.
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