At TechCrunch’s TC Sessions AR/VR, Ficus Kirkpatrick, Facebook’s Head of Augmented Reality (AR), confirmed that Facebook’s AR goal is AR glasses.
“The glasses that we dream of a very far away,” said Kirkpatrick. “We have no product to announce now, but we have a lot of talented people doing really compelling, cutting edge research that we hope plays a part in the future of headsets.”
Kirkpatrick’s statement aligns with the predictions made by Oculus Chief Scientist Michael Abrash at Oculus Connect 5 earlier this year, with the ultimate goal to provide all-day, wearable tech that is also socially acceptable to wear.
As for the AR glasses themselves, Kirkpatrick was hesitant to provide concrete details. Whether the glasses will be branded by Oculus, Facebook, or a new subsidiary of those companies remains to be seen. Facebook’s AR glasses will be facing competition from companies like Sony, Google, and Microsoft who’ve already brought AR glasses to market with mixed degrees of success, so the potential for affordable, powerful AR glasses could be tantalizing for consumers still on the fence.
