Snap and Meta✴ plan to introduce new augmented reality (AR) glasses this September. Both companies have been working on their projects for several years, striving for AR glasses to become as common a gadget as smartphones. It is expected that the devices will receive improved characteristics, but will not be ready for mass production yet.
Image Source: Snap
As Road to VR reports, citing The Verge’s Alex Heath, Snap will unveil the fifth generation of its Spectacles AR glasses at its annual Partner Summit conference in Los Angeles on September 17. And a week later, on September 25, Meta✴ will show its own version of AR glasses (codenamed Orion) at the Connect conference.
«Both companies are aiming for a future in which AR glasses become mainstream products, but the devices that will be shown next month are not yet ready to enter the market, says Heath. At best, he said, they will be released to app developers for experimentation before any future version of the products reaches consumers.
According to the information, the new AR glasses from Snap will be similar to the previous version of Spectacles, released in 2021. The model will offer an improved field of view and increased battery life. Let’s remember that the first generation of Spectacles had a diagonal field of view of only 26.3 ° (which is less than half the field of view of modern VR helmets) and a battery life of only 30 minutes.
Meta✴ promises “high immersion thanks to a wide field of view,” but it is not yet clear how much more it will be compared to other AR glasses and whether it will approach the level of modern VR headsets. It is also unknown whether the new AR glasses will be presented as a continuation of the collaboration with Ray-Ban or under its own Meta✴ brand, such as the Quest VR helmet.
Image source: Meta✴
Despite the ambitious plans of both companies, creating AR glasses that match the capabilities of modern MR devices such as the Vision Pro and Quest 3 is a difficult task. Even best-in-class devices like the Magic Leap 2 feel like a bulky gadget rather than a pair of glasses, despite packing most of the processing power and battery into a separate unit.
Image source: Magic Leap
Ultimately, both Snap and Meta✴ are committed to creating AR glasses that become an integral part of our daily lives. However, it is not yet clear when exactly this technology will become compact enough and accessible to the mass consumer. It is expected that the presentation of new AR glasses will be the next important step in the development of augmented reality devices and will attract the attention of both application developers and potential users.