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May 18, 2022

Tech Roundup: The Race for Augmented Reality

Meta, Google and Snap are among the many companies aiming to bring augmented and mixed reality more into the mainstream.

By  Theresa Hegel

Tech companies are moving closer to making the dream of augmented reality into, well, reality. Smart glasses and headsets that merge virtual worlds with the physical or allow the wearer to access a variety of information are in the works from Meta, Google and other big tech brands. With more and more promotional products companies delving into the metaverse and experimenting with NFTs, it’s worth keeping abreast of such plans. Here’s a quick look at what to expect from their latest efforts to add brains to frames.

‘Subtitles for the World’

Earlier this month at its annual Google I/O developer conference, Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, previewed a pair of AR glasses that display translations of conversations in real time – what the company has dubbed “subtitles for the world.”

In a short video Google released, Eddie Chung, director of product management, explained that the glasses represent years of research in Google Translate. “What we’re working on is technology that enables us to break down language barriers,” he noted.

“Giving people the gift of communicating with anyone no matter what language they speak, I think is a really powerful thing,” Chung added.

During the conference, a prototype of the as-yet-unnamed glasses showed translations for conversations in English, Mandarin, Spanish and American Sign Language, according to Reuters. Google didn’t specify a release date.

It’s an intriguing idea – and something Google has experimented with in the past with its Pixel Buds – but questions remain about how well the glasses would work outside of a short video showing an optimal, controlled environment. As The Verge notes, “Google is trying to solve an immensely complicated problem. Translating words is easy; figuring out grammar is difficult but possible. But language and communication are far more complex than just those two things.”

Still, it’s a massive step up from Google Glass – those futuristic frames with a built-in camera released a decade ago that were so universally disliked they earned an entry on Urban Dictionary.

‘A Laptop for Your Face’

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been releasing details about Project Cambria, its latest virtual reality headset expected to be released this fall. The headset has been described internally at Meta as a “laptop for the face” or even a “Chromebook for the face,” according to The Information.

Among the expected features for the new headset are outward-facing cameras that allow for mixed-reality functions – helping Meta increase its push into the much-hyped metaverse. The company recently tweeted a short video of CEO Mark Zuckerberg demonstrating how the headset will be able to facilitate mixed-reality experiences.

In the video narration, Zuckerberg told viewers they’re looking at an experience known as “The World Beyond,” which allows the company to “blend the physical and virtual worlds together.”

“This is just the beginning for mixed reality,” he continued. “Imagine being able to pull up your perfect workstation with as many screens as you want anywhere you go. Or working out with a virtual instructor who gets beamed into the room with you.”

The headset is also expected to have eye-tracking and facial-expression recognition features, with user avatars in virtual apps mirroring the wearer’s expression and the direction of their gaze. Meta has also said it plans to release three other VR headsets in the next few years, and it’s aiming for AR glasses to be released in 2024, according to Engadget.

City-Wide AR Grids

Snap, the company that brought the world Snapchat, has also been hard at work on augmented reality. The latest version of its so-called Spectacles looks more like sunglasses than a bulky headset. They were released last year to developers, rather than the general public, with a focus on creating AR experiences. This year, the company announced the Pixy, a small, hovering drone for taking selfies. The drone would also have some AR features, allowing selfies to be enhanced with various effects, much like users can do on Snapchat.

The company is also experimenting with location-based, large-scale AR, according to CNET. The idea is that you could have entire city-scale grids that are AR-enabled. “You can basically just drag and drop content into these locations, or you can programmatically create content, have Spider Man jumping off roofs, land dragons on certain buildings,” Qi Pan, Snap’s director of computer vision engineering, told CNET.

Snap’s CEO Evan Spiegel has said that the company’s journey toward consumer-ready AR glasses could be a 10-year journey. But Snap execs have said that the developer-focused Spectacles it released last year are an important stop on that journey. “Developers are still people. And developers have to wear [Spectacles] outside. … If we can get them to wear them outside, and building things and excited about things, then we’re on the right path forward,” Sophia Dominguez, Snap’s head of AR platform partnerships, told Fast Company.