Snap is taking a new go at smart glasses — following a disappointing uptake of its earlier tries — launching the latest iteration of Spectacles, marking the corporation’s first pair of display glasses intended for augmented reality.
The new Glasses are not yet available to buy. However, CEO Evan Spiegel, presenting the item at the Snap Partner Summit, said that the corporation has made them accessible to selected creators to explore. Snap first debuted Spectacles for shooting short films in 2016, but early variants failed to take off.
It’s uncertain if Snap sees the AR-enabled Glasses as a significant new hardware business — or whether the firm intends to stay a niche-oriented tool for developers generating immersive content.
The objective is to encourage a small part of the 200,000 people who already produce AR effects on Snapchat to experiment with building experiences for the new Spectacles, as per Spiegel. Like the bright yellow vending machines Snap used to sell the first version of Spectacles several years ago, the method could be a savvy way to build awareness for the glasses ahead of their wide release. Spiegel has claimed that Smart glasses will take around a decade to attain widespread use.
The Spectacles may be worn indoors or outdoors and comes with two cameras, four mics, and even a touchpad. The Spectacles feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 CPU, developed for extended reality (XR) application. In addition, they’re connected with Lens Studio software that allows developers to build their designs to use with Spectacles.
The new Spectacles enable you to see simulated digital items layered on the environment in front of you. The glasses have two 3D waveguide displays and a 26.3-degree diagonal field of vision overlay for AR Lenses — which appear before the wearer’s eyes. According to Snap, with 15 milliseconds of motion-to-photon delay, the Snapchat Lenses can “react swiftly and appear properly inside the visual field.”
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