Meta to unveil smart glasses with a display, wristband at Connect
Mark Zuckerberg, meta CEO, made an opening speech at Meta Connect’s annual event at the Menlo Park and California, on September 25, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Meta CNBC plans to use the annual Connect conference to announce a deeper push to smart glasses, including the initiation of ready -made glasses of the company’s first consumer.
According to people who know this issue, Meta is one of the two new devices that Meta plans to explain at the event. The company also said that users will start their first bracelet that will allow users to control glasses with hand gestures.
Connect is a two -day conference for developers focusing on virtual reality Ar and metaverse. It was initially called Oculus Connect, and on Facebook 2021, the parent company took its name to Meta, and after it became the current nickname.
People who want to be named because the details are hidden, said the glasses have coded Hypernova built in built -in Hypernova and contain a small digital display on the right lens of the device.
The device is expected to cost about $ 800 and will be sold jointly EssilorluxotticaHe said. In October, CNBC reported that Meta was working on consumer glasses with a screen with Luxotticica.
Meta refused to comment. Luxottica in France and Italy did not respond to comments.
In 2021, when the two companies published the first generation Ray-Ban stories, Luxottica began to sell smart glasses, which allowed users to take photos or videos using simple voice commands. The partnership has been expanded since then, and last year, it included the addition of advanced AI features that made the second generation of the product an unexpected hit with those who adopted early.
Luxottica licenses a series of glasses brands, including Ray-Ban, and licenses others such as Prada. It is not clear which brand will use for Luxottica’s Ar’li Glasses, but a commodity list This week, the company said that the company is looking for a technical program manager for “wearable organization” responsible for the “Ray-Ban Glasses and other wearable equipment.
In June, CNBC reported that Meta and Luxottica plans to release Prada branded smart glasses. Prada glasses are known to have thick frames and arms, which can make them a suitable option for the Hypernova device.
Last year, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, used Connect to exhibit the company’s experimental Orion Arglasses.
Orion has AR features that can blend 3D digital visuals on both lenses to the physical world, but the device served as a prototype to show what is possible in the luminaire. Nevertheless, Orion has gained some positive momentum for the commodity, which has ended about $ 70 billion losses from the reality laboratory unit responsible for building hardware devices since the end of 2020.
Hypernova and Meta will finally offer glasses to consumers with an exhibition, but the company has determined low expectations for sale. This said that the device would only require more components than their voice premise and would be slightly heavier and thicker.
Luxottica CEO Francesco Milleri, Meta and Ray-Ban has sold 2 million pairs of second generation glasses since 2023. In July, Luxottica said that the income from smart glasses sales endured every year.
As part of a extension agreement between Meta and Luxottica, Meta, announced in September, received a 3% share in the Glasses Company. Bloomberg. Meta is also receiving exclusive rights to Luxottica’s brands for a few years for smart glasses technology.
Although Hypernova will include a screen, people familiar with the issue are expected to be limited to these visual features. They said that the color screen would offer a field of view of about 20 degrees – so it will appear in a small window in a fixed position – and firstly, it will be used to transfer simple pieces of information such as text messages.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s technology chief, said that at the beginning of this month, it is the advantages of having only one screen instead of two, including a lower price.
“Monocular screens have a lot for them,” Bosworth he said in an Instagram video. “Affordable prices, lighter and do not correct inequality, so they are structurally easier.”
‘Interaction with an AI assistant’
Other details of Meta’s future glasses were announced in a letter to a lawyer representing Meta from the US Customs and Border Patrol. Although the letter corrected the name of the company and the product, a person with information on the subject confirmed that Meta refers to Hypernova glasses.
“This model will enable the user to take photos and video, telephone calls and video calls, send messages and send messages, listen to voice play, and interact with a AI assistant in different forms and methods, including sound, display and manual interactions.”
The letter from the CBP was part of the routine communication between companies and the US government, while determining the country of origin for a consumer product. It refers to the product as “new smart glasses” and says that the device will find a lens imaging function and image data intake, processing and creation features that allow the user to create interfaces with visual content caused by smart features. “
CBP did not comment for this story.
Hypernova glasses, people familiar with the issue, Meta’s CTRL laboratories built by the technology built by a bracelet will be matched, he said. The CTRL Labs, which Meta acquired in 2019, specializes in creating neural technology to allow users to control information processing devices using gestures in their arms.
The wrist band is expected to be a key input component to publish the company’s future Full Glasses, so that getting data with Hypernova can improve the future versions of the wrist band. Instead of using a camera Monitoring of body movements, sensors, Apple Vision Pro Ear Set, Meta’s wristband called Semg sensor Technology that reads and interprets electrical signals from hand movements.
A person who is familiar with the development of the product, one of the challenges that Meta faces with the wrist, said how people involve choice to wear it. If the device is too loose, the user cannot read electrical signals as intended, and that may affect the performance. In addition, the bracelet has faced problems about which arm was worn, how it works against women against men, and how it functions on people wearing long sleeves.
Ctrl Labs Team published an article Nature In July, he wrote about his bracelet and Meta in a blog post. In the article, the Meta team detailed the use of machine learning technology to ensure that the wristband works as many people as possible. Additional data collected by the upcoming device should improve these properties for future commodity smart glasses.
“We successfully prototyped a Semg wrist band. OrionThe first real augmented reality (AR) glasses, but it was just the beginning, “Meta wrote post. “Our teams have developed advanced machine learning models that control neural signals that control the muscles on the wrist and transform the need for traditional and more cumbersome input forms that direct people’s interactions with glasses.”
Bloomberg reported Bracelet component in January.
Meta has recently started to reach developers to start testing both Hypernova and the accompanying bracelet. The Company said that third -party developers, especially those who specialize in productive AI, wanted to go to court to create experimental practices that Meta can exhibit to exhibit for intelligent glasses in an exciting way.
In addition to Hypernova and the bracelet, a person will announce the third generation of only voice smart glasses with Luxottica in Connect.
This device was referred to as “new generation smart glasses” by CBP in the July letter. The glasses will include components that provide capacitive touch functionality and allow users to interact with smart glasses through touch movements.
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