Meta is Racing To Release Its First AR Glasses in 2024 (theverge.com) 43
Mark Zuckerberg has a grandiose vision for the metaverse, and he hopes that you'll one day see the same thing, too -- quite literally, through a pair of augmented reality glasses. The Verge reports: Still, Zuckerberg has ambitious goals for when his high-tech glasses will be a reality. Employees are racing to deliver the first generation by 2024 and are already working on a lighter, more advanced design for 2026, followed by a third version in 2028.ââ The details, which together give the first comprehensive look at Meta's AR hardware ambitions, were shared with The Verge by people familiar with the roadmap who weren't authorized to speak publicly. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment for this story.
If the AR glasses and the other futuristic hardware Meta is building eventually catch on, they could cast the company, and by extension Zuckerberg, in a new light. "Zuck's ego is intertwined with [the glasses]," a former employee who worked on the project tells me. "He wants it to be an iPhone moment." Meta's CEO also sees the AR glasses, dubbed Project Nazare, as a way to get out from under the thumb of Apple and Google, which together dictate the terms that apps like Facebook have to abide by on mobile phones. The first version of Nazare is designed to work independently from a mobile phone with the assistance of a wireless, phone-shaped device that offloads parts of the computing required for the glasses to operate. A marquee feature will be the ability to communicate and interact with holograms of other people through the glasses, which Zuckerberg believes will, over time, provide people with a more immersive, compelling experience than the video calling that exists today.
If the AR glasses and the other futuristic hardware Meta is building eventually catch on, they could cast the company, and by extension Zuckerberg, in a new light. "Zuck's ego is intertwined with [the glasses]," a former employee who worked on the project tells me. "He wants it to be an iPhone moment." Meta's CEO also sees the AR glasses, dubbed Project Nazare, as a way to get out from under the thumb of Apple and Google, which together dictate the terms that apps like Facebook have to abide by on mobile phones. The first version of Nazare is designed to work independently from a mobile phone with the assistance of a wireless, phone-shaped device that offloads parts of the computing required for the glasses to operate. A marquee feature will be the ability to communicate and interact with holograms of other people through the glasses, which Zuckerberg believes will, over time, provide people with a more immersive, compelling experience than the video calling that exists today.
I can't imagine a worse possible product idea (Score:5, Insightful)
To have a computer (designed by Facebook) sitting on my face, seeing and hearing everything I do and running it through Facebook's servers? Tracking, facial recognition, AR holograms: This sounds like the absolute worst-case idea.
magic leap (Score:2)
Well we all know that magic leap will release Duke nukem rides the Segway AR edition before 2024, so meta is toast.
Re: (Score:2)
Well we all know that magic leap will release Duke nukem rides the Segway AR edition before 2024, so meta is toast.
Half-Life 3 confirmed!
Re:I can't imagine a worse possible product idea (Score:5, Insightful)
You forgot the ads. It will look like one of those TV sets out of Idiocracy. Also, there will possibly be an anal probe involved, just because.
Re:I can't imagine a worse possible product idea (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, "meta glass" does make my butt draw up just thinking about it.
Re: (Score:2)
Realtime sphincter tension is a critical marketing metric.
That would be for a separate product, Meta Gas. Realtime fart and burp tracking. Just be careful which end goes where.
Re: (Score:2)
Or wait, this one goes in your butt, this one goes in your mouth.
Re: (Score:2)
To have a computer (designed by Facebook) sitting on my face, seeing and hearing everything I do and running it through Facebook's servers? Tracking, facial recognition, AR holograms: This sounds like the absolute worst-case idea.
If it becomes useful to people, nobody will care.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I think we're actually closer to the SNOW CRASH reality, metaverse and all.
Re: 101 Uses For A Dead SJW (Score:2)
Where did you grow up? We should know because the education system there has clearly failed you.
More compelling video experience? (Score:3)
The "metaverse" will fail because of greed (Score:5, Insightful)
This is 100% guaranteed. Any kind of open metaverse will 100% fail because Facebook/MS/Google/Apple/EVERYONE will want to monopolize it.
This is no different than the Instant Messenger wars. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why IM clients can't talk to each other. There is no reason why Facebook messenger can chat with someone using Apple iChat or Google WhateverChat. The only reason is greed and a desire to monopolize the platforms. This same problem is 100% guaranteed to happen with the "metaverse". Facebook, Apple, Amazon, MS, and Sony will all have their own separate metaverses and none will talk to any of the others and they will all generally suck because of it.
So, we can all just go ahead and forget about the whole metaverse thing entirely because it won't happen. Just pick your walled off platform of choice because that's all it will ever be.
Re:The "metaverse" will fail because of greed (Score:4, Insightful)
The only actual use for the Metaverse is advertisement and product placement, so yes, they all want a slice of the pie.
The really funny thing is that almost no one gives a flying copulation about that pie, but they're sure that if they just keep pushing and pushing, people will convert.
Like with 3D television..
Re: (Score:2)
The only way the "metaverse" can possibly succeed is if the US Federal Government creates it. That's the only reason why we don't have 50 different "internets". It's also the only reason why your Ford can drive on the same highways and use the same gasoline my Toyota does. This is exactly what happened to trains too, and this *almost* happened to airlines. Individual air lines were building their own private airports until the Federal Government put a stop to that and banned airlines from operating their ow
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Right, that's kind of what I mean. If the Federal Government regulated the protocols, like they do with cell phone service, then it *might* actually work.
But that won't likely happen.
Re: (Score:2)
Not so. There are tons of valid and awesome use cases. Consider walking thru a real-world museum with AR glass on and seeing contextualized info about the individual art pieces and specimens as you pass them -- or even simple stuff like a virtual sign that says "this way to the Mona Lisa!" and is a floating arrow that you can turn on and off.
The problem is that all of the actual value this tech brings will always take a backseat to serving ads, tracking you, and God knows what else, all to make money. Th
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, yeah, I'm sure that's all possible. But that's not the promise of the "metaverse". The metaverse is supposed to be an open platform that uses open standards and protocols so that any developer can jump on board and develop for it. Kind of like how anyone can buy a web server and develop for the internet, and how you can use an Apple computer and still access websites hosted by Amazon or Google.
But this will never happen with the metaverse. Companies are going to lock it down because they will want to ow
Radio ad (Score:3)
Either way it was a weird ad and seemed to me to be some kind of opening salvo for preparing the ground to unleash this shit on consumers and hoping they don't suffer the same fate as Google Glass.
Re: (Score:2)
Non stop Trump 2024 ads in 3D (Score:1)
An iphone moment? (Score:5, Insightful)
Facebook is having a hard time getting their own platform working, content moderation, crappy content (like video 90% of it is ripped from other sites) and other issues. Maybe they should focus on those, instead of trying to invent new stuff to generate revenue. But this is all smoke and mirrors from Zuck the magician, trying to distract investors to look at the front of the ship, while the back of the ship is on fire and sinking.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, and I should add, Zuck is no Steve Jobs, he doesn't care about customers. That is when companies really take off, is when they know what customers want before they know it. (And even if apple really only wants money in the end, they sure know how to look like they only care about customers and their products reflect this) I know that augmented reality is something that most people don't want.
Proprietary AR is bad (Score:2)
I'm all for some kind of open source AR but clearly this will be proprietary. Meta will subsidize the price of the hardware by harvesting data and selling ads that will appear in your range of vision, or pull your attention to something as you walk near. It will be seductively unobtrusive to start out with and then just be part of your landscape. No way I am touching this, and I sure won't wear it on my face.
"Meta" stands for... (Score:2)
"Metastasize"
Same old story - tech first not product first (Score:5, Insightful)
Google beat them to market with Google Glass. It was pretty amazing from the few I got to try. MS has also beat them to market with the Hololens, which also is pretty cool from the few I've had a chance to try. However, I never bought one, and I don't see people walking around with these things. Why?
It's actually quite simple. The hardware is irrelevant, it comes down to this: What problem exists in the world where Augmented Reality is the answer? Sure sometimes you need to get the gee-whiz factor to get some traction, but in the end technology is only valuable and gains adoption because it either eliminates a problem in people's lives saving time or money, or it creates a new opportunity people hadn't had access to before. I have yet to see a single company or visionary talking about A/R or V/R that improves people's lives or creates these new opportunities.
I will state my theory as to why Facebook was successful, and ultimately why it's being challenged. There are 3 categories of problems that a technology can solve that will make it successful. It's either an exponential cost reduction making a technology available to different classes of people, or time which people cannot buy more of, or overcoming geography. Facebook was successful because it was a platform that allowed parents and siblings to connect in a world where people are much more migratory and be at least involved in their lives, through pictures and videos and comments, regardless of how far apart they lived; they allowed for connection where geography is meaningless. People desire connection with their friends and family, and it overcame the geographic challenges to make those connections.
So, that brings us to the Metaverse and A/R. What purpose does it serve? I honestly had hoped Facebook with the purchase of Oculus would get the fact that family and friend connections regardless of geography would be realized, adn they would build a world where, for example, my mother who lives far away could put on some VR glasses and experience being in my living room watching her grandson play. That's something that, frankly, every retired grandparent in this country would buy hands down. It of course requires more than just glasses, but a real solution, such as cameras in my living room and data management that translate the right information to her VR or A/R glasses to have that experience. I don't see that; doesn't mean they aren't but they're not trumpeting it.
So I just don't know why anyone needs a "metaverse" or A/R or anything yet; I know what I would do, but I can't see how what these folks talk about as speaking to a solution that overcomes the challenges of time, geography, or significant cost reduction to make new options to people who didn't have it before. It just feels, like most failure startups, as a technology in search of a problem.
Re: (Score:2)
But the success is why people jumped on. The why was beca
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not even an idea guy, but I can come up with a bunch - with very simple A/R glasses - all you need is an outward pointing camera, mic, and the throughput to stream it out in HD in realtime. Doable with today's tech.
Building on your grandma scenario - yes, if you put on the glasses so that your mother who lives far away can be seeing out of your eyes, as you play with her grandson in your living room - golden. Extend that to being at their baseball/basketball/soccer games, school recital, etc.
How abou
Re: (Score:2)
Killer applications for this are all over the place.
Let's hope that's not taken literally. On the other hand, there's that old Betamax theory of tech. No tech is mature enough until you can sell sex with it
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Bring on the Hardware! (Score:2)
I want the hardware, the Quest 2 is a fantastic piece of kit (super easy to share private games/content via App Lab - Meta is not involved other than hosting the functionality which is free). Anyway...
The "metaverse" as a massive public mall thing will fail for what it is being sold as -> "public social interaction".
No one wants that.
A concert with a bunch of avatars would suck. Live sports in VR as a crowd would suck (however, a VR/AR experience for a live game, that's a different story altogether - i
It will suck (Score:2)
Zuckerface, who must have macular degeneration or something, thinks 2K-per eye (17 pixels per degree) is "Retina display." Think about that .. the moon is a half degree across .. do you think a moon drawn with 9 pixels across will look the same as the when you see the real moon? Sorry, but you neded at least 75 pixels per degree for something to be considered Retina display.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Betting the farm, without having the skills (Score:2)
Facebook have an awful track record for making hardware. Although thereâ(TM)s no reason why eventually they canâ(TM)t get good at it, it will take time, and many product iterations.
The problem is that theyâ(TM)ve bet the farm on this working, theyâ(TM)ve raised the expectations to fever pitch levels. There is every chance that the hardware, and the experience will suck. This wouldnâ(TM)t have necessarily been a problem if theyâ(TM)d approached it in a calm way. But they haven
Obligatory (Score:2)
Every time someone talks about reinventing reality as an AR device, read the Vision Machine [multiversitycomics.com] comic.
(You still can find some downloadable .cbr copies out there, it was Creative-Commons-NC-licensed - though the author has removed the original link since).