Facebook Inc launched its first data glasses on Thursday to get closer to its goal of offering true augmented reality glasses.
The glasses, which were developed in collaboration with the Ray-Ban manufacturer EssilorLuxottica, allow wearers to listen to music, take calls or take photos and short videos and share them with an accompanying app via the services of Facebook. Facebook said the line of glasses named “Ray-Ban Stories” would start at $ 299.
The social media giant, which had sales of around $ 86 billion in 2020, makes most of its money in advertising, but has invested heavily in virtual and augmented reality, developed hardware like its Oculus VR headsets, and developed wristband technology worked to support augmented reality glasses.
Facebook’s chief scientist said last year that the company was five to ten years away from bringing “real” AR glasses onto the market that would place virtual objects over the wearer’s view of the real world.
Large tech companies such as Amazon.com Inc, Google by Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, and Snap Inc have spearheaded the development of various data glasses products, but early offerings like Google Glass proved difficult to sell to consumers who, through high prices were deterred and design problems.
Snap, which unveiled its Smart Spectacles in 2016, launched AR glasses this year, but they are not for sale and are only offered to AR creators. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in 2019 that he anticipated it would be a decade for consumers to see AR smart glasses become widespread.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the company is building a team to work on building the Metaverse, a shared virtual environment that will be the successor to the mobile Internet.
“We have long believed that glasses would be an important part of building the next computing platform,” Zuckerberg said in a video posted on his Facebook page on Thursday.
Facebook, which has come under fire for its handling of user data, said it would not access the media of its data glasses customers without their consent.
The company also said it would not use the content of the photos or videos taken with the glasses and saved in the Facebook View app to personalize ads, saying the glasses would be an “ad-free experience” .
The glasses contain an optional virtual assistant so that photos and videos can be taken hands-free using voice commands. Facebook said an LED light on the glasses would indicate when the camera is on to alert other people when a wearer is taking a photo or video.
It has published a guide that describes the responsible use of glasses, for example turning them off in private rooms such as public toilets and not using them for illegal activities such as harassment or the collection of sensitive information such as PIN codes.
