Zuck Confirms Facebook’s Smart Glasses Will Be Its Next Stab at Hardware

It’s been some time since we’ve heard about Facebook’s collaboration with Ray-Ban on a pair of augmented actuality glasses. But in feedback throughout an earnings name, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that no, he hasn’t forgotten in regards to the machine. It’ll truly be the corporate’s subsequent {hardware} launch.

The sensible glasses got here up whereas Zuckerberg was describing his imaginative and prescient for “building the next computing platform” aka combined actuality. In specific, he emphasised that VR is shifting past gaming and that combined actuality is already morphing right into a social platform.

“But we’re also seeing compelling use cases and other forms of entertainment as well, as well as work, creativity, and fitness. Looking ahead here, the next product release will be the launch of our first smart glasses from Ray-Ban in partnership with EssilorLuxottica,” Zuckerberg mentioned on the call. “The glasses have their iconic form factor and they let you do some pretty neat things.” He went on to say that he was excited for “full augmented reality glasses in the future.”

Details have been mild, and Zuckerberg didn’t touch upon any timelines, however you possibly can nonetheless learn between the strains. When its partnership with Ray-Ban was introduced again in 2019, Facebook had already been engaged on this “Orion” glasses mission for quite a lot of years. At the time, it was thought the glasses wouldn’t launch till 2023. Then, final 12 months Zuckerberg mentioned its first shopper sensible glasses would arrive in 2021 beneath the Ray-Ban model.

So, more than likely, the AR glasses Zuckerberg was speaking about are much less like Google Glass and extra like Amazon’s Echo Frames. Last 12 months, the corporate told the Verge that these first glasses wouldn’t be thought-about AR glasses, they usually wouldn’t have any type of built-in show. The extra lofty concepts Facebook’s been spitting recently—mushy wristbands, haptic gloves, facial recognition—appear to confer with both Project Aria or one other future model of shopper sensible glasses down the street.

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As for the “neat things” these first-gen glasses will allow, it’s anybody’s guess. Similar merchandise, just like the Echo Frames, the Bose Frames, and Razer’s Anzu glasses are extra like glorified headphones for hyper-specific conditions. Without a show, the more than likely state of affairs is that they mean you can take calls, take heed to music, or entry a digital assistant. Or, it might be one thing just like the first iteration of the Bose Frames, which tried and did not create an ecosystem of audio-only apps.

More nauseating was Zuckerberg’s pitch that these glasses could be half of a bigger “metaverse”—the newest buzzword tech CEOs have been bandying about recently. For Facebook, it apparently refers to a digital setting for individuals to work, socialize, and waste their cash in. A extra three-dimensional web which you could work together with. If that’s the top objective, then inexpensive and accessible sensible glasses could be a intelligent gateway into its digital ecosystem. It’s already performed that with Oculus to an extent, however sensible glasses would arguably be extra interesting to the typical individual as they’re extra discreet, cellular, and don’t scream “gamer nerd.”

This is numerous ifs and Facebook will undoubtedly face stiff competitors. Apple can be rumored to be engaged on its personal combined actuality headset and sensible glasses. Other tech firms, like Oppo and Samsung, have additionally been rumored to be engaged on sensible glasses. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Google have been making AR glasses and headsets for years and have already carved out a reasonably sturdy area of interest within the enterprise house.

Facebook would even have to beat individuals’s notion that it’s a privateness nightmare for all this to work—and for sure, that’s a tall order. Even so, it appears decided to barrel forward with its wearable plans. On high of sensible glasses, the corporate can be rumored to be engaged on a smartwatch.