Edited & Revised By Ariana Meyers
Facebook wants to replace smartphones and computers completely with their new Augmented Reality (AR) glasses.
Facebook Reality Labs revealed yesterday that they are exploring the full-capabilities of human-computer interaction and have created a 10-year plan to build “contextually-aware, AI-powered interface for augmented reality (AR) glasses that can use the information you choose to share, to infer what you want to do, when you want to do it”.
Today we’re sharing our vision for a new type of interface—a human-centric interface—our research teams at Facebook Reality Labs are building to interact with all-day wearable AR glasses: https://t.co/vyEkCB3lK1
— Facebook Reality Labs (@FBRealityLabs) March 9, 2021
These ‘ultra-intuitive’ AR glasses would work in-sync with a soft wrist-band wearable technology and would assist users with all their needs – completely eradicating the need for a smartphone or laptop.
The AR glasses are meant to seamlessly integrate into the user’s everyday life. According to Facebook Reality Labs, the most groundbreaking detail of this new AR interface – compared to current AR devices – is it’s enhanced ability to process contextual information. The AR glasses would “see and hear the world” from the user’s perspective and would provide extremely personalized assistance that “dynamically adapts” to the user and its environment.
To illustrate how the device would work, Facebook Reality Labs offers different hypothetical scenarios: for example, if a user enters a coffee shop – the AR assistant would ask the user if they’d like to order their usual coffee. With a flick of their fingers – the user could respond yes or no. After the user sits down at a table, the AR assistant would note that he or she is sedentary and waiting – so it would suggest if he or she wanted to listen to their favorite podcast. If a user needed to do some work, he or she would be able to use ‘lightweight haptic gloves’ in combination with their AR glasses to access a virtual screen and keyboard to do everything from sending an email to editing a document. Lastly, if the cafe was busy, the AR assistant would detect that the user is having difficulty concentrating in the noisy environment and could activate “special in-ear monitors (IEMs) and active noise cancellation to soften the background noise”.
With a 10-year plan ahead of them, Facebook Reality Labs stated that it would be a long and difficult journey ahead – with Facebook Reality Labs Chief Scientist Michael Abrah calling the AR interaction “one of the hardest and most interesting multi-disciplinary problems around”.
Besides the complexity of its software – the AR glasses could also potentially face privacy concerens from the public. Facebook Reality Labs – however – wants to put a special focus on maintaining user privacy.
“As we build the next computing platform centered around people, we’re committed to driving this innovation forward in a responsible, privacy-centric way. That’s why we’ve crafted a set of principles for responsible innovation that guide all our work in the lab and help ensure we build products that are designed with privacy, safety, and security at the forefront”.
The Facebook Reality Labs will be sharing more information on their research with wearable wrist technology next week. If they do come into existence in 10 years, the AR glasses will surely be one of the most groundbreaking inventions in history.