Those closely following the latest developments in virtual reality probably already know that Meta has enabled the use of its Quest 3, 2, and Pro headsets as monitors for any device, through its official app Meta Quest HDMI Link. The app is still in beta and requires additional hardware, but that hasn't stopped the emergence of some online experiments, like the one recently published by Ian Hamilton of UploadVR. The final setup is a nightmare of hubs, dongles, and adapters; however, there's a certain "proto-cyberdeck" here that we can't ignore…
On August 15, Meta announced the launch of the Meta Quest HDMI Link app for its Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro headsets. With the same spirit as the Link Cable and the Air Link feature, HDMI Link turns the headsets into monitors as long as the device supports HDMI or DisplayPort. Now, the setup is not necessarily plug-and-play, and the user must add a video and audio capture card to process the signals, but its potential is much greater than it seems. That’s how we arrive at the UploadVR portal, where Ian Hamilton presented a setup that begs to become a cyberdeck.
Meta Quest + Raspberry Pi 400 = "Nezumi Cyberdeck"?
The setup is based on a Raspberry Pi 400, a Meta Quest 3, and a ShadowCast 2 capture card, which takes the HDMI signal from the computer and converts it to USB-C. Logically, this hardware requires a series of adapters (the RPi 400 uses micro-HDMI for its outputs), USB hubs, and retractable cables for better organization, but the demonstration video (available at the source, link below) confirms that it works perfectly even on a standard Raspberry Pi OS installation.
At the end of the day, everything will depend on how well the user gets along with the virtual headset (dizziness and nausea are common cases), and on the work Meta decides to invest in this application, but it automatically reminded me of Nezumi from Serial Experiments Lain. Are we ready for something like this? We’ll have to find out…
