Personal News
A manual uploaded to the FCC gives us a look at Facebook’s experimental Project Aria AR glasses, which apparently goes by the code name Gemini (via Protocol). Facebook announced Project Aria in September 2020, with an important message on the vision and light on the details – though it’s clear the device exists to help Facebook in its quest (no pun intended) to create a computer that sees and understands the world. Seeing the helmet manual gives us an idea of how it does this.
In some ways, the Gemini helmet is like a real pair of glasses, but in other ways it’s not at all: it can be fitted with corrective lenses if needed, but you can’t fold down the arms or the use in a VR headset. And, of course, it’s loaded with things that normal glasses don’t have, like a proximity sensor, a Qualcomm chip and, according to Protocol, the same camera sensors found in the Oculus Quest 2.
The glasses are charged using a Fitbit-esque magnetic connector, which can also transfer data. There is a companion app to download the data the glasses collect and check the connection status and battery life.
While the manual gives us an interesting look at a project that Facebook hasn’t shared much on, it is outdated. It appears the version found on the FCC site is version 0.9 of the document, dated August 28, 2020 – it’s likely Facebook has made some changes in the past year.
Facebook says on its Project Aria site that the glasses are not a commercial product. They don’t act like a prototype for something the general public will end up buying. This is reiterated by the manual’s many statements that the headset is an engineered product and should only be used by people who work for Facebook. The company said the headset is worn by researchers on its campuses and in public – although it says all data collected is anonymized and the headset has a “privacy mode.”
While Aria may not be heading to store shelves, Facebook has an entirely different set of “smart glasses” that it plans to release in conjunction with Ray-Ban. Like the Aria, Facebook says they won’t actually increase your reality with a screen, so at this point it’s unclear what will make them smart.
