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Evan wearing the AR glasses during the demo
Snap’s new AR glasses are powered by the new platform from the company but can it take on the Meta Ray Ban glasses battle?
Snap Inc. unveiled its new cutting-edge augmented reality (AR) spectacles, with a new operating system (OS), that powers these see-through glasses. The fifth-generation Snap spectacles, which the company claims weigh 226 grams, lie gently on the eyes and behave normally until you turn them on and they reveal a screen that allows you to have fun or get creative with a variety of lenses.
Snap co-founder Evan Spiegel unveiled the new augmented reality glasses during the company’s primary annual event, Snap Partner Summit, held at the Barker Hangar in Los Angeles.
Snap is leading the way in this emerging wearables category as big tech begins to recognise the benefits of AR glasses over the more bulky and opaque VR headsets. Reportedly, Meta is also thought to be planning the release of its own augmented reality spectacles. The Snap spectacles function by projecting an overlaying augmented reality image on your vision, keeping you connected to reality. They are stand-alone gadgets that can be controlled with pinch motions of your right hand and a virtual console that opens on your left palm.
The ‘Spectacles’ app from Snap can be used to pair the glasses with a phone, allowing the user to mirror the phone’s screen and use the phone as a game controller. Even group activities using the glasses are made possible by the ‘spectator mode’ feature.
Snap also announced a collaboration with OpenAI to provide artificial intelligence models to lens makers using the new AR glasses. According to the company, the spectacles would initially be available only to lens developers, including those from India, who collaborate with Snap for a $99 (about Rs 8,283) monthly subscription.
Snap AR Spectacles: Features
The Snap AR glasses have four cameras, which power the Snap Spatial Engine and allow for hand tracking. The Optical Engine has been created to allow for a see-through AR display. The glasses use liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) micro-projectors to create vibrant images, and they contain waveguides that allow you to see the images without the need for calibrations or special fittings.
The Optical Engine has a 46-degree diagonal field of view and a resolution of 37 pixels per degree, which is comparable to a 100-inch display 10 feet away. The glasses tint automatically in response to ambient light and can be used both indoors and outdoors.
The two Snapdragon processors in the dual system-on-a-chip design divide the computational load on the eyewear, and titanium vapour chambers release heat. A 45-minute maximum runtime on a single charge was announced by the company.
“We want to be the most developer-friendly platform in the world, empowering developers to invest in building amazing lenses,” the tech company said in a statement, adding that the glasses will have no developer tax and would provide developers with new opportunities to design and distribute lenses.
