Google Ends its AR Glasses Project

Within its hardware section, Google is laying off hundreds of positions, the most of which are from its first-party augmented reality hardware team.

The statement that Google issued is as follows:

“A few hundred roles are being eliminated in [Devices & Services] with the majority of impacts on the 1P AR Hardware team.

While we are making changes to our 1P AR hardware team, Google continues to be deeply committed to other AR initiatives, such as AR experiences in our products, and product partnerships.”

UploadVR received confirmation from Google that the remark was accurate; but, when pressed to expressly affirm that this represented the end of its first-party augmented reality glasses, Google declined to comment more.

It was revealed by Hugh Langley of Business Insider in June of the previous year that Google would no longer be developing its smart glasses hardware project.

It was indicated in the article that the glasses that were canceled originated from Google’s acquisition of North in the year 2020. According to reports, an early version “closely resembled” North’s product Focals, and the glasses that Google officially demonstrated in 2022 for live translation were presumably a more current version of the device.

Nevertheless, it seemed as though the glasses in that demonstration did not include any form of tracking cameras, and the “simulated point of view” displayed a head-locked overlay. Consequently, it is not clear if the glasses that Google decided to cancel were genuinely complete augmented reality glasses or simply smart glasses with a head-up display (HUD) glasses similar to the sort that Meta apparently wants to release with Luxottica’s Ray-Ban in 2025.

According to Langley, Google has switched its approach to provide the software platform for the hardware products of other firms. This comes in the shape of Android “XR” for headsets and Android “micro XR” for spectacles. This would be a reflection of Google’s major strategy that is now being implemented with laptops, smart watches, tablets, and smartphones.

The fact that Google made a statement this week stating that it has abolished first-party augmented reality hardware positions but “continues to be deeply committed” to augmented reality in “product partnerships” appears to validate the findings of Langley’s investigation. For the foreseeable future, you can anticipate Google to supply software for other hardware firms, much as it is doing with Samsung’s XR headset. Although it is possible that Google will one day launch a separate hardware team for augmented reality glasses, this is not likely to happen.

It has been stated that Apple has delayed the release of its complete augmented reality glasses “indefinitely” since last year. On the other hand, Meta is rumored to have plans to ship full augmented reality glasses around the year 2027. Additionally, it is possible that Meta will create and publicly exhibit about one thousand fully working prototypes later this year.

The post Google Ends its AR Glasses Project appeared first on asumetech.

from Technology - asumetech https://asumetech.com/google-ends-its-ar-glasses-project/