Snap, the maker of Snapchat announced in Partner Summit, about its next generation “Spectacles” smart glasses built for augmented reality technology that is adaptive to specific devices, streamlined in 60s style in black. The glasses will be relatively lightweight at 134 grams and pack a lot of brightness for using it inside and outside. The device comes with built-in microphones, stereo speakers, and touch-keys as well for a more riveting experience.
Talking about the features of the device co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel said that the glasses will come with dual 3D waveguide displays along with a 26.3-degree diagonal field of view giving an immersive lens experience. The device operating for 30 minutes time will “feel like they’re naturally overlaid on the world in front of you”. The glasses comes with the company’s new spatial engine that leverages freedom of hand and surface tracking realistic ground digital objects in the physical world and six degrees. Its enhanced photon-latency responsiveness feature works with 15 millisecond motion. Its Snap Lens Studio will help creators build custom lenses for the devices. The idea is to encourage a small portion of the 200,000 people who already make AR effects in Snapchat to experiment with creating experiences for the new Spectacles Glasses already sent to users come with a range of lenses and other customizations. Moreover, many other companies like Facebook is also geared up to launch smart glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban .
The glass will not have build-in displays and rely on other forms of input. Apple too is rumoured to be working on AR glasses and has deployed thousands of employees to build them. Snap has been trying to make its place in the augmented reality world but it is already populated with massive competitors. Snap will be promoting the glasses for creators on Snapchat as the technology according to Snap is not quite ready for a mass-market release. The hardware has a better form factor than functionality as compared to devices by AT start-ups like Magic Leap. Unlike other glasses, it is less helmet-like. Snap worked with WaveOptics to build its latest version of Spectacles. Snap thinks that it will take roughly a decade before AR glasses become compelling enough for mass adoption like mobile phones.
