Formerly known as Facebook, Meta announced their plans for AR glasses, called Project Nazare, at the Connect 2021 conference in October. They are now halting those plans amidst budget cuts.
“We still have a ways to go with Nazare, but we’re making good progress,” Mark Zuckerberg remarked.
Alex Heath from The Verge reported Meta’s plans for AR glasses over the next six years. The glasses were set to launch in 2024, weighing around 100 grams with a battery life of four hours. The glasses will be powered by a wireless puck that can fit in your pocket. The original target field of view was 70 degrees.
“That goal likely won’t be met,” Heath reported.
In May Reuters reported CTO Andrew Bosworth told staffers in the Reality Labs hardware division the company “could not afford to do some projects anymore and would have to postpone others.”
The glasses have a number of expensive components including eye tracking cameras, custom waveguides, and microLED projectors that would drive the cost of the project to multiple thousands of dollars. It is a niche product that everyday people probably will not purchase due to the price.
Meta planned second generation AR glasses for 2026 and a third generation for 2028. The company will still launch non-AR smart glasses, called Hypernova, as early as next year, which will pair with your smartphone to display notifications and contextually useful information in a small heads-up display.
