Meta Plans To Launch "Half A Dozen More" Wearable Devices

In Meta’s CTO’s leaked memo, he referenced the corporate’s plan to launch “half a dozen extra AI powered wearables”.

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HUD Glasses The Neural Wristband A Smartwatch?What Else?

Andrew Bosworth’s memo, which was leaked to Enterprise Insider after apparently being shared with all Actuality Labs workers again in November, was a rallying cry for 2025. In it, he advised workers that this yr will decide whether or not its {hardware} & metaverse division is “the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure”.

However buried inside the memo can be the point out of Meta’s plan to launch half a dozen, six, extra “AI powered wearables”, seemingly referencing this yr. So what may these be?

Meta CTO: 2025 Will Decide Whether or not AR/VR Guess Is Visionary Or “A Legendary Misadventure”

In a leaked memo, Meta’s CTO advised workers that 2025 will decide whether or not its {hardware} & metaverse division is “the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure”.

Two weeks in the past, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Meta and EssilorLuxottica plan to develop their sensible glasses product lineup later this yr with Oakley Meta glasses.

Gurman has a reasonably sturdy monitor report of reporting Meta’s strikes prematurely.

Whereas the Ray-Ban glasses have a digital camera on one facet and are aimed in direction of all customers, the Oakley glasses would have the digital camera within the heart and be supposed for “cyclists and different athletes”, Gurman stated.

HUD Glasses

The Verge, The Info, The Monetary Occasions, and Gurman have all beforehand reported that Meta intends to launch sensible glasses with a heads-up show (HUD), codenamed Hypernova, later this yr.

It is nonetheless unclear whether or not or not these glasses will carry the Ray-Ban model, however what is understood is that they’ll embody a small waveguide show on one of many lenses to indicate notifications, output textual content as a substitute of audio from the Meta AI assistant, and to assist body pictures earlier than taking them.

In the identical report through which he described the Oakley Meta glasses, Gurman says that Meta staff are telling him to anticipate Hypernova to value round $1000. Additional, he says Meta “has mentioned” together with the EMG wristband (demoed with the Orion prototype) within the field of Hypernova, with a backup plan of utilizing contact controls on the temple like its different sensible glasses.

The Neural Wristband

As talked about, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Meta’s HUD glasses could include Meta’s neural wristband.

Meta has been engaged on this wristband since no less than 2019, when it acquired a startup referred to as CTRL Labs, and at Meta Join 2024 it demoed its newest model of the band because the enter machine for the Orion AR glasses to pick press and influencers.

The neural wristband leverages a know-how referred to as electromyography (EMG) that may monitor delicate finger actions by sensing muscle activation in your wrist.

In follow, this lets the wearer use their thumb as a digital D-pad, with out the must be in view of any digital camera, letting you “swipe, click on, and scroll whereas protecting your arm resting comfortably by your facet”. This may even work in case your hand was in a jacket pocket, or every other situation the place it is fully occluded from the glasses.

Round a yr in the past, Mark Zuckerberg stated the neural wristband would ship as a product “within the subsequent few years”.

In the identical report through which Gurman described the Oakley Meta glasses and the obvious value and enter machine for Meta’s HUD glasses, Gurman stated Meta can be engaged on an AirPods competitor.

Gurman claims these Digital camera Buds, as they’re referred to as internally, would “built-in cameras that may see the surface world and take motion utilizing AI”.

Nonetheless, he additionally says there have been “snags” with the machine’s improvement. “It’s more durable for individuals with lengthy hair to make use of the machine”, he writes, and Meta remains to be unhappy with the angle of the cameras. For these causes, and since improvement remains to be early, Gurman expects Meta’s earbuds “seemingly wouldn’t hit the marketplace for a few years”.

A Smartwatch?

Again in 2021, The Verge’s Alex Heath reported that Meta was engaged on a smartwatch. The machine was stated to have two cameras: one on the entrance for video calling, and one on the rear for use as an motion digital camera, as the primary watch physique would have been simply removable from its body.

Heath’s report stated Meta deliberate to launch the watch in summer season 2022 with a value of round $350. However simply as that summer season arrived, Bloomberg reported that Meta had canceled the watch, in a report that included obvious pictures of it.

Based on Bloomberg, the explanation behind the cancelation was that the corporate found that the rear digital camera would have made it unattainable so as to add neural sensing, electromyography (EMG), in future variations, which was its long-term plan.

Photographs of the canceled Meta smartwatch, leaked to Bloomberg.

Two and a half years later, in the identical report through which Mark Gurman described the Oakley Meta glasses and the obvious value and enter machine for Meta’s HUD glasses, Gurman stated that Meta had restarted work on a smartwatch.

“Meta is now once more weighing the concept of releasing a watch as early as this yr — with a show that might have the ability to present pictures taken with the corporate’s sensible glasses”, Gurman wrote.

What Else?

To date we have listed 5 seemingly candidates for {hardware} Bosworth was referring to. It is attainable his point out of “half a dozen” was tough, fairly than that means exactly six, and these are all

However may there be one thing else on Meta’s {hardware} roadmap that nobody has but predicted? We’ll maintain a detailed eye on the corporate for any hints or leaks at its {hardware} roadmap for 2025.