Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently shared that the next hardware product from the company will be smart glasses which will be developed with Ray-Ban owner Essilor Luxottica. The glasses are touted to have the Rayban’s trademark iconic frames integrated with AR features. Zuckerberg revealed this during the company’s Q2 2021 earnings call.
The Ray-Ban branded eyewear from Facebook would be marking the first steps in creating futuristic eyewear that augments the real-world with data or graphics from the Internet.
Zuckerberg also confirmed that they are coming up with AR Glasses next. He shared, “Looking ahead here, the next product release will be the launch of our first smart glasses from Ray-Ban in partnership with Essilor Luxottica,” said Zuckerberg. According to the call, the glasses will have their iconic form factor, and they “let you do some pretty neat things”. “I’m excited to get these into people’s hands and to continue to make progress on the journey towards full augmented reality glasses in the future.”
Neither were any technical specifications of the smart glasses were not disclosed nor did Zuckerberg touch upon a timeline for launch.
He also touched about building a virtual ‘metaverse’ wherein users will be able to ‘teleport’ into a digital space using AR and VR technologies. He also emphasised on how commerce and ads will be important aspects of revenue going forward.
These smart glasses have been in the news for years now. Going by the last year’s report, engineers in the ‘Project Aria’ team were experimenting with the eyewear. We will keep you posted on what lies ahead on the horizon