Snap just revealed its fifth generation AR Spectacles and despite its bulky size, the device makes a solid case for AR technology. The standalone AR glasses were revealed during Snap’s annual Partner Summit in Los Angeles held recently, and it showcased how committed the company was to championing the cause of augmented reality. These fifth-gen Spectacles are designed to work well both indoors and outdoors and they promise a well-integrated shift between the real world and the visuals generated by the device.
If you’re excited to give the glasses a whirl, however, you should know that it is set for a limited release through the Spectacles Developer Program account. The glasses will be exclusively available to developers who can expand on the range of services the AR glasses can provide to future customers.
Image: Snap
The Snap AR Spectacles Are a Healthy Step Forward for Augmented Reality
The evolution of Snap’s Spectacles has been quite astonishing, and while other brands have slowed down their work on similar devices, Snap remains undeterred. The fifth-gen Spectacles are powered by SnapOS and work as standalone devices that you can wear on the go. At a glance, the gadget doesn’t look quite like regular glasses the way the Ray-Ban Meta glasses do, but we prefer it this way. It is better when smart glasses let users around them know they are more than just a pair of prescription lenses. Discreet smart technology is quite uncomfortable to be around.
Weighing 226 grams, the lightweight glasses are equipped with four separate cameras that can integrate the details of the environment seamlessly into the Snap Spatial Engine. This means that the device supports hand trancing just like the Apple Vision Pro, opening up a world of possibilities when it comes to designing apps and functionalities for the wearable device.
The Snap AR Spectacles have a see-through display that allows the user to perceive the world around them naturally rather than have the lens translate the details through a fuzzy camera. This guarantees higher-quality visuals when the Optical engine is paired with a 46-degree diagonal field of view with a 37-pixel-per-degree resolution, allowing the user to move about comfortably with the glasses on. Verge’s hands-on review criticizes the FOV for being quite restrictive, which is a fair complaint to have about Snap’s latest offering. The Spectacles also develop a tint while outdoors to ensure that the generated visuals are just as vibrant, regardless of the available light.
The Snap Spectacles’ next stage of evolution involves Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) micro-projectors for the images that the device generates. The explanation on the Snap blog states, “Our waveguides make it possible to see the images created by the LCoS projector, without the need for lengthy calibrations or custom fittings. Each advanced waveguide has billions of nanostructures that move light into your field of view to combine Snap OS with the real world.”
The Standalone AR glasses Are Powered by Snap OS
Along with the Snap AR Spectacles, the company also introduced us to the OS system that has been designed from the ground up. The OS relies on a dual system-on-a-chip architecture that incorporates two processors from Qualcomm for all its fast-paced computing needs. The device also has titanium vapor chambers in each temple to support heat dissipation, preventing any threat of overheating while responding to your commands.
The Spectacles guarantees up to 45 minutes of continuous standalone runtime but the best way to use the device continuously would be to have it plugged in. Snap’s AR Spectacles are capable of interpreting voice commands when you want to navigate through the device’s menu without flailing around. The two infrared sensors on the device also do a decent job of tracking hand movement, so if you prefer hand gestures to interact with the device, you have the feature at your disposal.
Snap Spectacles’ Subscription Plan for Developers
The Snap AR Spectacles have been developed for developers who can ultimately make the device a functional and marketable piece of equipment. The fifth-gen spectacles are priced at $99 per month and Snap expects developers to rent the glasses for at least a year in order to work with its capabilities. The CEO appears certain that there is a market for these glasses and a collective of keen minds who are willing to utilize the software available to them to develop more advanced tools than what the standalone AR glasses offer on their own.
“We want to be the most developer-friendly platform in the world and empower developers to invest in building amazing Lenses,” they state in their blog. The Lens Studio 5.0 modernizes and simplifies the process of working with TypeScript, JavaScript, and custom ML models directly in Lenses for all their processing needs. Through a partnership with OpenAI, developers will also be able to utilize cloud-hosted multimodal AI models to add to their capabilities.
Companies like the LEGO Group and Niantic have already invested in Lens Studio and SnapOS, but the more the merrier. If developers take advantage of the Snap AR Spectacles and device native applications and integrations that people can put to use, it is likely going to enhance the appeal of the device when it’s ready for public release.
Among the many issues users had with the Apple Vision Pro, one that should have been addressed was the limited number of apps and services that were compatible with the headset. Microsoft’s HoloLens also held great potential but they are also no longer commercially available. Snap’s standalone AR glasses have the potential to dominate a still untapped market, but they’ll have to convince more people about its many benefits for the transition to truly take shape.