- Meta investing heavily into designing immersive AR glasses for a world without smartphones.
- The glasses are slated for commercial release by the decade's end.
Meta is making a bet that we'll see the future in 20/20 (or better) with its new lineup of eyewear.
Right now, there's a lot of excitement around Meta's new Ray Ban Smart Glasses, which come with a camera and built-in speakers, so users can play music, and even take phone calls with them.
But the company has a drastically more ambitious plan in the works: A pair of augmented reality glasses that are designed for a future where we won't use smartphones, according to the tech newsletter Command Line.
Meta's AR glasses might be "the most advanced piece of technology on the planet in its domain," Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth, and head of its Reality Labs division, recently told the newsletter.
"In the domain of consumer electronics, it might be the most advanced thing that we've ever produced as a species," he said.
The glasses aren't likely to hit the market until the end of the decade. Internally — where the endeavor is known as "Project Nazare" — Meta's employees are aiming for the first prototype to be out by 2024, and working on lighter, and more advanced designs scheduled for 2026, and 2028, according to The Verge. Users might eventually be able to use the glasses for something far more immersive than the standard video call — like interacting with holograms of other people, The Verge reported.
One of the main obstacles is creating displays that are clear and high-quality, yet still cost effective, Bosworth told Command Line. Added to that, Meta is working on manufacturing new materials for the glasses, and considering how to give them enough power so that users don't need to keep charging them periodically, Bosworth explained.
The good news is advancements in AI are definitely going to make these glasses more useful than Meta anticipated, he said. And a "great AI assistant" could also help the company make some tradeoffs on other parts of the design, he said. Though, he didn't offer too many specifics on how AI will be integrated into the device.