Technology

https://www.techradar.com/computing/virtual-reality-augmented-reality/latest-meta-ar-smart-glasses-leak-has-killed-my-interest-before-theyre-even-official

Bloomberg has shared reports from unnamed insiders that the device, codenamed Hypernova, is expected to launch later this year and will feature a monocular design, as in it will use only one display rather than a pair of screens – two details we've already heard.

This single panel would sit in the lower-right corner of the right lens, so it should allow you conveniently see information by looking down without obscuring your vision greatly.

It sounds like they're kinda trying to compete with the watch market or something. Like, not trying to display something that you'd spend your whole time looking at, or even a virtual overlay, but just some status information that you can glance at without being super-obvious about it.

They also have cameras. I don't totally get the use case for cameras plus single screen on lens. I guess maybe you could take a picture of someone's face, upload the photo to Meta, do facial recognition on it, and then have personal details sent back to the screen at the bottom of your right eye. Like, maybe that'd be useful for people who don't want to be in a position of awkwardly forgetting names or security personnel or something.

EDIT: Or maybe people who want to photograph people without it being obvious that they're doing so, and want to have some kind of status display that they can use to see what their camera is doing?

Just seems like an odd combination of features.

EDIT2: Not to mention whatever they're paying for the Ray-Ban branding, so they're probably not pushing for a really price-sensitive use case.