Facebook is Working on AR Glasses With 3D "Live Maps"

It has been quite some time since Facebook had announced that it will make Augmented Reality glasses or AR glasses. Rumours of the social media giant partnering with Ray-Ban maker Luxottica have been doing the rounds for a few weeks now. However, keeping the rumors aside, the US-based company has now confirmed that it is actively working towards developing augmented reality glasses, with plans to recreate the world in a 3D map. The company is working towards providing an enhanced and interactive living space.

The confirmation came in from Facebook Inc. on September 25, when it said that AR glasses should be ready in a few years, and announced a project called “Live Maps” that will create 3D maps of the world. Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, vice president of AR/VR at Facebook described the maps project as “a shared virtual map of the world” at the Oculus Connect developer conference. At the same conference, Facebook shared a lengthy video presentation confirming the company’s intention to build the augmented reality glasses.

According to the video, Facebook will produce “multi-layer representations of the world” using crowdsourced data, traditional maps, and footage captured through phones and augmented reality glasses. Earlier, Magic Leap has also promised similar things in its "Magicverse" model of the connected world. Additionally, Microsoft has also been working on similar mapping data initiatives for the Hololens and other products.