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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday rejected head-on display technology, a system that Apple is rumored to adopt in a first-generation “Apple Glass” product, as unsuitable for augmented reality applications.
Zuckerberg in an interview with The edge He explained that the transition from virtual reality products like Facebook’s Oculus series to portable augmented reality setups will be an especially difficult problem for hardware manufacturers to solve.
Specifically, the AR experience will only be “good” when a pair of “normal-looking glasses” can project holograms into real-world scenes, he said. That level of sophistication will require significant computing power and is far beyond the capabilities of existing hardware.
“I don’t think we’re anywhere near getting all the electronic components that you would need to go into a slim frame,” Zuckerberg said. “But the hope is that you can put it on more normal-looking glasses in the early part of this decade or the first half of this decade.”
Facebook announced a next-generation untethered VR headset on the Oculus Quest 2 on Wednesday. The social media giant’s virtual reality arm also wiped out the line of PC-connected Rift devices.
Apple is among a handful of major tech companies that are rumored to be working on portable head-mounted displays. Some rumors suggest that an early version of the headset, dubbed “Apple Glass” by leakers, will feature a HUD-like interface as an intermediate step toward immersive environments. A report in late 2019 claimed that Apple plans to launch an AR headset in 2022, followed by a pair of smart glasses in 2023.
“The biggest shortcut that a lot of people are trying to take is basically trying not to do full holograms in the world, and just showing some warning information. I call that putting an Apple Watch to your face,” Zuckerberg said. “Personally, I don’t find it particularly compelling. It’s not a product we’re particularly excited to make. Maybe someone else will. It doesn’t fit the type of social use cases we’re primarily interested in.”
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously predicted that Apple would release a headset that offloads processing and other tasks to the iPhone, leaving the glasses unit as a simple display. In May, leaker Jon Prosser added to Kuo’s predictions, saying that “Apple Glass” will feature a LiDAR module and support physical and airborne gestures.
More recently, former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassee, in a speculative report published Monday, guessed that Apple would launch a virtual reality headset as a first foray into the world of mixed reality devices.
