Meta hoping to advance virtual reality technology from Pittsburgh office

PITTSBURGH — Using a dome of 171 high-resolution cameras, a soundproof box of hundreds of microphones, and a grid of artificial ears, Meta is at the forefront of virtual reality development right in Pittsburgh’s Strip District.

On Tuesday, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility.

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“We’re an advanced research and development lab, which means our work is far off into the future,” said Chuck Hoover, Meta’s Pittsburgh general manager. “We’re really trying to invent what that future can be.”

Meta believes that the future involves people across the globe creating a virtual reality avatar, simply, with their cellphone, to interact with anyone else in the world in a way that mimics reality.

But to make that happen, the company must first build a database of avatars based on 10,000 people.

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That’s happening right now with real Pittsburghers.

“Our competitors are not video conference systems, but because we want to be able to interact virtually, indistinguishable from real life, our competitors are airplanes,” said Hoover. “It’s how we can actually be present with people across distance without having to travel.”

The company has been working on this technology in Pittsburgh since long before the pandemic, but the last several years have really emphasized its need, according to Hoover.

“We’ve all learned over the last couple years how hard it is to be disconnected from friends, and loved ones, and colleagues. For us it’s much easier to explain why this is important to us, why we’re working on this,” he said.

Meta is proud to be at the forefront of the technology revolution in Pittsburgh.

The company credits the Steel City with producing, attracting, and retaining the 200-300 engineers and scientists essential to this work.

“Building out this lab, we’ve continued to thank Meta for the investment into Pittsburgh because I don’t think we’d be able to do this anywhere else,” said Hoover.

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