Meta’s Vice President of Augmented Reality Research — Thomas Reardon — is resigning and will leave the company in May. Reardon was the Head of Neuromotor Interfaces and Input & Interactions at Reality Labs for 16 months.
Reality Labs, formerly known as Oculus VR, was the company that released the first modern commercial VR headset: the Oculus Rift. Oculus VR was acquired by Meta in 2014. Today it conducts research on VR and AR in addition to handling the Quest lineup of VR headsets. Reality Labs just had a promising Q1 earnings report, mostly driven by Quest headset sales.
Thomas Reardon founded CTRL Labs in 2015 to focus on making non-invasive neurological interfaces. The startup was acquired by Meta in 2019, who then talked about a proposed neural interface in 2021.
This interface is still in development and not many details about it have come out, though a prototype was shown off in 2021. The prototype was a theoretical wristband that could read neural signals and help you control a device accordingly.
Reardon isn’t completely leaving the Metaverse (heh) and will remain an advisor to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and Vice President of AR Alex Himel. How much this plays into Meta’s upcoming neural interfaces remains to be seen.
If this neural interface technology delivers, and if it does ship as a wristband, it could dethrone other wearables on the market today. But how exactly does it play into AR?
According to a leaked roadmap from last year, Meta is working on a pair of AR glasses that can be controlled via a wristband. These glasses, unlike the Ray-Ban smart glasses, will have a display. Meanwhile Meta’s Project Nazare is purportedly a high field of view pair of glasses that also utilizes AI.
If the leaked glasses and Project Nazare are one and the same we could be looking at the next iPhone moment of this century. Smartwatches caught on pretty quick because of the convenience factor and over 200 million people use them today.
I can only imagine how popular a proper set of AI-powered AR glasses would be. Especially if they’re controlled by a neural interface.
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Abdullah is an ardent believer in the future of VR, and can't wait to see what more it brings to the table as technology improves. He enjoys covering new software releases in the XR industry, as well as major news about hardware and companies focused on VR.
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