[ad_1]
Facebook unveiled its highly anticipated smart glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban, entering an emerging wearable device market with a focus on image capture rather than augmented reality.
On Thursday, the social network introduced the glasses called Ray-Ban Stories, a direct competitor of the Snapchat Shows. The $ 299 Facebook glasses, which use EssilorLuxottica SA’s classic Ray-Ban Wayfarer frame style, allow users to take photos and videos, listen to music and answer phone calls.
Although it lacks augmented reality, the technology that mixes digital content with the physical world, Facebook says it plans to eventually include this feature.
Facebook is entering an increasingly crowded market. Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, first launched Spectacles in 2016 with a built-in video camera. And in 2019, Amazon.com launched smart glasses for taking calls and using Alexa, but those don’t include augmented reality either.
In May, Snap also announced a version of Spectacles with augmented reality capabilities, although it was not available to consumers.
Apple plans to enter the eyewear business later this decade with an augmented reality-based offering, Bloomberg News reports.
Ray-Ban Stories Facebook Glasses
To the naked eye, Facebook glasses are not much different from classic Ray-Ban. But the minimalist appearance hides a host of smart features: two 5-megapixel camera sensors, Bluetooth 5.0, and built-in Wi-Fi to sync with the phone; battery; enough storage space for 500 photos; and speakers.
User can take a photo by pressing and holding a button on the right side of the glasses, or they can record a video by tapping it once.
There is also a touch area on the right side of the glasses to control music, voice assistant, and calls. User can swipe left or right to adjust volume, tap to play, pause and ignore music, or double tap to answer and end phone calls. There is also a basic voice assistant on Facebook.
The company hasn’t announced when it will launch true augmented reality glasses on the market, but such a device is part of the company’s long-term strategy to build what CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls a metaverse, or digital worlds where people interact together using virtual reality devices.
The future of human communication
Zuckerberg said he believes virtual and augmented reality devices are the next major human communication platform, after mobile phones, to eventually replace some in-person interactions.
If Facebook is successful in the hardware market, it will be able to grow its advertising and messaging business without having to rely on operating systems and tools created by competitors like Apple and Google.
The company’s hardware division also sells Oculus VR headsets and Portal video chat devices, and the company plans to add AR functionality to Oculus products later this year.
While the product lags, several years after Spectacles and eight years after Google introduced Google Glass – the search giant’s first attempt at augmented reality glasses – Facebook’s offer may still raise privacy questions. among consumers, because the glasses will collect the data that Facebook says it needs. Such as battery life and Wi-Fi information as well as required login information for Facebook account user. Users will also have the option to share more data, including the number of photos they have taken and the length of the videos.
The glasses are not a stand-alone product, so music and calls are streamed to the glasses from your iPhone or Android phone via Bluetooth. It requires the use of an iPhone or Android app called Facebook View, which is used to manage and configure your glasses.
When the user takes a photo or video, the media will appear in a section of the app. The user can then choose to download that photo or video to the device for storage and editing.
Ray-Ban Stories basically mixes the functionality of headphones like Apple’s AirPods with sunglasses capable of taking photos.
It is not clear whether such a product will find a large market, given that the images captured on smartphones are of a much higher resolution and many phone users already have headphones. They’re also significantly more expensive than regular Ray-Ban Wayfarers, which typically cost between $ 100 and $ 200.
Source link
