Facebook in AR
During the sixth annual Oculus Connect Facebook conference, Mark Zuckenberg spoke about many news regarding both the VR world and AR.
For 2020, the American giant will have its Smart Glasses ready on site.
Together with Luxottica, Facebook is working on the Orion project: intelligent eyewear in Augmented Reality that is able to communicate in audio and video streaming, display information to users directly on the lenses and always be connected, hands-free, thus allowing the users to do any activity.
Facebook already have thought about the idea of a mini wearable computer in the past and the Italian company Luxottica had already had a partnership with Google Glass, which lasted little.
Mark Zuckerberg pointed to Virtual and Augmented Realities as central to the future Facebook ecosystem. The first is covered by Oculus visors, already on the market, but it is known that Facebook is working on Augmented Reality with a team of hundreds of employees in an attempt to overcome any obstacle. The group is working on AR technology, but so far Facebook has struggled to reduce the size of the device in a way of having a design that consumers can find attractive.
Facebook hopes that a partnership with the parent company Ray-Ban will help Luxottica complete the smart glasses and prepare them for consumers between 2023 and 2025.
Apple Glasses in AR
Sources says the Apple Glasses in AR will arrive on the market towards the middle of next year. Tim Cook himself is a big fan of Augmented Reality, which he considers social and inclusive, while he denigrates Virtual Reality as an insulating technology.
Apple AR glasses will carry the information from your phone directly to your face. These Smart Glasses should synchronize with the iPhone of the wearer to display elements such as texts, e-mails, maps and games onto the user’s field of view.
Apple also has plans for third-party apps and is considering a dedicated app store, similar to how apps for Apple TV and Apple Watch are obtained.
He is hiring graphic design and game development experts to make the technology glasses a leader in a new product category and, if everything goes well, a possible iPhone successor.
However, Apple has not yet devised an application that will make glasses a must-buy. Given this obstacle and the challenges of perfecting AR technology, the product could slide down the calendar if executives decide it needs more lab time.
Smart Glasses in AR: the true obstacle is the design
Can a wearable device be comfortable and have a practical design?
This is the real challenge for the two American giants. An eyewear in AR that can be attractive but at the same time functional.
For this reason, thanks to Luxottica‘s style, Facebook wants to design a pair of glasses that is both high-tech and eye-catching, which is why it has set up a team to create AR technology by reducing the size of the device, which, having different components inside it, would tend to make it heavy and bulky.
Apple should offer high-tech glasses that will not have CPUs, processing memory, storage or anything else inside them except the cameras used to capture the scene around and the wireless connectivity connected to the iPhone. Therefore, the device will also have smaller batteries that will reduce weight and above all price.
Who will be the first to in the market?
We will see developments in the coming months.
