While the smartphone rules the current technological world as the leading computing device, the next big hardware platform is expected to be a version of augmented reality glasses.
The general picture: Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Google are following this vision and many pieces are starting to come into place. But it’s likely that the holy grail of an affordable computer inside something not much bulkier than a pair of standard glasses is still a few years away.
How it works: These glasses allow users to see what they have in front of them, but with digital information superimposed, such as map directions, contact information, and messages. Cameras and microphones capture images and sounds and allow for different types of input, with the voice likely to play a key role.
Who participates: Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have shown interest and invested heavily in the underlying technologies. Analysts also expect phone makers like Samsung and PC makers like Lenovo to take action.
Be smart: If you look closely, you can see some of the key underlying technologies that are already being developed and tested in plain sight.
- Facebook plans to launch smart glasses later this year, designed in collaboration with the manufacturer of Ray-Ban Luxottica. These glasses (a more advanced twist on the niche glasses that Snap has sold) are unlikely to offer full features, but they serve as a springboard, both in terms of technology and to help people get used to these. devices in your life.
- Facebook Oculus the unit has focused primarily on virtual reality and not augmented reality, but there is a fair amount of crossover between the two. Oculus Quest 2 and other VR headsets can provide AR by using cameras to see the outside world.
- Microsoft already sells Hololens, which incorporates the power of a Windows 10 computer into a headset, although it is still too bulky and expensive to attract consumers. Microsoft has made it available to developers and some business customers and is also working primarily with the U.S. military.
- Google glasses, the first device in this category to attract widespread attention, fell as a consumer product, but a slightly updated version is still sold to companies.
- apple has shared few details, but has been making many moves, including a recent move by executive Dan Riccio, reportedly at the forefront of Apple’s VR / AR efforts. According to reports from Bloomberg and The Information, Apple is preparing VR headsets that would also use cameras to see the real world. The device, which could cost between $ 3,000 and arrive next year, could serve as an opportunity for both high-end consumers and developers to start testing the technology that would make fully developed RA glasses work.
- Both Apple AirPods and the Apple Watch represent efforts toward miniaturization of technology and ways to test individual components, such as the spatial audio feature included with the latest AirPods Pro. Several companies hope to solve some of the difficult technical challenges of AR glasses by dividing computer work between several devices. Qualcomm, among others, aims to download some of the processing needs of glasses to users ’smartphones.
- The creator of Pokemon Go, Niantic has a partnership with Qualcomm and has also been busy mapping the real world and developing the kinds of augmented reality experiences consumers will want.
Yes, but: The technical hurdles are many, especially if the lens is really something as light and barely visible as glasses.
- Miniaturization: While many of the computer parts are in place for such glasses, including small cameras, microphones, and processors, the components are still not small enough to have something that has all the features and lightness.
- Battery life: Just like you want your smartphone to last all day, you want your smartphones to work wherever you go. Many of the current headphones, both VR and AR, only last a couple of hours between charges.
- Heat: Today’s processor chips are more energy efficient than ever, but they still emit heat when they work hard, and users won’t appreciate it when the device rests on their face.
- Visualization: Many of today’s RA glasses have only a limited field of view, rather than the ideal experience of being able to place computer images where the eyes can see. Devices also have difficulty providing a light source bright enough for their projected information to be easily visible in sunlight.
- Cost: Putting all the necessary technology in one device, even with the above limitations, adds up to a product that costs several thousand dollars.
“The challenge is to make the technology more efficient in terms of consumption so that it can be used for a longer period of time, without affecting the form factor,” Qualcomm Vice President Hugo Swart told Axios. “RA glasses need to be smaller and lighter in weight and have a longer battery life. Qualcomm is committed to making RA glasses the next big one.”
Even more difficult than technical challenges are the social dilemmas of new technology, Andrew Bosworth, head of Facebook Reality Labs, told Axios.
“How do you fit all this into a socially acceptable and comfortable factor that people feel fits the way they want to express themselves? And of course, you have to consider people who don’t have glasses., How do you fix that? “How can you fix privacy issues with cameras and microphones?”
– Andrew Bosworth of Facebook, to Axios
That’s why Facebook has launched Project Aria, an effort to measure society’s reaction to the smart glasses that always have cameras and microphones.
Our thought bubble: Even if users can be persuaded to trust that their glasses do not spy on their friends and family or record their private conversations, the new devices will demand new rules for every social situation imaginable.
Flashback: These questions arose when Google first introduced Project Glass in 2012.
- Part of what condemned the pioneering smart glasses as consumables, beyond immature technology, was that they were widely regarded as creepy and intrusive. (Remember that?)