Pay attention to where tech leaders are placing their bets.

Here’s a pulse check on the emerging battleground for consumer tech:

Augmented Reality (AR) glasses.

Google

• ‘Google Glass’ famously kickstarted the AR hype-cycle in 2013, but the prototype was unglamorously retired just 2 years later.

• Now, Google is giving us a taste of its revamped product dubbed ‘Proto 29’ that combines natural language processing and transcription to provide subtitles to the real world.

• Powered by Google Translate, the glasses let you understand any language in real-time (!), and help those who are hard of hearing to interpret speech.

• In a recent blog post, Juston P. announced the next phase of testing is focussed on navigation use cases.

Apple

• Apple reportedly demoed their AR/VR device to the board this May, targeting a consumer release in 2023.

• They have over 2,000 employees in the Technology Development Group working on both a mixed reality (AR/VR) headset and a standalone AR headset.

• Apple have published little information about specific features, but patents reveal their plans for a virtual PC concept, peripheral vision coverage, gaze tracking, and 3D volumetric holograms.

Meta

• Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories are currently available in market, having launched in September 2021.

• The glasses allow users to snap photos and videos with two 5 MP cameras, and listen to music with in-frame speakers.

• Users can also make calls, hear message readouts, and send messages with WhatsApp and Messenger.

• Next on the roadmap is replying to messages with speech-to-text voice commands.

Zuckerberg calls AR glasses a "holy grail" device that will “redefine our relationship with technology," akin to the introduction of smartphones.

Can you imagine a world where not wearing smart glasses is like not having a smartphone?

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