Why does Meta's Mark Zuckerberg think smart glasses will replace smartphones?
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Why Mark Zuckerberg thinks AR glasses will replace your phone - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/24253481/meta-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-ar-glasses-orion-ray-bans-ai-decoder-interview
Alex Heath, deputy editor of The Verge, was the first outsider to use Meta's smart glasses, Orion, just before the interview. Regarding Orion, Heath said, 'It's only just been announced, but it feels like true AR glasses are finally on the way.'
Meta unveils AR glasses prototype 'Orion', a wireless spatial computing device with a 70-degree field of view and eye tracking - GIGAZINE
Regarding the early days of Orion's development, Zuckerberg said, 'You have to go back to our relationship with the mobile platform. We started on the web, not mobile, so we've already been through one big platform transition. Mobile phones and smartphones came out at about the same time as Facebook and early social media, so we didn't really have a role to play in that platform transition.' 'But we weren't born and raised on mobile, so we had the perception that although there was the web, mobile was something different. Mobile has its pros and cons. There's a continuum to computing, and now we have mobile devices that we can carry with us all the time, which is great. But it's small, and it takes you away from other interactions. This is not great.'
He continued, 'Just as there was a shift from computers to mobile, there was a recognition that mobile was not the end point. As we started to become a more stable company and there was no clear prospect of us getting a foothold in mobile and going out of business, I thought, 'Okay, let's start sowing seeds for what could come to fruition in the future.' Mobile was already being defined. By 2012, 2014, it was too late to really create that platform in a meaningful way. So we did some experiments, but they were unsuccessful and we didn't get anywhere. 'I thought, 'We should focus on the future. Just as there was a shift from desktop to mobile, new things should be possible in the future. So what is that?' I think the simplest answer to that is what we began to see with Orion.' From an idea unique to Meta, which has experienced the transition from traditional mobile phones to smartphones, he revealed that he has set his sights on smart glasses as the next-generation platform to replace smartphones.
Zuckerberg further explained Orion, saying, 'Orion is a smart glass that does two very basic things. One is to place holograms in the world, giving you a realistic presence as if you're with another person or another place. You might be physically with someone, but you can also call up virtual games and things like that, or work together, as we did. You can sit in a coffee shop and call up an entire workstation of different monitors. You can call up a full-screen movie theater while you're on an airplane or sitting in the back seat of a car. It's got great computing and full presence, and it gives you the feeling of being with people wherever you are.'
'The other thing is that Orion is an ideal device for AI. The reason is that the glasses are uniquely positioned in that you can show others what you see and let others hear what you hear. The glasses give you very subtle feedback. You can talk to them in your ear or have silent inputs that appear on the glasses that are invisible to others and don't take you away from the world around you. I think all of this is very important. When we started working in this field, it was thought that holograms would be possible before AI. But in fact, AI functions became possible before hologram technology was affordable and mass-produced. It's an interesting twist of fate.'
In addition, there are 1 to 2 billion people in the world who wear glasses on a daily basis. Meta's vision is that these glasses users will be converted into smart glasses users in the next 10 years, and eventually even people who do not normally wear glasses will start wearing smart glasses.
However, Meta seems to have faced the problem that 'it may be really difficult to make normal-looking glasses that can do holograms at an affordable price.' In that situation, Meta's solution was 'partnering with Essilorluxottica .' With the partnership with Essilorluxottica, CEO Zuckerberg said, 'You can now get normal-looking glasses with a camera, microphone, and good audio that can stream video and capture content, even if they don't have a display.'
Zuckerberg's 'normal-looking glasses with a camera, microphone and great audio that can stream video and capture content without a display' is Ray-Ban Meta, which was jointly developed by Meta and Ray-Ban and is provided by Essilorluxottica. However, Zuckerberg noted that AI is the most important feature for smart glasses at the time of writing, and described Ray-Ban Meta, which has access to Meta AI, as 'on the way to building a complete holographic pair of glasses.'
New AI functions such as real-time voice translation added to smart glasses 'Ray-Ban Meta' created by Meta x Ray-Ban - GIGAZINE
Zuckerberg described Orion as 'definitely a classic vision for the next-generation multibillion-person computing platform,' but Orion was never ultimately sold to the general public. 'Initially, Orion was going to be a consumer product, but we weren't sure from the start that this would be possible. Even when the product was complete, everything didn't go as planned, and we wanted to make it a little smaller, a little brighter, a little higher resolution, and more affordable to bring it to market as a product. So I think version 2 of Orion will probably be the consumer product,' Zuckerberg said.
Reality Labs, Meta's AR/VR development division that develops smart glasses including Orion, has reportedly been losing $1 billion (about 145 billion yen) per month since June 2022. When Heath asked how much Reality Labs has spent on developing Orion, Zuckerberg estimated that it would have cost more than $5 billion (about 720 billion yen). 'Many people thought that for a while, all of Reality Labs' overall budget was going toward AR and MR. In fact, we have publicly stated in the past that the budget for the smart glasses program was larger than the budget for AR and MR-related programs,' he said.
Meta has recorded monthly losses of 160 billion yen in the VR sector since June 2022 - GIGAZINE
Furthermore, although smart glasses are still in the early stages of development, Zuckerberg said that if you could do anything just by asking AI, it would be 'pretty exciting.' However, Zuckerberg expects that not only smart glasses but also smartphones will benefit from the evolution of AI.
Zuckerberg also comments on a variety of other topics, including the competition with X, the controversy over AI training data and copyright, and EU regulations, so if you're interested, be sure to check out the full interview.
Why Mark Zuckerberg thinks AR glasses will replace your phone - YouTube
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