Meta unveils next version of augmented reality glasses for $3k

https://www.spaceglasses.com/

by sxp • 13 years ago

76 68 13 years ago

sweet. i can't wait to use these things in my $20M mansion in the hollywood hills to design rocket engines

prawn7• 13 years ago

It's funny you should say that because very, very advanced AR goggles could probably furnish a stark house in a virtual way to be as luxurious as you wanted. You could put virtual objet d'art on real or virtual shelves. You could admire a virtual view that simulated the vista from the Hollywood Hills, etc.

(I otherwise share your disdain for the rocket engine ra-ra on their sales site.)

goldenkey3• 13 years ago

Pre-order now, aka fund us, because all we have is an idea and some Tony Stark marketing videos.

smallegan2• 13 years ago

META is a Y-combinator backed company and they have a team of 25 people working on this and have already shown prototypes to many major tech sites.

goldenkey3• 13 years ago

So that makes it okay to show a product so-far-bluffed that it will never exist? Get real. The video is the antithesis of honest marketing, it's pure hype.

flyinglizard• 13 years ago

And a very cool site.

2013throwaway2• 13 years ago

Yeah, what happened to the units that were supposed to ship in November 2013?

They were crazy to announce such an early ship date. Maybe none of those 25 people know about manufacturing...

nemo1618• 13 years ago

Nice to see that they've got Steve Mann onboard. That inspires a lot more confidence than flashy marketing videos.

alwaysinshade• 13 years ago

Agreed, it would have been better to have the chief scientist discuss the core technologies, design and potential applications than watch an Elon Musk/Tony Stark ripoff drive his Tesla-S home to his sweet pad and knob around with a CAD model of a rocket via a seemingly non-intuitive interface.

If the device was only a few hundred dollars to purchase then the marketing video might have had some merit. But at 3k, you're selling to people who want to know how it really performs, and what technical trickery Mann might have introduced to make it an exciting human-machine interface.

catch23• 13 years ago

Wow, that's already a huge endorsement.

daeken• 13 years ago

1280x720 pixels for both displays

Does this mean 1280x720 for each display, or combined? That's a bit vague. Still, this is quite neat; the resolution was what made me not back their first Kickstarter. Maybe this is worth throwing a couple grand into, to see what comes out.

grannyg00se4• 13 years ago

And at what pixel density? I'd like to know what happens if I take the entire contents of my 1920x1080 desktop and project it say...4 feet away. Does it look like crap or not? For some reason in all of their promo material I can't see a normal looking desktop projected.

They're going to have to show much less marketing hype and much more practical use. Especially for a $3000 pre-order.

PeterisP• 13 years ago

Well, if it's 1280x720 for your whole field of view, so any reasonable size rectangle 4 feet away will be a fraction of that resolution - so, forget about readable text or such.

locusm• 13 years ago

Is this tech for tech sake that just drains the pockets of early adopters... Not being snarky, just trying to understand what it solves, ultimately who is the customer of these types of device?

Whitespace• 13 years ago

I'm sorry to have to say it here on HN, but this wannabe apple.com spin-shit-in-3d-when-you-scroll crap is completely unusable.

I'm on a Retina 15" MBP – a laptop that their target demographic will be using – and I can barely make it through the site to try to piece together information about their product.

Am I supposed to scrounge up an external mouse with a scroll wheel and be impressed by the CSS3 transitions? I'm seeing this more and more and I'm really confused how something like this makes it through QA.

TillE• 13 years ago

It's the animated GIFs and blink tag of 2013.

I've seen weird scrolling used reasonably well when most of the content is text, but in this case it really should just be a video.

NamTaf• 13 years ago

No, the transitions are clunky for me and the whole website just makes me want to throw something at the designers.

Stop doing this, people. It's a horrible idea.

bede• 13 years ago

The site is remarkable, but undoes so much of its developers' hard work through its sluggishness. My maxed-out Haswell 15" hit 9fps during rapid scrolling in Chrome (FPS counted by dev tools).

Hopefully they're less tolerant of poor framerates in their actual product, which sounds very exciting.

cbhl• 13 years ago

I fear for the people who use these devices in production. IIRC, over-eye VR displays cause nausea even with a relatively low latency (~20 ms[citation needed]), which was one of the reasons why Glass went for the "above the field of view and on one eye" approach. I'm not even sure if it's possible for consumer hardware available today to process/draw fast enough to make users not nauseous, wearable form factor or otherwise.

interpol_p2• 13 years ago

I found it scrolled much smoother in Safari than in Chrome. But I agree, dislike the heavy feel of the site regardless of how it scrolls.

zcase• 13 years ago

Visionary, but seemingly impractical. Any way of seeing videos of real use that isn't spinning rockets around? Not trying to be condescending, but that seems more marketing than reflective of what people can/will use Meta for.

julianpye• 13 years ago

AR stereoscopic see-through displays are complex, difficult tech. This has nothing to do with Google Glass which is closer to being an aside information display. Sony has the most IPR and expertise in the field when it comes to displays that create a 3D augmented experience for both eyes. They have examined this field for ages and had a hard time to discover application fields. Meta hopefully cracks this nut and delivers a development program that brings stereoscopic AR to the next level. But as someone who managed an AR portable display team in this field for VF, I see it as a steep challenge.

radley• 13 years ago

Curious to know more about what Sony's doing.

If the price drops enough: Dennō Coil.

venus• 13 years ago

Glad to see someone else here has seen Dennou Coil - IMO it should be required viewing for anyone interested in AR! It's not perfect, but has some fascinating ideas about where AR could go.

sejje• 13 years ago

How programmable is this?

zxcvvcxz• 13 years ago

Are there videos of actual first-person (recorded by camera) demos? Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the video was all graphic editing and thus not representative of the device itself. If I were to shell out $3K I'd want to see actual product demonstrations, which I can't seem to find.

sanswork3• 13 years ago

It says right before the demo part that those views were filmed through the glasses using this http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicpocketcin... and not cgi.

maxk42• 13 years ago

May I interest you in some swampland in Florida?

prawn7• 13 years ago

Someone linked this further up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rj9nMJq1Vk

lettergram• 13 years ago

Only demo I could find...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rj9nMJq1Vk

riobard• 13 years ago

“Mirror All Your Devices“ is just plain stupid. Skeuomorphism in the next generation.

MojoJolo• 13 years ago

The price is steep but Steve Mann (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann) is there chief scientist. I think if anyone we can trust about AR, Steve Mann is the guy. He's wearing those glasses before it was cool. He got a lot of experience, and troubles with those glasses (see "steve mann mcdonalds"). He really know what he's doing.

lalc3• 13 years ago

I'm writing a middlebrow (lowbrow, really) dismissal because this actually deserves it. This is... shamelessly phony. "Your laptop is now a hologram"?[1] Do I have to 3D scan my laptop in? Are they going to mind-upload my Intel CPU to the cloud while they're at it?

Your use-case for AR is a ghostly 5FPS replica of my laptop or phone that I can vaguely gesture at? Tracing in the air to lathe a rocket hull will bring me closer to the world? Meta has access to non-rendered pages of app icons inside the iOS sandbox? "ROCKET COMPLETED"? "500+ Meta Applications in development"?

They say this is real footage, and have a big red "BUY NOW" button. What target audience is this supposed to convince?

[1] http://i.imgur.com/unxD96I.jpg

grannyg00se4• 13 years ago

"Your laptop is now a hologram" refers to the fact[1] that you won't need a physical machine (aside from the Intel i5 cpu in your pocket). The keyboard is virtual, and the monitor is virtual. Everything else is physical but it's tiny.

[1]best guess

prawn7• 13 years ago

Then leave the laptop out of it. Seems pointless retaining the laptop form factor for this, even to demonstrate the concept to an audience.

prawn7• 13 years ago

Is that pocket computer required? If so, seems strange to access your virtual phone through a phone-sized pocket computer. I can appreciate that virtual screens will eventually be a selling point, but not maintaining the idea of a virtual phone and laptop.

I found this early demo based on the Oculus Rift to be a bit more promising, even though it's currently far, far rougher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc_TCLoH2CA

lalc3• 13 years ago

Yeah, virtual phone and virtual laptop seem ridiculous when you have an AR headset. There's even a virtual laptop keyboard... how could the glasses possibly detect your typing?

That Oculus demo looks great! See, there's an honest video you can actually believe. Promising for sure.

dnautics• 13 years ago

do you suppose your proprioception might get out of whack if it's even slightly miscalibrated?

fromdoon• 13 years ago

let them push the envelope dude

newhouseb• 13 years ago

They say this is real footage

This _really_ bugs me. It's pretty clear that the UI is simulated footage _maybe_ recorded through some strange projection system, so that they can claim it is real -- but only by a technicality.

It's one thing to promise a delivery date based on a simulated product, that could be passed off as wishful thinking. To claim that something is real footage, under a technicality, is dishonest. It's especially sad, coming from a YC company.

kayoone2• 13 years ago

that claim is ridiculous. How do they plan to mirror your smartphone and pc ? Something like VNC maybe, which will at least require a rooted/jailbroken phone. And why a virtual 11 inch form factor ?

Id love to be proven wrong, but as this clearly isn't real footage, lets see what comes out of it.

sanswork3• 13 years ago

Why? Because it looks cool for a demo. It can be real footage without being a useful app.

2013throwaway2• 13 years ago

Didn't their website used to say shipping November 2013? What happened to the people who ordered with that promise?

Anyways, that was a crazy ship date they were never going to meet, even if their CAD had been completely 100% finalized and locked, it would have taken them that long just to make the tooling, let alone manufacture a run of parts. Maybe next time they hire 25 people at least one of them should know manufacturing.

grannyg00se4• 13 years ago

This seems cool if you want to hold your hands in front of you and spin things around in virtual 3D.

Personally I could do without all that - I just want a really nice looking virtual 2D screen projected in front of me so I can finally ditch my fixed-in-place monitor.

btbuildem• 13 years ago

this is so retro

tree6014• 13 years ago

I don't usually get angry just from seeing a product promo. But, this has done it. Note that the glasses are stationary for all but one shot where the movement is slow and linear and it still shows tracking error. If it's not ready, it's not ready. They should have kept their reputation in tact and tried again in a few years rather than trying to sell a bad prototype under a false banner.

My attention is directed toward the Oculus Rift. I own the dev kit and have been following Oculus VR closely. Save your VR/AR gadget money for their consumer release if you want something that lives up to the hype and delivers on its promises.

chasing• 13 years ago

I do not believe that people in general will be interested in having permanent digital displays attached directly over their field of vision. Maybe specialists. Doctors. Mechanics. People who have their hands full but still need to access informational resources. But for general use, they're just too distancing. And intimidating, frankly.

(Don't get me wrong -- they look cool and I'd love to try it out. And there might be a business, here. But it reminds me of the Segway: Touted as the revolutionizer of cities, but in the end something with limited utility once the hype-wave settled.)

prawn7• 13 years ago

Given high enough resolution and light enough hardware, I can see it happening. Many already drive or walk outside wearing sunglasses, or wear glasses for reading. A pair of very light-weight goggles that could switch quickly from fully opaque display to translucent overlay to what appeared to be standard vision (but was replicated by cameras) could be useful.

Add in ear buds that can open a valve (rather than be removed) and you could do all sorts of things. Virtually furnished rooms, watching virtual displays in any position, any angle, etc. TVs and monitors could well become obsolete if the resolution is enough to simulate them.

I wonder if it would even be possible to set your goggles to show other wearers in your home and office as though they weren't wearing theirs, even if they were. Some sort of internal eye-tracking could potentially simulate their eyes realistically enough if the uncanny valley could be surpassed.

potatolicious• 13 years ago

I don't doubt the hardware can exist and work well. The question is what is it for?

Okay, I have a display on my head that is aware of the world around me, with perfect latency and extreme accuracy (still two of the biggest unsolved problems, but let's assume).

I'm walking around on the street. What would this thing be doing? I'm cooking dinner. What would it be showing me? I'm hanging out with my friends. What would...?

There are certainly a lot of niche, professional uses: technicians and engineers can get information hands-free while on all fours or strung up on a high pole. Realtors can use it to show prospective tenants virtual layouts (as you brought up). Professional drivers can use it to get dispatches without taking their eyes off the road.

None of this particularly compels the everyman to wear one regularly. What does it do for the average joe, in their average joe lives?

rdl• 13 years ago

I'm pretty sure I'd do it, but I'd actually prefer an audio system, which is trivial with tech had even 10-15 years ago -- basically 24x7 microphone and headset, connected to something with less computation than Siri, giving me essentially an "audio tour" of wherever I am, mixed in with internet content (e.g. reading me mail), etc.

aresant• 13 years ago

This pitch struggles more than usual communicating "why" I need this product.

Apple's genius in their early iphone commercials was showing the product as it was seamlessly integrated into our daily lives.(1)

Email, video, maps, real internet on the go. As soon as you saw the commercial you knew you were going to buy one because you knew how it would benefit you.

I have yet to have that sort of connection with any sort of wearable AR device.

(1) http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4acWkNihaxc

qq66• 13 years ago

How about: your studio apartment feels like a mansion, your hellion offspring seem like perfect angels, and your car always looks (to you) as if it's just been detailed?

JDDunn9• 13 years ago

Easily 5x as useful as Google Glass. Though, still not that useful.

mercnet• 13 years ago

As an aerospace engineer I laughed so hard at Rocket Completed. What exactly is your market? I am confused on why I would use your system to combined two parts to create my rocket assembly.

JoshTriplett• 13 years ago

Impressively flashy, and nice that it comes with a very flat pocketable computer, but that aside I'm much more excited about CastAR (http://technicalillusions.com/ , http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/technicalillusions/casta... ). HDMI input, camera, sensors, and a nice RFID system for taggable physical objects and mats.

ch4s3• 13 years ago

That chat pop up on the site is super weird. I mean I knew those things existed, but still.

kayoone2• 13 years ago

I dont think they are doing themselves a favor with a bullshit marketing video like this. They seem to have a great team but all we have seen from Meta other than pre-rendered marketing videos has been a bit rough, to put mildly. Example [1]

Id love my virtual AR 70 inch high res computer display though, so i hope they succeed ;)

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWPdAhhUWD0

rohunati• 13 years ago

Maybe someone here can answer this. Do founders of important technologies generally have a good idea of the primary use case(s) for their product? Seems silly to ask, but I posed this very question to Meta, and their answer was essentially that they are going to "let their users decide that." Three use cases were listed off, but I didn't find them particularly impressive. What should be made of this?

I ask because it seems contrary to the importance of solving a problem. With SpaceGlasses, the users run around deciding how the product can enrich their lives. Seems pretty odd.

I've found that with lots of successful tech products, I've been able to pretty quickly see the how I could use it in my everyday life. The iPhone is the classic example, but even search, email, Facebook. I don't really see that here. I'm pretty young though, so my experience is really limited. Also, I realize my personal experience doesn't make for a very strong argument. Still, it's a pretty terrible pitch.

maaku• 13 years ago

This technology will change the world.

But not at that price point.

And not with that pitch.

interpol_p2• 13 years ago

The chat box is incredibly obnoxious, as is the big red "BUY NOW" button right on top of the video I am trying to watch in order to _learn about your product_.

The site feels desperate for sales. Preventing the chat box from continuously popping up and killing the "BUY NOW" video overlays would be a big help.

aidenn0• 13 years ago

Anyone else bothered by calling stereography "a hologram" or is it just me?

Meta unveils next version of augmented reality glasses for $3k

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