snap's self-contained AR glasses bring all sorts of Snapchat visual effects into the real world, but they're not made for your eyes yet. The future of AR looks like it's heading to everyday glasses. So far, I've been looking at things like the Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest 3, these VR headsets that can project virtual things onto the real world by showing you a camera feed that overlays that. It looks really cool, but it's not the same as everyday glasses. And then I recently traveled out to look at what companies are doing things, make things like everyday glasses, but they connect with computers and phones. Snapchat's new Snap Spectacles are totally self-contained, but there are subscription pairs of glasses for developers. They're $99 a month, so certainly not meant for everyday eyes, and they have limitations. They're big. If you see them on my face, they're not something I would wear around every day. They are compatible with prescription lenses, but they didn't have my prescription for the demo, so I had to look at things through a couple

of steps lower in prescription, and things were a little bit fuzzy, but I'm used to the territory. They also have twin Qualcomm system-on-chip processors, one on each arm, but I don't know which type; they wouldn't tell me. They also use, if you're into tech, elos projector technology, which then shines onto little waveguides, which are rainbow-colored patches on the lenses that basically project out the 3D effect. These glasses only have 45 minutes of battery life, which is not a lot, but it could be enough for developers to at least explore in some test environments how apps perform. The thing about these glasses that's new compared to the one in 2021 is there's a whole new OS on this Snap OS, and it runs multiple apps. It allows phone connection, and it can also do things like run a browser. I watched a YouTube video on it. You know, it has limits; it doesn't allow a lot of multitasking, but that's there, and they're aiming to make it feel more like

a complete system. The viewing area is smaller than a VR headset. It's about 46° and it looked kind of like this when I was looking around, almost like a phone window projected onto the real world. Nice vertically, a little cramped horizontally. To interact with SNAP OS, you use your hands, so much like Apple Vision Pro or the Quest 3. I was able to use my hands to either reach out directly or to tap and pinch from a distance, but doesn't have eye tracking, but at least does have that hand tracking using its onboard cameras. But I got to see a whole bunch of snap visual effects transplanted onto the real world. A painting app where I got to overlay different plants onto objects, furniture, recognize those things. I got to navigate a solar system using AI to recognize my voice in chat, and these glasses are Chat GPT compatible. They're going to eventually work in generative AI to have conversations, to pull up things in AR. I actually was able to have a conversation and generate little 3D emojis that

were generated via generative AI, but I found the experience was pretty mixed. You know, sometimes it wouldn't really recognize what I was saying, and other times I created like a hamburger dinosaur. There were other apps I looked at too, including some other partners that are not with this company. Niantic, which has been looking at AR glasses for years, has a test app of Paradot, which is a virtual pet. I've tried on my phone and on the Quest 3, and they have it on this. I could walk around and check it out. So why is this any different than a mixed reality headset? There are a couple of things this is doing that are really unique. One, obviously, it's smaller. Two, it works with phones. Snap already has a Snapchat app, and this is not only compatible with that for setting it up, but it allows you to use phones as a controller. I was able to control remote helicopters and AR using a phone. I was also able to use the phone as a golf putter to do some golf swings, and you

can also show other people what you're looking at. If you take a look at me constructing Lego bricks on a phone, you can check that out. But very similar to what you'd see in mixed reality on headsets, sometimes the performance wasn't quite up to par, and other times it looked fine. But it's a developer headset. I'm really curious where else it goes. The other thing this does that's really unique is it's meant for the outdoor. This has auto-dimming lenses that be able to, uh, sort of almost like transition lenses, adjust and show you virtual objects more clearly outside, like my little adorable virtual pet, my paradot, that I kept petting. It was pretty cute. And the other thing it does is collaboration. There are multiple people that can wear the glasses and interact together on something that you see or even scan the environment. I tried some interactive painting stuff, and the idea is to maybe use this in outdoor spaces, maybe a concert, maybe an art installation, maybe something educational to test where it's possible. They also

can use the cameras on board to let developers start figuring out experiences that can see what you're seeing. But Snap's doing this on a kind of experimental basis. It looks like getting that camera access may mean that some of the apps are offline, although some of those elements of camera access are going to work with ChatGPT as well. I think it's interesting because a lot of the mixed reality headsets right now lock down camera access for developers, and it means that that kind of magical can you recognize my world part of AR hasn't been happening yet, but Snap is trying to go there. Others will too. There's a little LED light that tells you about privacy when you're using the cameras, but I'm curious how that feels in the real world, and clearly Snap is trying to figure this out. What are the possibilities for this as hopefully the glasses get more portable or connect with phones more easily? It's an early look at some of the tech that's coming, and other companies are trying to make bigger leaps in this too, but nobody has

made a self-contained pair of AR glasses yet, except for Snap that I can think of. And this shows exactly what's capable and exactly where the growing pains are.

I Wore Snap's New Self Contained AR Spectacles and Snap OS

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