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Smart glasses have been difficult to sell to the general public. Products like Google Glass and Snap Spectacles were never successful on a large scale, although Glass remains an option for hands-free workers. Amazon’s new Echo Frames, which allow you to access Alexa on the go, also leave a lot to be desired, according to reviewers.
Now, Facebook is making its own bet in the futuristic frame war. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at the social media giant’s all-virtual Facebook Connect conference that it plans to launch smart glasses for consumers next year.
Facebook announced that it plans to launch Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses next year, though it hasn’t revealed what features the frames will have.
“We do not yet have a product to share with you today, but I am pleased to share that we have formed a multi-year partnership beginning with the construction and launch of our first pair of smart glasses next year,” Zuckerberg said during the conference.
Facebook has partnered with luxury eyewear brand Luxottica, and their new smart glasses will be branded Ray-Ban. Zuckerberg said the Luxottica partnership will help accommodate a variety of styles and preferences that people would have for glasses.
The company did not discuss what the new product’s actual feature set would be, but confirmed to media outlets such as TechCrunch that the glasses would not include a head-up display, nor would they be classified as AR devices, leading analysts to speculate that they would look alike. more to Snapchat glasses than Google Glass.
Facebook will begin testing Project Aria research glasses this month to collect data to create wearable augmented reality technology in the future.
Facebook says the consumer glasses will be your first step in your general work in augmented reality. Facebook also recently unveiled Project Aria, a research project that it hopes will help usher in the first generation of wearable AR devices. “The Project Aria glasses are not a consumer product, nor are they a prototype,” Facebook announced in a statement. “They will not show any information inside the lens and the research participants cannot see or hear the raw data captured by the device.”
Instead, the research devices “will use sensors to capture video and audio from the user’s point of view, as well as eye movement and location data to help our engineers and programmers discover how AR can work in the practice, “explained the Facebook press release. “The glasses will encrypt, compress and store data until it is uploaded to our separate, designated back-end storage systems.”
Starting this month, Project Aria glasses will be delivered to a small group of Facebook employees and contractors in the US, who will wear the glasses throughout the day to collect data for things like head tracking, head tracking, eyes and audio algorithms.
Considering that one of the biggest criticisms of Google Glass in its day was the lack of privacy inherent in a device that could be recording videos without the knowledge or consent of viewers, Facebook has gone to great lengths to describe all the privacy steps that is taking with these research classes. . For example, Facebook notes that any information collected in a public place will have faces and license plates automatically blurred before researchers look at them, and research glasses do not employ facial recognition identification technology. Facebook says it consulted with various privacy experts to develop its data protection controls. “As we continue to explore the possibilities of AR, we will continue to interact with privacy experts and refine our policies,” the company noted.
Some of the possibilities Facebook envisions for AR glasses in the future include: calling a friend and “chatting with your realistic avatar across the table”, providing “intuitive navigation support for people with disabilities”, assisting with worker training, enabling you to hear better in noisy areas, or easily extract statistics to display at a business meeting. “We are imagining a time when we have all the benefits of connectivity (and more), without the need to keep our heads and eyes down, looking at a device,” explains the company.
Many of the proposed apps remain in the realm of science fiction, of course, but Facebook hopes the Aria research project will help make them a reality.
